Can you knit me a “Father Christmas” cloak?
Okiedokes - it's a .pdf that isn't publicly available, but I can email it to you if you send me an addy on the FRmail. And it's crochet, not knitting. It needs a nice drapey-yarn. The author recommends Berroco "Seduce". My local yarn shop didn't have any of that and I wanted to start rightthisveryinstantthankyouverymuchAAAAH! And in doing so, I made a big mistake. The yarn I got is beautiful and absolutely perfect. It's Rowan's Natural Silk Aran - a viscose-silk-linen blend. Yummyummyummy.
But, I should have known better when I observed there were no prices on any of yarns. and...if you have to ask, you surely can't afford it. It was almost $10 a ball. $10 for 70 yards of yarn!! And you need 3x80+ yards to do the pattern, so I had to buy four! Plus I picked up some cute ribbon yarn for another project out of what looked like a "discount" basket. Again, no prices. I about had a heart attack when she rang me up and told me the total. Plus there was a group of girls doing a workshop at a table in the corner... and they were *watching*. So I chickened out, didn't pitch a fit, paid the dinero and blew about 3 months of my yarn budget in one visit. O.M.G. But that said, the Berroco is just as spendy. As much as I love supporting local businesses, I'm out of action for quite a while and will probably stick to clearance sales (as in 50+% off) online. *Sigh*
But! If you want an awesome *knitting* project that's perfect for beginners, this is it! The only stitch is the knit stitch. Just knit! The pattern comes from wrapping yarn around the needle one, two, or three times between each of the knit stitches. Then when you turn and work back across the row, you drop the wraps and knit the knit stitches and it looks super neat. I think it works with any yarn weight, but sport/DK or sock yarn will give you a nice scarf weight.