First-footing is a New Year’s tradition from the British Isles. A first-footer is the first person to cross the threshold of a home on New Year’s Day and a bringer of good fortune for the coming year. For good luck, it must be a tall, dark-haired man, and he should bring a small gift, like a coal for the hearthfire. Empty-handed blonds or redheads are bad luck (and in ancient times, could be a Viking threat!).

My father’s side of the family is quite British in their culture and traditions. We eat trifle for holiday desserts, practice the stiff upper-lip, have a propensity for using the word “bloody” as an adjective, and of course, enjoy plenty of tea (with cream, please). My father has always noted that his birthday is a holiday, as it is the anniversary of the Queen’s (Elizabeth II) Coronation Day.

It seemed fitting, then, to make a scarf for the first-footer in my family - this scarf will set off his dark brown hair really well, and I think he’ll really like it.

This scarf was knit with two strands of yarn held together - a black worsted-weight and a blue/purple-grey fingering/sport weight. It looks rather coal-like.

The scarf is going along swimmingly, and makes for great TV knitting. I had a bit of a problem at the beginning because I hadn’t gotten the muscle memory down pat yet, and had to frog the first bit a couple times, but now all is fine.

I bound off, then realized I’d somehow lost two stitches. I had to frog back about a foot. There is such a thing as getting too wrapped up in your TV watching. headdesk

A Word of Caution: Try very very hard not to drop stitches. Because this pattern twists them so much, a dropped stitch can mean ruination because you’ll not know quite what direction is was supposed to be in. That was mainly my early mistake. Now I just watch and if I do drop I carefully frog back a couple of rows, put my stitches back on the needle, and then tink back another row to ensure that your stitches are all facing the right directions.. ;)

Dad loved his scarf. Yey! At least I had one successful knit Christmas gift!