When traveling back to England to see family and friends I always manage to forget something, and it often happens to be about the grey winter days, and a trusty scarf to keep out of blowing winds. Luckily there is a good supply of wooly winter ware at my parents’ house, and digging through it I always go for a scarf of my mother’s that features a simple one stitch color pattern and delicate picot hem. Wearing this scarf to my old local town one day I visited the new local yarn store (oh how I wished it had been there when I lived there!), and discovered a healthy ‘British Wool’ section of the shop, containing this Bluefaced Leicester yarn from West Yorkshire Spinners. Always a sucker for local fibers I snaffled up plenty and stored them away. Upon my return to American soil I realised how the buttery soft longwool fibers lend themselves naturally to a chunkier, longer version of my mothers scarf, and how perfectly fitting too. With a hat to match, fully lined for extra warmth and a pom-pom to boot (optional to allow for reversibility), I will be sure not to forget them next winter!

The first in hopefully an ever-growing collection of patterns focusing on British Wool.

Yarn : For both Scarf and Hat; 4 skeins (MC), and 2 skeins (CC) West Yorkshire Spinners 100% Bluefaced Leicester Aran ; 100% Wool; 182yd/166m, 100g; photographed in Natural Brown 003 (MC) and Natural Ecru 001 (CC).
Or, 660yd/604m (MC) and 273yd/250m (CC) (includes pompom) in Aran weight yarn.
Needles : US 8 5mm needles, or size needed to obtain gauge, 16” circular, set of DPNs.
US 6 4mm needles, or size needed to obtain gauge, 16” circular.
Gauge : 19 sts and 28 rows = 4”/10cm in St st.
Notions : Stitch markers, tapestry needle, pom-pom maker (optional).