Chonky Pink Winter Set

A few months ago I wandered into town of a weekend, just to have a bit of a poke around the shops. And what should I find in the main shopping centre? A surprise craft fair. Now, while I’m no hoarder, I do try not to buy yarn for which I have no specific project in mind; but it seemed rude not to buy something given they’d set up a whole fair specifically to delight me on that particular day.

I had a rummage and nabbed three balls of Debbie Bliss Roma for an absolute steal, in a delightful shade of coral pink. I had the rough idea that I could make a really cosy winter set that would go with my main winter coats; two grey, one dark olive green, and one bright yellow. (Is that a lot of coats? I am British. That’s a Big Coat, a waterproof coat, a smart coat, and a fun coat. Well, even if it is excessive, I think I’ve done pretty well to find a colour that goes well with all of them.)

Anyway. After a bit of thought and a very brief swatching exercise, I thought I would probably be able to get a hat and some mittens out of this yarn, and not much more. The mittens came together quickly and surprisingly well, considering I made them up as I was going along. Though I suppose they’re not really a complex shape; just a tube, except for the thumb and very end of the fingers.

Next, I had a bright idea. The mittens are nice and cosy in and of themselves, but perhaps there was a way to make them even cosier. I stared at the convertible mitten-gloves I made a few years ago, and pondered. The Roma was far too chonky to make individual fingers as I did on those inner-gloves, but what I could do is make a little removable insert that’s effectively just a slightly smaller mitten with a hole for the thumb. It could just slip inside the full mitten and provide absolutely ludicrous levels of cosiness.

Then on to the hat. The last hat I made ended up a bit weird and pointy, so I knew I needed to take a bit more care with the shaping at the top, and make it a little bit more flat. In one sense I might have overdone it, because it does fit very closely and I haven’t seen many hats around with that fit. On the other, it provides an excellent base for the unfeasibly large pompom.

That I made with the old-school two-circles-of-cardboard, using an ancient 360° protractor I somehow still have from my A-Level maths days. I had been smart (it happens sometimes) and saved all my ends and trimmings from making the hat and mittens, so that I could make my pompom as luxurious as possible.

Finally, I pulled out my sewing machine and made a little bag to keep them together while they’re not in action, and used the very last remnants of the yarn to make an i-cord drawstring for it.