Step Into Christmas Cowl - Cast On!

After I finished the hat, I caked up the yarn for the cowl, and cast on.  I am almost finished with the 9 rounds for the brim, but I’ve mostly been focused on working on Sky Song.

Once I get done with the 9 rounds, I will join the gold, go up a needle size and start the colorwork.

Pattern:  Step Into Christmas Cowl by Lisa K. Ross

Yarn:  lolodidt Loriginal and Lil Lol Loriginal

Needles:  US 1 (2.25 mm) and US 2 (2.75 mm)

Step Into Christmas Hat - Finished!

I finished the hat up this past Saturday and am happy with how it came out.  I did the crown on two 16 inch circular needles, which is the same way that I usually work socks.  I was concerned with the tension where I switched needles, so I made sure to trap the float before I switched needles, and it looks like that worked pretty well.  The hat fits my husband better than it fits me, so I will make another one in the next smaller size for myself.  I have plenty left over of all the colors except for the dark green, and I have plenty of that color in the other two kits.

It is very soft, and of course lighter weight given that it is fingering weight, but it will be nice when we want just a little more warmth for our heads and ears when we walk.

Pattern:  Step Into Christmas Hat by Lisa K. Ross

Yarn:  lolodidit Lil Lol Loriginal

Needles:  US 1 (2.25 mm), US 2 (2.75 mm)

Step Into Christmas Hat - Chart B Done!

Oh yeah, definitely potato chip knitting.  I finished up Chart B this morning while watching the latest Fleece and Harmony Wool Cast, and now I get to do the crown, so this will definitely be finished today, and then I can start the Cowl.  No mods to the charts this time.

Pattern:  Step Into Christmas Hat by Lisa K. Ross

Yarn:  lolodidit Lil Lolo Loriginal 

Needles:  US 1 (2.25 mm) and US 2 (2.75 mm)

Step Into Christmas Hat - Chart A Done!

Okay, this is definitely potato chip knitting.  After I switched to the larger needle and started the colorwork I just couldn’t stop.  I had to make myself stop when I reached the end of Chart A, although I did start the first round of Chart B just so I could take care of switching the yarn colors - weaving in the light green and the dark red.  I did try the brim on when I was halfway through the round where I switched to the larger needle and I’m happy to report that it fit beautifully.  I’m really enjoying this knit.  I do like working with fingering weight yarns, and I do like colorwork.  I did replace the red bobbles in the second motif with red beads, because I am not a fan of bobbles, and I thought beads would just be a nice touch, and of course I had the perfect beads in my bead stash.  On to Chart B.  This is going to be a quick knit.

Pattern:  Step Into Christmas Hat by Lisa K. Ross

Yarn:  lolodidit  Lil Lolo Loringal

Needles:  US 1 (2.25 mm), US 2 (2.75 mm)

Step Into Christmas Hat - Cast On & Brim Finished!

Working on my Sky Song shawl got me thinking about all the other Miss Babs kits that I have in my stash (something on the order of two dozen), as well as a the kits above, which are also for patterns by Lisa K. Ross.  The kits above, and the yarn in the picture below are for a set of patterns that Lisa put out in November and December of 2025.  It started with the Step Into Christmas Socks, which was run as an MKAL, and I bought the kit but obviously did not knit it up at the time.  When the matching Cowl and Hat patterns came out in December I bought them and also bought the kits for those in the same colorway so I could have a matching set.  This week I decided that I needed a small project to work on when I wasn’t working on my shawl and so I pulled the three patterns into knitCompanion and started looking them over.  The first thing I did was check the yarn requirements for each pattern and compared that with the yarn in the kits.  The two kits above are identical - one full sized skein (440 yards) in the dark green, and then mini skeins (124 yards each) in the other four colors.  The hat kit just had five mini skeins.

The Hat requires:  105 yards of the dark green, 80 yards of the dark red, 25 yards of the white, 40 yards of the light green, and 45 yards of the gold.  The yarn provided in the kit should cover that easily.

