Another UFO Transformation - Neck Warmer

This bit of knitting started out to be an experiment with two different Silk Garden colorways - one was that unusual off-white/beige colorway.  I was using a fairly small needle for SG and it looks like I was alternating colors every 2 rows.  I think I thought it would be a scarf, but it became fairly tedious fairly quickly because I didn't really care for the color combination.  I bound it off and consigned it to my Bits 'n' Pieces pile.

In my current urge to turn UFOs into something useful if they don't want to be what they started out to be, I paired this with another object that didn't quite work as I'd hoped - a little hammered copper pin I made for my "As Elfen As Ya Wanna Be" hats, which have a little flap that needs to be pinned up to the crown. (I suppose I should post about those hats - the reason I haven't is because it's an original pattern that seemed interesting enough that maybe I'd try to submit it somewhere, and, like poetry, such things aren't supposed to appear on one's blog first.)

Et voila, an interesting little neck warmer that can be scrunched and pinned in any number of ways.

and I discover:

1. I like the colorway, perhaps because it's just a small bit of it, and I love the narrow stripes going this way and that when wrapped around the neck.

2. I have been irrationally prejudiced against the Neck Warmer/Scarflette idea. I have been wearing this one for awhile since I modeled it, and I think it actually makes me feel warmer.

Good to know!

Baby (Toddler) Surprise Jacket- Finished!

She likes it!
Here is Sophia, trying on her Surprise Jacket.
And hooray for me, finally finishing something.
The pattern, of course, is the late Elizabeth Zimmermann's classic Baby Surprise Jacket. If you go to the site for the business she started (which her daughter Meg continues), Schoolhouse Press, you can see there are not only patterns available, but now kits and a video (and many more knitterly goodies.)

Many people make these in fine baby yarns with smaller needles and they knit up quickly and magically for little newborns. I made Sophia's using Magic Garden Buttons yarn. It's a washable 83% wool/ 17% polyester (the little nubby "buttons". It is a DK weight, but I used it double. And shame on me, I cannot remember the needle size....in any case, all you need to know is that it is certainly possible to use the Baby pattern for a toddler-sized jacket by fiddling with the yarn and needle sizes.

There is a pattern available for the Adult Surprise Jacket, but be forewarned, there are hundreds of stitches cast-on and many, many, many rows of garter stitch. Many. I was going to do the Adult jacket in the class I took and at the last minute decided to do the Baby "first."

Well, there may be another Baby on my needles someday, but I do not need an Adult Surprise Jacket to add to my stash of UFOs. And that is surely what will happen if I start one.
I am Zann.
And I am a Short Attention Span Knitter....