Cozy Winter Wear in Summer

It's summer.  It's hot.  It might be a dry heat.  Or if you live where I do, it's humid.  But as we all know, winter is coming.  I'll be doing a workshop of simple and easy winter accessories.  What fiber to use?  Weight of the yarn used? What patterns to use?  We'll take a look at this and more.

Fibers not to use:  cotton, linen, hemp.  Fibers to use:  wool, alpaca, llama, acrylic, silk.  Why?  Plant fibers keep you warm, but not for long.  They absorb liquid and hold it to your skin making you colder.  Some animal fibers keep you warm, even when wet, others not so much.  It also comes down to affordability.  what can you afford to buy?  Especially if you are giving away the fruits of your labors, cost will play a big part.

What weight do you use??  This depends on a variety of things.  How cold does it get where you live?  How hot do you run?  How much stitching do you want to do?

If you live in the arctic, you probably don't want to knit a lace weight single layer hat.  Conversely if you live in somewhere like Brazil on the equator, you probably don't want to crochet a super jumbo yarn hat.  Are there exceptions?  You bet.  Older people who tend to do a lot of sitting get cold faster.  Younger people who are more active or people who experience hot flashes won't appreciate that very heavy head gear.

So I offer one source where you can choose the weight of yarn and an approximate age/size of the recipient.  It's Red Heart's Gotcha Covered #1 and Red Heart's Gotcha Covered #2 from purple kitty.   Knit Hat and the Crochet Hat  These are very basic beanies or toques  They work up quickly if you choose a small head or larger yarn.

Next thing up would be to keep your hands warm.  Mittens work up quickly but they have to be the same size.  If you have trouble with this, try working them at the same time  I tend to like the basic mitten pattern from Bev's Country Cottage.  The pattern can be found here.  There's also a glove pattern that I find to be interesting.  I'm not sure where I first saw it but I suspect it was from one of the books I learned to knit.  It's a garter stitch pattern.  Here is a similar garter stitch pattern from Elizabeth Zimmerman on Ravelry.  Again if you have second glove syndrome or trouble with making things the same size, do two at a time on either long straights or circular needles.  

Yarns to use for gloves and mittens should be on the thinner side.  Why?  You need dexterity.  What yarns should you use?  Animal fibers, possibly synthetics in worsted weight or thinner.