Possessed to Knit

Latvian Mittens

I have a few mitten books that I have collected over the years and I find them very inspiring.  The Spring/Summer 2008 issue of Vogue Knitting features a mitten project from Latvian Mittens (written by Lizbeth Upitis and published by Meg Swansen).  I selected these Knit Picks Palette colors for this mitten project (in the lower left corner), which was also a recent knit-a-long on the Schoolhouse Press website.  I like most of the colors, but I'm not sure about the green.  It is just in the cuff, though, and I look forward to seeing how these colors work together.  There is a corrected chart for the Vogue Knitting version of the pattern here.  The Vogue Knitting article shows Meg's two-color cast-on and how she creates the fringe along the cuff edge.  I will likely not start on this project till the fall, so in the meantime, I will continue to enjoy reading my mitten books.

Blue Silk Mitts Completed

I've finished knitting my second pair of mitts for the Loose Knit Group Knit-Along.  I used my 3-ply handspun silk (18-20 wpi) and size 0 Celtic Swan needles.  Silk tends to stretch so I was sure to use small needles to knit these mitts.  I started with a little over 2 ounces of silk and have half an ounce left over.  I strung some beads on it to make a beaded cuff, unfortunately the amethyst colored beads blended in with the silk too much.  I cut off that piece of silk as the beads are now strung for a future project.  I have some red beads from this project that will hopefully work better. 

In addition to the Super Bowl today, there is also the Puppy Bowl (with a Kitten Half-Time Show) starting at 3 pm on the Animal Planet. 

Blue Silk Mitt

I put a nicer photo of my alpaca hat in yesterday's blog, you will see the cables much better.  I started another pair of Wine & Roses Mitts today.  This is my handspun blue silk that I had started in a scarf pattern.  As I examined the edging, I considered going up a needle size for the scarf.  I then remembered how much I had admired Loribird's silk Wine & Roses Mitts.  I had knit a pair last year in silk dyed in an orange/green colorway and they are 'missing in action' right now.  This silk is firmly spun so in this pattern there shouldn't be too much stretching.  My silk scarves tend to stretch a lot and I decided this mitt pattern was perfect for this yarn.  I am using my size 0 Celtic Swan needles and the grooves on them help to hold them in the silk.  I have broken wooden dpns with this pattern and feel much safer using my metal needles for this project.

Roses Mittens Completed

I've completed the Roses Mittens.  What a Fair Isle workout they were!  I think I picked the hardest pattern out of The Mitten Book for my first project from this book.  Most (if not all) of the other patterns are flat or square, that is, there is a set pattern repeat.  I realized after approaching the thumb on my first mitten, that the roses shift 2 stitches to the left and keep on shifting throughout the mitten.  This combined with doing the jogless join made for some challenging knitting.  I worked continental style with my knitting thimble and caught the yarn floats, doing my best to catch them on a different place in each row.  This would have worked better if I had picked the same place after each motif to catch the float in every round.  These mittens are not exactly the same, but they are close enough.  I used my sock blockers and the handle of my loofah for the thumb to block these mittens.  I have since ordered some mitten blockers which I know will do a better job of blocking.  The yarn is Knit Picks Palette and the needles are size 2.25 mm Lantern Moon Sox Stix.

Roses Mittens

After I completed my Wine & Roses mitts, I casted on for my second Roses mitten.  I knitted the first mitten over Thanksgiving weekend.  It turned out a bit small and strangely shaped.  Here it is blocked which helped reshape it quite a bit (thank you to Loribird for her wise words of blocking wisdom).  I brought the mitten home with me when we visited our families for Christmas and it turned out that the mitten happened to fit my friend Jodie.  I am now inspired to knit the second mitten and am working diligently to make sure the second mitten matches the first.  This design is from The Mitten Book and is more like a recipe than a detailed pattern.  I have a pair of Fair Isle socks I would like to start knitting and I am determined to complete these mittens first.

