Several winters ago I knitted Monster his first scarf, using this adorable pattern from Sidar. Recently, as the weather has turned colder, Monster has been wearing his babycrofter DK scarf again. Avidly watched by Menace. Seeing tantrums in my near future, I decided to preemptively knit one for Menace too. It wasn’t a hardship; baby knits are quick and this project in particular is lovely and whimsical.
Babycrofter DK scarf
The pattern is written for Snuggly Baby Crofter DK and Snuggly Snowflake DK. The babycrofter yarn was a mainstay in this house for baby jumpers and cardigans. The colour options always took me back to happy times on the Scottish hills or western isles as I knitted. The colour change comes frequently enough to keep longer projects interesting. And best of all, the yarn is so soft AND machine washable. It was lovely to return to the Skye yarn to knit Menace his scarf.
The scarf pattern calls for three balls of baby crofter, but only just touches on the last ball. So, having most of a ball left, I decided to knit Monster some gloves too. The winter before he had lost one of a pair, so he was in need of them (I told myself).
…and gloves?
Knitting gloves was quite daunting – all that shaping round the fingers and creating the thumb gusset. I’ve knitted several mittens, some straight forward and some more shaped and decided that it was time to take the plunge and knit some full-blown gloves. But I decided to knit them flat to make it a little easier the first time.
I found a free pattern for children’s gloves on the internet and adapted it for DK weight yarn. This took a bit longer than I expected as I tried to get my head around how the gloves were constructed. I ended up by charting it the pattern out on paper, and then realised that I was knitting the back and palm as one long row, which then wraps together as I work across the fingers from the first finger to the little finger. The gloves are them seamed down the outside edge. After working this out, I adjusted the pattern to meet the DK tension.
Around the time I was thinking about knitting these gloves, the honeycomb knit stitch was floating around the internet. I had never knitted a brioche stitch and thought it looked like fun – time to give it a go on a small project that wouldn’t matter too much if I messed it up. So I added in the honeycomb patterning on the back of the gloves. And knitted it up.
I really liked the way these gloves came out. Knitting them flat is super easy (although I’m tempted to try knitting another pair in the round). The brioche stitch on the backs makes the gloves squishy and warm, given the extra layer of wool and the pattern works wonderfully with the colours in the baby crofter wool.
…and more gloves?
Very happily, I rolled the gloves in to the scarf and lovingly wrapped them up in garish Christmas paper and put them away for Christmas. Come Christmas day, I watched Monster excitedly unwrap his present but on realising it was just scarf and gloves he tossed them aside and went for the more interesting presents. Such is life!
Since then he has worn the gloves and scarf for two winters. The gloves initially were a little large for his three-year-old hands (they fit much better now that he is almost five) but the babycrofter DK scarf was a hit from the start. Which means it has dangled into numerous muddy puddles and spends most of its time indoors drying on a radiator. But hey – it’s machine washable!
I’m considering whether or not to knit Menace some gloves. At the moment, he is happily wearing these dinosaur mittens and doesn’t really need gloves. But part of me want to go back and tweak the pattern, as a few simple changes would make the gloves much better. Who knows, if I do this, I may well share the pattern in a future blog post.
