Wild Thing

My first attempt at knitting a proper chunky jacket went very well indeed. I finished it some weeks ago but needed to find suitable buttons (from an old Aran cardigan) and weave in the ends before taking photos.

I used almost eight skeins of  King Cole Riot Chunky
in the colour 'Wildflower'.

The pattern is Brandi by Cheri Christia. It's mostly garter stitch, with ribbed lower sleeves. I worked the collar in seed stitch instead of rib.

I'm really pleased with the length. I knitted it a few sizes bigger than my normal size 12 to allow for lots of layers underneath.

It's definitely an outdoor coat that will be put to the test on our next trip to Southwold.

I'm wearing it here with a DK scarf and chunky King Cole hat.

Happy Mondays

Monday's socks modelling the new 'sock blockers'

Finished Monday's socks today, sock one of the seven-part Posh Socks Challenge. I knit three pairs of this pattern last year but gave them all away. I reasoned that this 'basic' stocking stitch, cuff-down sock was ideal to begin the project.

I had real trouble with the first sock, probably because I've been knitting chunky jumpers for a while now and am not used to working on 2mm circs. I started using 2ply Posh alpaca yarn held double but gave up as I was dropping too many stitches. I then switched to a more variegated 4 ply (80% Merino, 10% Cashmere, 10% Nylon) so that I could see the stitches more clearly. Even so, I made lots of mistakes on the first sock. The second sock went smoothly (and a lot quicker)

And matching hat

Despite ruining almost a skein by ripping out the buttonband and collar, I have some yarn left over from the coat of many colours.

Some of it is destined to be tea-cosies for our smallest pots.

The rest, I used to make a matching 'hat of many colours' aka the Hot Hat.