Knitted bicycling balaclava?

[untonuggan]

I just learned how to knit (woo) and bicycle (woo) this year. I'm thinking about doing some winter riding and have been looking into knitting merino gear to keep me warm.

My dad is uber-randonneur-bicyclist, and has not-so-subtly hinted that he'd like a knitted balaclava if I'm up for it. He's looking for thin yarn (say, sock yarn or fingering weight) in black, and he wants it to cover his head except for his eyes/glasses. You know, the balaclava thing. I'm also thinking superwash is a necessity.

Just wondering if anyone here has experience with good bicycling balaclava patterns, pitfalls, etc. Also, if anyone has good/bad experiences with particular yarns that would be great.

Since this is a cross-community sort of thing, I'm crossposting to bicycles 

Comments

[geeksdoitbetter]

i'm excited for your project!

having an appreciative recipient for knitwear is priceless

are you familiar with ravelry.com?

i did a quick search for balaclava and fingering weight yarn, came up with The Balaclava Helmet by Jaeger Hand-knit (http://www.vam.ac.uk/images/image/13016-popup.html)

the bits where the ears can stick out is very cute and silly (and, er, cold?)

[untonuggan]

Ha! He has big ears, too. Still, I think I'd make it without the ear holes. I'll show him a couple patterns and see what he thinks...

Thanks ^_^

[ginny_t]

Is your dad flexible on the black? Even dark grey is easier on the eyes for knitting than black. Also, a sport or DK weight version will knit up faster—the finer the yarn, the more knitting needed.

Is your dad 100% not allergic to natural fibres? This will get warm on him, and that will make any prickliness worse.

[lannamichaels]

I just finished From Russia With Love, which I suspect you could modify to do in fingering weight. I enjoyed the pattern. I had some construction issues with it that were because I had never done cables or picking up before, but the pattern itself is great and very clear (my problems were with the knitter ;) ). One comment that I saw on ravelry and was the same for me is that 7 repeats of the cable pattern is plenty (the pattern calls for 9). One comment about it: if I ever do the pattern again, I would modify it to do it top down, not bottom up. I had some issues with manueverability in the decreasing, which is sort of weird, since I've done two top down hats with magic loop and haven't had a problem with increasing.

I did it in Knitpicks Comfy Worsted, because that's what I already had. It took roughly three balls.

[untonuggan]

That looks perfect, thanks! I was definitely looking for some personal experience on this.

I think the cables might be uncomfortable under a bike helmet, but I could probably substitute some ribbing and it would work out fine.