Cooler weather and six balls of Katia Venus

The temperatures are beginning to drop around these parts and I am giddy with all of the woolen possibilities that fall is sure to bring along: apple-picking with the boys, hats and scarves and mittens {oh how I do love them mittens}, comfy cozy little sweaters, and lots of cuddling with my family.  You know, for warmth!  

So I was thrilled to see the mailman walk up the driveway with 6 balls of Katia Venus in a red and orange colourway and 3 balls of Elann Sierra Aran in a dark brown last week and cast on immediately for this slithering snake scarf for my Jujube (get Sarah Bradberry's free pattern here).

I only ended up using 2 and a half balls of the Venus and just over 1 ball of Sierra Aran to make it so I put all the leftovers to good use by rounding out the set with a matching hat.  Of course ;0)

I used this free pattern  from yarnsticks' blog, working the brim and earflaps in the Sierra Aran held double to get gauge and then alternating with the Katia Venus also held double for 2 row stripes all the way to the top where I finished it off with a little I-cord loop. 

And then, since there was still leftover yarn, I knit some target wave mittens from Norah Gaughan's Knitting Nature.  I knit the smallest size which is slightly big for my Julian, but he doesn't seem to mind at all.  Turns out he looooves the woolens!  

He's been wearing them lots and lots around the house with his big chunky firey orange winter boots that the mailman also happened to bring us this week.  Never mind fall, this kid just can't wait for snow!

And then it was Lolo's turn!  Would you believe that after all that, there was still enough leftover Venus to make Yarn Harlot's unoriginal hat for Lolo!  It was meant to be a hat for me, but it was not so flattering (it's not the hat...it's me!) so I tried it on Lolo just for kicks and it was the cutest thing ever!!!  

I made a few mods to toddlerify the pattern.  I unravelled the top down to the 2nd row 16, knit 2 together all the way around and then pulled the yarn through all the stitches to finish the top.  I then picked up stitches around the bottom edge and worked a garter stitch brim and earflaps just like Julian's hat making the earflaps slightly smaller by working them over 12 stitches instead of 14.  And to top it all off, I taught Julian how to make a pom pom to adorn the top.  He did the winding and I did the tying. 

When I finally ran out of the Venus, I pulled out the leftover Filatura Di Crosa Andina I had languishing in the stash and knit a simple garter scarf to match Lolo's new hat.  I held two strands of the Andina together to get a gauge of 3 sts per inch, cast on 125 stitchs, worked in garter stitch for 4 inches and cast off.  Voila, a sideways garter scarf sized just right for a baby or toddler ;0)

And then when it was all done and I was finally done with the photos, we took off our woolens and set up our picnic under the biggest tree we could find because it turns out there is still a little bit of summer left ;0)

Happy fall-is-coming to everyone!