Wine & Roses Mitts Completed

Here is my first completed project for A Loose Knit Group knit along for January.  My Wine & Roses mitts are shown drying, as I really did block them, not that they look all that much better.  I find they look their best when they are in action.  I washed them in Euclan wool wash and I think the water was too warm as the colors did bleed a bit.  Some of the white sections now look pink.  I shortened the thumbs to 10 rounds instead of 14 rounds (to get the 1.5 inches recommended in the pattern) as I thought the thumb was too long.  I have some leftover Fleece Artist yarn in the Seashore colorway from knitting these socks.  The gentle color changes will work better with this lacy mitt pattern (which used 1.2 ounces of Koigu weight yarn and 2.25 mm dpns).  I feel good that I put some leftover sock yarn to good use.  I have this pattern in my collection, for sometime way in the future, when I want to use up my extra handspun and store bought yarns. 

Wine & Roses Mitt

I've completed my first Wine & Roses Mitt for the Loose Knit Group knit along.  Some quick knitters have already completed their January projects.  I think the second mitt will go more quickly.  I had some counting issues with this pattern.  Casting on took a few tries as I thought I had 72 sts, but it would turn out that I did not.  Even when I knitted the thumb, I must have dropped a stitch when I picked up the stitches.  I did not realize this till it was time to make the turning border near the top of the thumb.  After looking more closely at the yarnovers near the thumb, I found where I had most likely dropped a stitch.  The yarn tends to pool and stripe in this pattern which makes the final product even more interesting.  This is a fun little pattern.  I think I have enough of some alpaca/wool blend that I spun for a shawl to make yet another pair of these mitts.  I really enjoy finding small projects to use up my extra sock and handspun yarns. 

My friend, Kate, has updated her blog with lots of cute alpaca pictures and a link to a funny spinning video.  The link is here, if you would like to take a look.

Wine & Roses Mitts

Gloves and mittens are the theme of A Loose Knit group KAL for January.  Peggy and Loribird have cleverly started this delightful group so each of us may gradually knit our Christmas gifts all year long instead of in a few short months.  I've started a pair of Wine and Roses Mitts (Winter 2006 Interweave Knits) with some extra Yarn Pirate merino sock yarn in the Rosie colorway.  I have a good bit left after making a pair of socks and thought this project would work well with this yarn.  It was challenging to find the right size needles.  It turned out my 2.5 mm Brittany Birch dpns were too big and my 2.0 mm Celtic Swan needles were too small.  My 2.25 mm Lantern Moon Sox Stix are just right.  I realize it is hard to believe that 0.25 mm diameter could make that much difference, but it does on small projects like this one.  I am a little concerned that the colors may hide the lace patterning, but I am sticking with this project as planned.  Thank you to Peggy and Loribird for starting such a fun and helpful knit-a-long. 

Spindle Spinning

I have been spindle spinning the roving I picked up at Hunt Country Yarns.  The merino roving is very nice to spin.  I am using my Greensleeves Kelly (left) and my Greensleeves Monique (right).  According to my Spinner's Control card, this 2-ply is about 20 wpi.  The card is simple to use, you just place the card over the yarn (under tension) and move it to the line that it completely covers.  It can also be used to determine what size singles you will need for a particular yarn.  Let's say I want to make a 3-ply yarn at 12 wpi.  I would check my singles against line 36 (3 x 12) according to the instructions that came with the card.  I dabbled in some Fair Isle patterns with my 2-ply samples.  The colors might not have enough contrast for the look I want.  I will be sure to make larger samples once I have more of this yarn spun up.  It is a nice project when I feel like spinning for just a little while.

Roses Mitten

Here is my first mitten from The Mitten Book using the Roses pattern with Knit Picks Palette yarn.  This was probably not the best choice of pattern for my first mittens from this book.  Most of the designs have a defined repeat.  The Roses pattern, however, shifts two stitches to the left over the course of the mitten.  This made using the jogless join technique challenging as it involves changing the first stitch of each round.  I managed to keep track of the pattern and get rid of the jog, but this is pretty much all I did knitting wise for the long weekend.  This mitten needs some serious blocking and it is a bit small.  I find most mitten patterns are too big.  The Roses pattern is 13 sts so I had to decide between 65 sts and 78 sts.  You might guess correctly that I chose 65 sts for my 2.25 mm dpns.  A future pair of mittens (and probably way in the future) will involve 78 sts and 2.00 mm dpns and will hopefully not turn out so pointy.  If these still turn out to be small after blocking, I will likely donate them to the Dulaan project.  Right now, I have some gift projects I need to start and I will be taking a little breather from small Fair Isle knitting.