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<\/a><\/center><\/p>\nThis is my newest pattern, and I’ve been working on for weeks. It started out as a wisp of an idea for a stole when I learned I had a wedding to attend right after Christmas, and I swatched and poked and flipped through my stitch dictionaries and said, “Hmmmm,” an awful lot. And then I found the perfect colorway of Malabrigo (Verdes, 203) and I looked at it and it looked at me and said, “the Holly and the Ivy. Duh.” So back to the dictionaries and the swatching, and this is what I ended up with: It’s very cushy and soft and — well, it’s Malabrigo, you can just imagine what a delight it is to wrap up in. I know exactly what I’m going to wear it with to this wedding, and I will be very warm and cozy and perfectly seasonally-attired.<\/p>\n But I just wasn’t ready to be done yet, so I went and reworked all the numbers so the pattern would work as a scarf too: This one I knit in some Sock Flock<\/a> from Holiday Yarns<\/a>, a beautiful Evergreen color that I picked up at Rhinebeck with just this scarf in mind. This<\/i> is going to be the one item I wear everywhere all season — it’s festive, with the little holly berries, but it’s not obnoxious or gaudy (I try to avoid those things). It’s just a simple little carol in a nice crisp lace, and I love it.<\/p>\n Incidentally, my good friend Melissa<\/a> kindly did photography for me again, and I cannot tell you how much I love that scarf picture. She got it just right, didn’t she? (She blogs at Sheetar.com<\/a>, and you can see lots of her photography there if you’d like.) She and my friend Margarita also get my thanks for test-knitting. And then<\/i>, for the first time ever, I had a tech editor, the excellent Sandi Wiseheart<\/a>, who I met happily at Rhinebeck. I learned a great deal working with her, and my pattern is infinitely better for it.<\/p>\n Have I enticed you yet? There’s all sorts of things you could do with this — longer or shorter, or get creative with the holly berries — maybe beads instead of the French knots I used, or perhaps you’ll surprise me. Sandi even suggested a winter white version and I do believe I’m going to cast that on as soon as I finish the rest of this Christmas knitting. <\/p>\n You can find the pattern for the Holly & Ivy Scarf & Wrap on Ravelry<\/a>, where it’s available for $5.00. Gift one, keep one for yourself…I won’t tell!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" So I haven’t been talking very much about what’s been on my needles lately, and there’s two reasons for that. The first is that my family is tech-savvy enough to surf here and therefore I can’t discuss what they are getting for Christmas. (Well, of course they can reasonably assume they’re getting a knitted gift: … <\/p>\n
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