Winter Brights

A knitting post! Winter in Chicago is a looong affair. I love sun and warm weather, so rather than stay bundled in dark coats and hats for 5-6 months, I look for ways to bring cheerful color into my outfits. Such as this yellow hat and scarf!

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The yellow yarn is Crazy Sexy Wool from Wool and the Gang in a super bulky size 6.

The pattern is their Say My Name Beanie, which is no longer available but included an embroidery chart for all the letters of the alphabet. So the initial E is not knitted in, but embroidered in duplicate stitch <— follow that link for directions! Duplicate stitch is a cool way to emulate a knitted-in effect on stockinette stitch.

For the embroidery and pompom, I used Lion Brand Wool Ease Thick & Quick in a sparkly white and deep purple.

The scarf is 20 stitches wide and entirely knitted in garter stitch. The scarf takes 3 200g balls of Crazy Sexy Wool (I have one more to go – as you can see, it’s still a work in progress) and the hat took less than a ball. Both were knitted with size 17 needles.

Projects in super bulky yarn knit up very quickly, which is always satisfying – the hat took only 2-3 hours including the embroidery, and the scarf should be finished in another evening or two.

How about you? Do you love bright colors or prefer neutrals and muted tones?