These beautiful late summer/early autumn days and evenings are some of my favorites of the year. I hate for them to pass too quickly, but at the same time, I know in my heart what is coming up. The Holidays. They are preceded by the inevitable Holiday Rush during which we struggle to stressfully finish everything that’s on the needles. Every year, I vow that I will not be caught up in this vicious cycle and every year I…well, you know.
So, while looking out on a beautiful late summer morning, wondering how I can keep my tan a couple weeks longer, I am, in my depths, thinking about holiday knitting and wondering…”Is it too early?”.
Is it ever too early? I’ll take a chance and err on the side of ‘early’. Today, I’m going to launch a little discount on a couple of projects from my catalogue that are quick, fun and imminently giftable. I’m going to continue these little discounts for the next little while hoping to help you whip your Holiday knitting into submission. Today’s patterns are the Hay Bay Mittens and the Sacket’s Harbor Mittens. Both are easy color work projects that, for very little work and few materials, will have people thinking you’ve parted the waters! Both are worked in worsted weight yarn and both require just two colors. As luck would have it, the Hay Bay Mittens have a matching hat so I’m making the Hay Bay Hat a part of this BOGO discount too!
Once that nip creeps into the air, I get the urge to do stranded color work. There’s something about having both hands buried in fluffy softness and watching the pattern magically emerge that is so very satisfying. The Hay Bay Mittens features a classic diamond and chevron motif with delicate falling snow. Beginning with classic Latvian braid and continuing with a simple two-color pattern, Hay Bay is just challenging enough to keep you engaged. You’ll have a pair in no time working in cozy worsted weight yarn. The thumb is fully fashioned with a gusset and easy shaping makes a for nice rounded top. Choose two favorite colors and get going!
Everyone needs a classic toque, especially one that’s knit in fresh, bright, snowy fair isle. This is a super simple stranded pattern, perfect for the first-time color work knitter. A deep, double fold ribbed brim provides extra warmth around the ears for those frosty days, while a roomy cap prevents hat head. A big fluffy pompom tops the whole thing off. It’s quick, easy and fun to knit and fun to give as a gift as well! The Hay Bay Hat is designed with 2” negative ease.
Sacket’s Harbor is an easy stranded mitten pattern suitable for the advanced beginner or intermediate knitter. During my summer sojourns, Sacket’s Harbor is the first signpost once I’ve left the interstate. Like these mittens, it’s a quiet gem, the first leg of the Seaway Trail and offers gorgeous, cool Lake Ontario vistas. It has a slightly retro vibe with roadside bars and cafes closed years ago by the building of I-81. I love it, and I often fantasize about how it must look in the off-season, foggy and damp with big fat snowflakes falling on icy waters. So, mittens! Knit in the round with a fully-fashioned thumb, Sacket’s makes the perfect first stranded knitting project.
Just so we don’t get caught with our needles down, Hay Bay Hat, Hay Bay Mittens and Sacket’s Harbor Mittens will be available, two for the price of one, until Friday, October 5 when there will be a new gift-knitting discount. I hope you’ll enjoy them! Just head over to my Ravelry shop, pop any two of these featured patterns into your shopping cart and enter the coupon code EARLYBIRD at checkout. Then cast on! (Feel free to share a link to this page with your friends, but please don’t give out the coupon code. It helps me a lot when folks come here to visit.) If you like these little discounts (I usually offer them on Friday mornings) and are interested in my work, I’d love to see you over at the new Ravelry group Friends of Littlechurch Knits. Until we meet again, happy knitting!
