Hooded scarf

I’ve been tossing around ideas for something to make for my mom for her birthday, but each time I came up with something I’d find out later that she didn’t like it. I’d settled on a gorgeous pocket shawl from one of my pattern books, but then found out – after I’d ordered the yarn from Elann – that she already owned such a shawl. Sigh. So then I toyed with making a vest, but the yarn is a lovely soft grey – perfect for a shawl or a scarf, but not so perfect for a vest for my mom.

I finally broke down and decided that even though it would no longer be a surprise, it’d be far better to actually ask her directly. She mentioned she really liked the hooded scarves she’d seen, I sent her a few pictures to get a sense of the type she wanted, and then I set about poking around online to see if I could track down a pattern.

I finally found a pattern here. There’s no picture, but I was able to muddle through the pattern enough to figure out what the designer was describing to visualize it in my head. I decided I’d stick with that lovely grey wool from Elann (their Peruvian Highland wool), since it was so warm and soft. I picked a basic broken rib pattern – K3, P3 on one side, then K1P1 on the other side – so that the scarf would be the same on either side. I picked seed stitch for the hood part because I figured that would be the warmest. And over the last few weeks I’ve been frantically working on this scarf, hoping to get it done in time for her birthday.

Her birthday was actually Friday, but since we didn’t do the actual celebration until today I had a few extra days’ knitting time. I got up early this morning to seam the sides of the hood and tuck in a few ends, so I did cut it a little close on the timing. But at least I got it finished on time. And there is enough wool left over that I think at some point I may have to make another one for myself.

Here’s my mom modeling her birthday hooded scarf.