Lyra's hood

Last month we went to see The Golden Compass the night it opened. While I enjoyed the movie, I think I was more interested in the knitting, and I became determined to make Lyra's hood from the movie. When we went to Webs I bought yarn for making it and meant to do it right away, but things got away from me. Since I was slow about it, someone else designed a pattern for it as well, which can be found here. But because I wanted my hood to be less bulky, I went ahead with figuring out my own version of the hood.



This hood took almost exactly one full ball of Rowan Plaid, and also took just a few hours to knit. Here are pictures of it on, but be kind--I took these at midnight last night without my contacts in, so they're not the best pictures of me ever taken, that's for sure.

The front:



The side:



And the basic pattern:
1 ball of Rowan Plaid (100g) or a super bulky yarn
US 11 needles (I recommend using circulars; the hood is knit flat but a circular makes the grafting at the end easier)

Cast on 64 stitches. Work in stockinette for 40 rows. Fold knitting in half with wrong sides facing each other and Kitchener stitch the live stitches together. Weave in ends.

For the ties, cut three long strands and pull them through a stitch at the bottom front of the hood. Pull through halfway so that there are six strands total. Divide these into three pairs of two strands each and braid these pairs together for several inches. Make a knot at the end and trim the ends. Repeat for the other side of the hood.

It's as easy as that! I'm still debating lining my hood with fleece on the inside (which was my original plan) but it's feeling pretty warm as it is.