Knitting for Olive – Alex Hood – Knitting Kit
Designed by Pernille Larsen – Knitting for Olive
Alex Hood is a hooded scarf, which sounds like a compromise and turns out to be the opposite. Worn down it behaves like any other scarf. Pulled up on a properly cold day it covers your head and most of your face, and does the work of a hat without flattening your hair.
The whole thing is 2x2 rib, which is where the weight and the stretch come from. You knit the scarf in two halves, each worked back and forth from one tip in towards the middle, then graft the two together at the back of the neck. Stitches are picked up along that join for the hood, which carries on in the same rib and is shaped with increases and decreases.
It is knitted with one strand of Knitting for Olive Merino held together with one strand of Soft Silk Mohair throughout. The merino carries the rib and gives it structure; the mohair adds warmth and a soft halo that keeps a plain rib from looking plain. At 190 cm across there is enough of it to wrap twice.
Skill Level: Easy (adventurous beginners) ★★
Rib is about as forgiving a fabric as there is, there is no chart, and being a scarf rather than a garment the exact gauge matters far less than usual. The one real demand is grafting the two halves together at midback, which is fiddly in rib because you are matching knits to knits and purls to purls. Done carefully the join is almost invisible.
Size: One size
Finished measurement: Wingspan approximately 190 cm (75")
Gauge: 34 stitches and 28 rows = 10 cm (4") in 2x2 rib on 3.5 mm / US4 needles, measured before blocking.
The Kit Includes
- Knitting for Olive Merino, 3 balls in your chosen colourway
- Knitting for Olive Soft Silk Mohair, 3 balls in the matching colourway
- Printed pattern in English
You'll Also Need
- 3.5 mm / US4 circular needle, 60 cm or 80 cm
- Stitch markers
- Stitch holders or waste yarn
A note on the needles
The pattern calls for a circular needle even though nothing here is knitted in the round. You use it back and forth, like a very long straight needle. On a piece this size that matters: the fabric is heavy and the cable takes the weight off your wrists instead of hanging off two needle tips. A 60 cm cable is enough, and 80 cm gives you more room to spread the stitches out and look at what you have done.
Techniques used
- Knit and purl in 2x2 rib
- Working back and forth on a circular needle
- Grafting two pieces together in rib
- Picking up stitches along a seam
- Increases and decreases to shape the hood
Why You'll Love It
- Rib is the most forgiving fabric there is, and this is 190 cm of it. Ideal television knitting once you have the rhythm.
- It does the job of a scarf and a hat at once, which is one fewer thing to leave on a train.
- Merino and mohair together give a fabric that is warm out of all proportion to its weight.
- One size, so there is no measuring, no ease to think about and no choosing between two numbers.
- Three balls of each yarn, worked out and packed for you.