The Cowl requires:  145 yards of the dark green, 105 yards of the dark red, 50 yards of the white, 45 yards, of the light green, and 120 yards of the gold.  The gold might be a bit tight, but the other colors should have plenty.

The Socks requires:  204 yards of the dark green, 137 yards of the dark red, 115 yards of the white, 49 yards of the light green, and 80 yards of the gold.  And this is where I spotted a problem - the dark red yarn requirements actually exceeds what the kit provides.  Now I have no idea (because I didn’t do the MKAL at the time) if anyone had any issues running out of that color, and I didn’t feel like searching through the forum posts to answer that question.  But the fact that I had bought all three kits certainly made my happy as I should have enough yarn to complete all three projects, even if I have to borrow some from the other kits to finish.

I started with the Hat, as the smallest of the three projects.  Now, I’ve never knit a hat out of fingering weight yarn, but whatever, I’m game.  I did not do a gauge swatch, but when I switch to the larger needles (on the next round) I’ll try it on when I’m about halfway through that round and see if it fits.  I think it will, but you never know.  At the very least it will serve as a gauge swatch for the other two projects.

The knitting has been easy and enjoyable - knitting in the round is one of my favorite things because you just keep going around and around and you never have to stop and turn the work, so the rhythm is never broken.

Pattern:  Step Into Christmas Hat by Lisa K. Ross

Yarn:  lolodidit Lil Lolo Loriginal

Needle:  US 1 (2.25 mm), US 2 (2.75 mm)

Sky Song - Clue 2 Finished!

I have been working away on my Sky Song MKAL, and finished up Clue 2 yesterday, in the early evening.  This clue is called Get Together, a song by the Youngbloods.  Clue 3 is already out, it came out Tuesday, and I already have it set up in my knitCompanion app.  This clue was pretty straight forward, as long as you got the set up correct.  I only forgot one increase at the end of a row, and had to pick it up before I completed the next right side row, and I missed a yarn over once, but that was an even easier fix.  On to Clue 3.

Pattern:  Sky Song by Lisa K. Ross

Yarn:  Miss Babs Yummy 2-Ply

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Sky Song MKAL - Clue 1 Finished!

I know, another Mystery Knit Along, and we all know how the last one ended.  But there are Miss Babs kits!  And I can never resist Miss Babs kits!  How can anyone resist those colors?  The Yummy 2-Ply Toes are Sunshine of Your Love and the dark color is McHales.  The designer is Lisa K. Ross, and I love her shawl designs (the last project I finished was also one of hers).  She is so good at shawl construction and the use of colors.  I have done a couple of her Mystery Knit Alongs and have never been disappointed, and I have Miss Babs kits for a number of them that are just waiting to be knit up.

True to form, this one started out interesting.  And all of the pieces have song title names, to go along with the theme of Sky Song.  First the piece on the left - Brand New Day by Van Morrison.  Then the piece on the right - Morning Has Broken by Cat Stevens.  I have that song on CD, and we sang it in Chorus when was in high school (a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away).

And here are the backs of my pieces.  The pattern recommends weaving in all those ends as you go, to save yourself trouble later, so that is what I did.  It was a little bit fiddly at the start of each of the colors, but not too bad.  Clue 2 has already dropped and I already have it set up in my knitCompanion app.  In clue 2 we join the pieces, which is why they are pinned out the way they are, because that is how they are going to go together, and I get to work lace bands in the colors in reverse order.  The width stays the same.  When I was working Clue 1 I was counting after every increase row to make sure that I didn’t forget to work an increase, because I did forget when I was working the first piece and had to tink back to fix it.  The second piece has you start with a garter stitch tab, but it was only worked over 2 stitches (I usually work them over 3).  It was super fiddly, and it just looked bumpy and ugly, so I ripped it out and just cast on 7 stitches and went with it.  I think it looks just fine, and it was not near as fiddly.

Pattern:  Sky Song by Lisa K. Ross

Yarn:  Miss Babs Yummy 2-Ply

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)