New Yarn For Knitting

  I'm still knitting ear warmers.  I knit up three for dear daughter in the last few weeks (gray, red and teal), but now all the rest will be for me.  I'm doing them in all the colors of acrylic yarn that I have that I like.  I will have a whole wardrobe of ear warmers in different colors.

     I was playing on Amazon one night and found these yarns, so I had to have these to make more ear warmers for me.  I love the idea of the neon colors popping up with the neutral, I just hope it knits up as cute as it looks in the skein.  Of course it's Red Heart, the gray is called Rock Candy and the black is called Licorice.

    I'll let you know how they knit up after I get to them.  I have about three colors in front of them.  I'm knitting up a light blue ear warmer right now.

Make With Leftover Red Yarn

  I found some leftover red yarn.  It was leftover from my Christmas knitted stocking cap that I made last year.  I made two knitted ribbed ear warmers with some of the leftover yarn.  These ear warmers are knitting up very quickly now.  I'm loving this accessory.

   Here is a picture of one of the red ear warmers that I made in the last 7 days.

 

Three More Ear Warmers Done

   I knitted up three more ear warmers in the last couple of weeks along with the turquoise one from the last post.  I picked out yarn for two more and I'm halfway through the first of those two.    I knitted a white one, a mulberry one and a dark blue one.  I'm really loving how I made these.

Double Yarn, Bigger Needles - A Knitting Experiment

   Okay, so I had to try this out.

    Last week I wondered what the ear warmer would be like with double worsted weight yarn using bigger needles.  I took some lovely turquoise acrylic yarn (I'm pretty sure it's Red Heart Super Saver), wound up two balls of it.  I used size 11 - 16 inch circular needles and I cast on 60 stitches.  This is what I ended up with.

 

      I did not double this up like I did with the other ear warmers I made because the yarn was already doubled, but it's not exactly what I thought it would be or what I want.  Now I wonder if I should do this with my size 8 needles or I may need a size 9.  The size 11 needles made the fabric too loose.  I'm not loving it, but this would be helpful under a hat.

     And I have just the hat.

More Knitted Headband/Ear Warmers

   I knitted two more headband/ear warmers.  These are so easy to make and it makes great T.V. knitting for me.  I even took this project out and about shopping with daughter because we had to get her flu shot and I wanted something to do while we waited.  I even knitted while we roamed around the store.  I got a bunch of rows done that day.  I have two more colors of yarn picked out for this project to make a couple of more.  I'm currently knitting this on a size 8 - 16" circular needle.  I wonder what it would be like to knit it on bigger needles with the yarn doubled?  I may have to try that idea.

Knitted Ear Warmer/Headband

       I made a simple ear warmer/headband using my favorite hat pattern.  I modified it a little, I used less stitches.  I started with 90 stitches instead of 100.  Knitted the 3 x 2 rib for about 5", then I bound off and whip stitched the two ends together to double up the knitted fabric and got this.   I'm going to make more in other colors.  This would be perfect to wear under a hat on a really cold day or by itself.

Modifications To Simplify

    I had to modify the braided ear warmer pattern to simplify it for me.  I just couldn't handle some of the fussy parts the designer wrote into her original pattern.  I love the strands of half double crochet so I kept those.  I ended up making 5 strands of the half double crochet, braiding them and joining the two ends with slip stitches.  It worked great.  I had the measurement from my original braided ear warmer and I now know how long each strand has to be to fit my head because the original stitch count in the instructions did not work for this yarn and I had to modify it to make it longer.

   I used a skein of Knitpicks Chroma Worsted in Mid Winter colorway.  I've had this yarn since 2011 (the colorway name has changed to Hollyhock, yuck) and I think this project was perfect for it.

   Here is my newest braided ear warmer.  Easier for me to make and just as cute. Just to let you know I did try to take a picture of me wearing this but it turned out really bad.  I think my head model does a nice job.

A Sunday Crochet Project

  I was cruising on Ravelry the other day and found a crocheted braided ear warmer pattern that I just had to have.  I didn't want to steal any of the designer's pictures from the Ravelry site, so I'm including a link to the designer's etsy store with the pattern:  V. Larios' Etsy Store - Braided Ear Warmer Pattern so you can see the pattern for yourself.

   To make this pattern I bought a skein of Big Twist Value Yarn from Joann Fabrics today.  I've never seen the brand Big Twist Value before.  The package says it's made in India and is distributed by Jo-Ann stores.  I don't know if this brand makes anything other than acrylic yarn, the yarn I bought is acrylic.  I bought the yarn in colorway dark rose.

    This took me about 3 1/2 hours to complete.  The instructions were okay, but they could have been better when it came to finishing.  They were a little hard to follow.  I did finish it the way it was written, but the piece is a little too big for my head.  I would like a tighter fit, so I'm going to modify the area where the braids are joined.  

    I only used about half of this skein of yarn, so I have enough left over to make another.

    It turned out super cute and it's really warm.  I'm going to love this.  I may even make a few more  in different colors.