gryffindor!

I finally have a finished object that I can share in full! It's a scarf-turned-neck warmer that I meant to finish for Daniel's birthday. I missed that deadline by a couple of weeks, but since we  aren't done with cold snowy weather yet (grumble grumble), he should get some decent wear out of it before I wash and put away the winter things.

Daniel is still home today, but doing much better, which is a relief. Now I'm just keeping my fingers crossed about the rest of us. I certainly didn't want to drag him outside for a photo, so I made due without him. It's hard to take a picture of a knitted loop, as it turns out.

See? Blah.

Yikes, and blah again:

Slightly better below. And you can see that the neck warmer is double-thick. I started off using the free instructions from this website but changed the width of the stripes to match the ones from the third HP movie, which we watched a few weeks ago after reading the book.

(Did you know I'm a big Harry Potter  fan?)

Pattern: Hogwarts Scarf, available for free here

Mods: I changed the stripe pattern and sewed up the ends of the tube to make a neck warmer instead of a whole scarf

Yarn: Valley Yarns Buckland, a worsted weight superwash merino/silk/nylon blend in burgundy (2.5 skeins) and goldenrod (<1 skein="">

Sticks: size 8 circulars

Yarn choice was a bit of an issue. Since this is going next to the sensitive skin of a child's neck, I didn't want to pick any old wool that might be itchy. At the same time, I needed a rather specific shade of red and gold to represent the colors of Gryffindor, and that was rather hard to find in a non-itchy non-acrylic yarn. When I checked WEBS, I found these colors in Buckland, a relatively new addition to their line of yarns, and it seemed to fit the bill. 

Since I was anticipating making a whole scarf, I ordered more yarn then I ended up needing, so I've got plenty leftover to make something else. This shade of red is pretty much perfect in my book, so my first inclination is to do some selfish knitting and make myself a hat and possibly mittens (I love this set by GlennaC, for example). But then, seeing as it's super wash, which I usually avoid, maybe I should save it for a baby gift. I've got someone in mind I definitely want to knit something for!