Due to the cold snap I have been distracted from my Christmas pressie making by my daughters request for a new hat and scarf to go with her new coat. She wanted something cable and sparkly was the request received, luckily I had some Sirdar Romance in my stash, a lovely Arctic bluey grey colour with a silver thread running through it, very pretty. This was also a bonus as it is aran weight so there would be a wealth of cable patterns suitable (although she didn't want anything too fussy????)and hopefully they would knit up quite quickly. I just need to add that this yarn is discontinued but you can still get it on ebay occasionally.
After wading through loads I finally found some "acceptable" patterns on Ravelry. I finally went with The Irish Hiking Hat and Scarf. They can be found here http://irishhikingknitalong.blogspot.com/2006/11/irish-hiking-hat.htmlg.blogspot.com/2006/11/irish-hiking-hat.html . BTW that link took me ages to work out, I think I must go the long way round.
I started the hat first an
d although I used the pattern in the link I made some changes, I did 2x2 rib around the bottom not garter stitch, I also used my own decreasing, I tried to keep the cable at the same width for as long as possible as that is where my eye is naturally drawn to when looking at these. I managed to knit it in a night although I was up til 2.30am doing it!! So please pardon the big bags under my eyes if you can spy them in the pic.
I finished it at 2.30am and she was wearing it to work by 7.30am. I don't think Leigh-Ann has ever heard of blocking a finished item LOL.
The scarf of course took a while longer, but I like it and so does my daughter. It took 3 days in total. I know the colours look completely different but they are knitted in the same yarn and the colour in the pic of the scarf is much truer than that of the hat.
