handmade christmas: a scarf diary for Ben

I decided to make Ben a scarf for Christmas (another bit of secret present making). He had mentioned before that he liked the knitted diary loop scarf I made for myself a few years ago so I decided to make one for him.



I picked out some colours that I thought he'd like and swapped colour for every day of knitting until the scarf was complete. It added up to about a month and a half of knitting in total, with some days missed due to the lack of opportunity for covert knitting.



It turned out really well. I was happy with the colour choices and Ben was really pleased when he opened it on Christmas day. Perfect for keeping cosy on winter walks.

And here he is modelling it this weekend on a trip to Rye.



Happy face.

hoop scarf

I recently finished this knitting project that I started back in July - just in time for a change of season. I'm a great lover of scarves both for comfort and warmth and think this one will keep me nice and cosy throughout the autumn and winter months.

I started this project after finding three balls of wool for sale in my local haberdashery shop and not being able to resist the combination of colours. I was limited by the size of my project, but wanted to use all the yarn up so decided a mini hoop scarf would be the way forward.

The length came out just right; it can either be worn loosely around the neck, or wrapped twice for extra cosiness (my preference). It ended up working perfectly with the wool too as it came out in even stripes (a stroke of luck!).

I've written out a pattern below if anyone wants to make one of their own.



Patterned eyelet hoop scarf

Yarn
Any double knit wool. I used 3x50g balls of Debbie Bliss Rialto DK Print (colour 001 - Florence)

Needles
4mm (size 8)

Instructions
Cast on 49 sts.

Row 1: k
Row 2: k1, p to last st, k1
Row 3: k1, *k2, k2tog, yo. Repeat from * to last 4 sts, k4
Row 4: k1, p to last st, k1
Row 5: k
Row 6: k1, p to last st, k1
Row 7: k1, *k2tog, yo, k2. Repeat from * to last 2 sts, k2
Row 8: k1, p to last st, k1

The above 8 rows form the pattern. Repeat until your scarf reaches your desired length.

Cast off.

Finishing up
Sew the cast on and cast off edges together to form a loop.
Sew in any loose ends.

Your scarf is now ready to wear!
Keep yourselves cosy now.

advent

It's the first day of advent today (I had a Santa-shaped chocolate for breakfast) and it definitely feels a lot like Christmas - much snow! It's a shame I don't work far enough away to get a day off for sledging but I'm looking forward to my walk to work tomorrow...it'll give me time to finalise my playlist for this month's mixtape.

I've been finding it really hard to do anything other than huddle under a blanket in the evenings this week. It's tough having a fridge for a house. It has given me time to finish off my cardigan though. Now all that is left is to find and sew on some buttons and it'll be ready to go. I need all the warm winter knits I can get at the moment.

Next task: Very warm socks (& possibly more scarves for cats).

one month

One month later, and with 28 days worth of knitting, my diary is complete.
As you can see, some days were big knitting days and some days not so much. But it was a nice easy project to do, with not too much to think about, and now my neck is very warm.
Snug.