Cold Nights, Warm Ears

Well, we haven't had any cold nights yet...unless you count the 80F we had the other night, down from 100F during the day.


Anyway, Knitters North of Town (KNOT) of the Knit at Night Gang (KANG) had a great program the other night to create a cute ear warmer headband with a little flower on it. Mabel agreed that it would be a great addition to her winter wardrobe so, after many false starts, here she is in her new ear warmer:

Pretty cute, yes?


This was created from a class pattern that the wonderful Marilee had and that many of us wanted to learn about.  The pattern is unpublished but if you ask nicely I'll see what I can do about getting you a copy.  UPDATE:  Here is a similar pattern I found...looks the same except that this pattern makes a wider headband of 33 stitches instead of the 19 I used.


This ear warmer is made out of chunky yarn on US size 11 needles.  I used Berroco Ultra Alpaca (won as a door prize that evening!) in a lovely heathered blue to make Mabel's ear warmer.  I worried about the increases and decreases being too prominent with such thick yarn but the stitch changes are all hidden within the 1x1 rib pattern.  I did have some trouble keeping straight which was the right side so ended up with some huge markers to remind me that the right side was not the wrong side.  The flower is a somewhat free form piece of crochet with a knitted bobble in the center.


I so enjoyed my adventure with this pattern that I have started another one.  I think my second one will go to the church that provides KNOT with space FOR FREE!  With the high temperatures that we have been dealing with here, their generosity is very much appreciated.


I also want to let the world know how generous the KNOT group is with their excess yarn and needles.  Thursday night I collected enough yarn and needles from this group to over fill a huge plastic bin.  Their donations were made for the middle school knitting program that  I hope will be restarting soon.  Some of it will be going to a group locally that knits hats for chemotherapy patients.  One little bit of it went onto my needles and became another ear warmer for Mabel.


The yarn was very chunky, almost like roving, and I wanted to see what it was like to work.  I kept knitting in garter stitch until there was none left, at which point I realized that it was just the right size to warm Mabel's ears.

Good thing Mabel is generous with her hats as I really do need ear warmers when I walk the dogs in the colder weather.  Of course, it feels like we won't ever have cold weather again but I have faith that the weather gods will screw with my expectations of a couple of months without air conditioning or heating bills.


Now back to watching Irene's progress up the coast.  Stay safe and dry!