Slither and Swell from Knitty.com

The minute I saw the pattern for "slither" the super long armwarmers on knitty I wanted to make them, but I wasn't sure that I was up for the challenge. I still think of myself as a beginning knitter and all those decreases, intarsia, button holes and the thumb gusset? I went for it, after all you can always frog the whole thing, right?

I knitted frantically for three days and then spent the forth day sewing on the buttons. I really like how they turned out.I love the shaping, it is one of the things that I find so fascinating about knitting. This pattern is really well written, it was a little complicated to do the shaping and the striping at the same time, but once I got the hang of it I did fine.

I also had enough yarn left over to make "swell" an earflap hat. I could actually make one in all three colors and I just might!

I had to go up two sizes of needle to get the proper gauge on this one and I also changed it up a bit. I didn't do the intarsia wave pattern or the peace sign purls on the earflaps. I also made the back longer than the front and didn't purl across the earflaps to make a ridge where they are connected to the hat. The hat turned out light weight and warm. I may add a fleece lining, but I think this may be the perfect earflap hat.

Yarn used Cascade 220 in black, dark plum, and cabernet heather.