Winter Ready

Several years ago, I found this wonderful coat in my grandmother's closet. It belonged to her years ago. I loved the princess seams and the detachable fur trim collar. I decided to pull it out and wear it this winter.

But I needed a hat, scarf, and mittens to match. So I decided to make a set. I found this yarn at Hobby Lobby, it’s the store brand, Yarn Bee. (As much as I love nice, expensive yarn I am a knitter on a budget and this is a great alternative) I fell in love with this yarn and have bought several different colors for various projects. It is melody bulky wool blend in ivory and is 70% wool and 30% polyester. I also used a gold yarn to trim all three pieces.

I started with the mittens. The sleeves on the coat are a little short (my theory is that the sleeves are actually three-quarter length but my arms are really short so they are bracelet length on me) so I decided to make my mittens a little longer. I skimmed through several books and took ideas from different patterns. The gold stripes on the mittens originally started out as ruffles but I didn't like the look so I decided to stitch them down. This was my first attempt at mittens and I am very pleased with how they turned out.

The hat was next. This was a little more difficult. I knew I wanted a cloche-style hat but I couldn't find anything that I liked. I went through the tons of books I have here at home and finally remembered a book I had tucked away with a hat on the cover. Well, I started out by following the pattern exactly. When I finished I tried the hat on and it was WAY too tall and poofy. So I decided to rip the top out and remake the hat again. This time I took all the increases and cut about 2 ¾" out of the top of the hat. When I finished this time I fit much better. I wish I had done a couple more rounds before I started my decreases so the hat would come down a little bit longer. But I am not remaking the hat again!

After the hat was finished I felt like it needed a flower or something by the ruffle. So I decided to crochet a small flower out of the same gold yarn that I used to trim the gloves and the hat ruffle. I used an old pearl button from my grandmother's in the middle of the flower.

Finally, I started on the scarf. I wasn't sure what I wanted, so I decided to carry the ruffle idea from the hat to the scarf. I also decided to include a few rows of seed stitch before I started the plain knit. The scarf didn't need to be very long since the coat has a fur collar so I made it short so it can be tucked into the collar.
I trimmed the edge of the hat ruffle with a single crochet and the edge of the scarf ruffle with a half-double crochet.

I am now using the same yarn to make some legwarmers to wear this winter under my skirts to help stay warm. I will post pictures when I get them finished!