I didn't take me long to switch from Australian summer to German autumn/winter mode, because I simply love the cold season too much.
Since the outside temperatures felt even colder than they actually were with my body still used to an average 25°C in Australia, I felt that I had to dig out my coat and scarf.
While shopping, I stumbled across loop scarfs or 'snoods' in nearly every store. I've always wanted a snood, but unfortunately, the ones I found in the stores were made of 100% acrylic wool and cost around €30, which I found quite expensive, considering the fact that it is a cheap material.
So the only option was to knit one myself. My last knitting project was quite some time ago, since I have been giving all my craft-related attention to my sewing machine for the past 2 years. I went to a local yarn shop where they sell all kinds of yarn as well as knitting and crocheting accessories.
I went for a yarn in a warm red, brickwork colour, which is made of 85% new wool and 15% camel's wool ('Camello' by ggh GmbH) and perfectly matches the colour of my winter coat. I bought five 50g balls to make sure I would not run out of yarn half the way though my little project.
Before starting to cast on the stitches, I read up on some snood knitting projects on other people's knitting blogs for some inspiration. I originally had the idea of including cables in the pattern, but I decided against it, because I was not sure whether you could actually see the cable once the scarf is slung around the neck. I decided to keep the snood simple and alternated between two knit and two purl stitches (rather classic, I would say).
I used a thick circular needle (8mm) and cast on 90 stitches. After knitting four rows, I started alternating between knitting and purling. When no more than half a ball out of the five was left, I knitted four rows again to make sure that the ending matched the beginning.
In the end, it only took me one or two hours each day to finish the snood, all in all probably five nights while watching the telly. I think it was worth the effort, because I love the result. The snood is warm and snug and is not as scratchy as scarfs made of pure or acrylic wool, thanks to the camel's wool.
After finishing the snood, I felt I had to go back to a sewing project, which had been lingering on my to-do list for quite some time. It's my cousin's birthday this week and she invited us for a birthday breakfast on Sunday. She likes handcrafted home decor and 'all things nice', so I was planning to sew her a Christmassy sofa cushion (I hope she won't read this blog post before Sunday). I bought a normal 50cm x 50cm cushion at Ikea to use as a filling and sewed the case around it.
The chequered fabric with the small Christmas trees and stars well as the plain beige fabric and border had been waiting to be processed for nearly two years now and I thought they would be perfect for the purpose.
I used biscuit cutters to give the centre applications the right shape. I sewed them on the centre piece of fabric by using a very narrow zigzag stitch.
I hope she likes her present.
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