having a great life in spite of everything

I’m posting a free pattern early this week, I can’t count on having the time on Friday. It’s the Lace Rib Neckwarmer, a quick knit that would make a good gift. And a chance to use buttons, which for whatever reason, I’m really liking recently.

I used one skein of Bernat’s Alpaca for both of these—but be warned, I had to skimp on the second one and bind off a row early to have enough yarn, so if you try to wring two out of one skein be prepared to have to make it work somehow. I’ve noticed that a standard bind-off tends to sort of flatten the edge, especially noticeable on something like ribbing. So here I used that to advantage by using the bind-off edge at the bottom of the neckwarmer, that way it creates an almost trapezoidal shape, which is just perfect for something like this.