White House Project

Mittens and Hat Set
by Jackie E-S

Along with other knitting guilds across the U.S., The Half-Fast Knitters of New Orleans was invited to decorate the 1998 Christmas tree in the Blue Room of the White House. The guild members asked me (Jackie E-S) to design and lead the group project.

The child-size set is luscious white angora with Fair Isle stylized Norwegian snowflake and trees knit in blue alpaca/wool, green wool, gray baby mohair, and burgundy wool/viscose. Just as real snowflakes are each different and unique, each stylized snowflake in the Mitten and Hat set is a different design motif.

I designed the Mittens and Hat Set to fit with the "Winter Wonderland" White House theme for 1998, as well as comply with the requirements/restrictions placed on the project by the White House Project coordinator.

Also, I wanted to allow as many guild members to personally participate in the project as possible while still being able to complete the set in the short time allowed. Therefore, I designed the construction with a special working sequence so that several members could concurrently knit on different parts of the mittens and hat. Something I wouldn't ordinarily do if designed for a single knitters, as would be the more common case.

Mittens and Hat - Working Sequence

4 people can work concurrently to begin with:

• 2 on Mitten Tip/Hand
• 2 on Mitten Thumb

Commencing with Insert Thumb section, 2 people can work concurrently – one on each mitten.

2 people can work concurrently, one on the Hat Band and one on Hat Crown. After both of these are completed, one person can Join Hat Band and Crown.

Half-Fast Knitters guild participants

Knitters: Helen Abadie, Patricia Burke, Sally Brooke, Lorraine Donaldson. Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer, Anthony Eschmann, Victoria Fowler, Cherri McIntyre, Shirley Randon, Marion Stafford, Lilian Stahler, Bonnie Waack, Sharon Warren.

Design and project coordinator:Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer

Yarn donations: Sally Brooke, Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer