Best Mittens Ever? Yes.

I found this pattern more than a year ago and showed them to my sister one day to see if she'd like me to knit her a pair.  While I waited until she was back in a climate where she could appreciate them, I did finally manage to knit them up for her for Christmas.

 

Rav link

I used knit picks glossy fingering, a combination of merino wool and silk, for extra warmth and a little extra shine.  The yarn was quite lovely to knit with, and I really like how these turned out.

The big surprise for me was learning that my normally extra-loose gauge totally tightens up when knitting with two colors.  It makes sense, given that I am not as adept at holding the yarn in my left hand and everything ends up getting tightened up a bit, but it made me a bit nervous.

My sister has small hands, but I'd already gone down a couple of needle sizes (as I have started to do as a matter of routine, these days) and they ended up a little bit small, especially in how the thumb fit to the rest of the hand.

Thankfully, some post-Christmas blocking seemed to help (so she claims) and now my sister is wearing her new mittens around the house.  She has so far avoided wearing them outside because she "loves them too much."  Well, I tried to argue that mittens should be used, but really, who I am to say she can't decide these are precious objects.


*This post is brought to you by borrowed internet.  Eight percent, whoo!

Blizzard 2010

I was working on a lightweight white lace linen cardigan for spring when the great Northeast Blizzard of 2010 struck Washington, DC, and somehow in all that white it just didn't feel right.
I had lots of time on my hands but needed to be working on something cozy. So I continued with the hats. I found some leftover yarn from the sweater I happened to be wearing and tried the sideways grande hat again with much better results (I deleted 9 stitches from the cast on strip).

Then I decided I had enough leftover yarn from the first sideways grande attempt to make a tam from the same pattern book.

Finally, I decided to try the two at a time method for knitting socks on two cable needles. So far, so good. If you try this, I recommend finding needles that are a different color. It makes it much easier to keep it straight which row you are on. Mine are green aluminum (from an ancient stache) and bamboo. A trick to remember if you use self striping yarn - not all balls are wound in the same direction. If you want your socks to match, you may need to rewind one skein. I didn't bother so my stripes will be upside down o one sock.

Happy winter. I'm not sure I'll ever want to go back to work after this unexpected knitting break.

I miss blogging, the post

Hey dudes!  I miss blogging.  And You!  But here's something I knit mostly in September, blocked in late December, and finally sent to its recipient in January.  I know.

Happily, the recipient said this was her favorite color "in the world" and that it was the best thing she'd ever received from a student.   Success!  It was really pretty, and I did have a hard time giving it up at the end.  Does someone want to knit me one of these things?  They are super easy (just knitting!) but lord, there is a lot of knitting.  This one was probably half as wide as heb's, but it still took forever.  Seriously, I even have the yarn.  Anyone have too much time on their hands???

The blocking shot:

And to conclude this post, here's a little ruffle scarf action.  I knit this in November and gave it to CEM for her most important birthday ever. 

I have wanted one of these for myself for ever as well, and I actually bought this yarn in Boston but when I started making it, I wasn't as in love, but thought the colors would suit cem, so I gifted it.  Of course, by the time it was done, I kind of wanted this one too.  But, really, so it goes.  I would happily receive one of these as well, though I probably need another skein of this yarn for it to work (malabrigo).  Less knitting though!

things that I have actually finished

There aren't many, that's for sure. But here's one:
I actually finished this one before Christmas, but just realized that I never posted it. (Partially because I never got post-blocking pictures...) It's a baby blanket, made for Miss Margrethe, out of Blue Skies Alpaca Dyed Cotton. I modeled the project after one that I made a few years ago, but left off the patterned squares since I thought they would conflict with a more vibrant color scheme.

The wall of Dyed Cotton at Webs is handy for picking out color combos, and that's where this yarn came from. Dyed Cotton is a pretty darn great yarn for the baby knits, since it's machine washable and in a wide range of bright colors. It's also incredibly soft and knits up quickly.

Now that my Dyed Cotton ad is over, I'll move on to a more (and less) recent project:

This is a cowl/snood made out of leftovers from 4 Plucky MCN Worsted projects. I started it so that I would have something that I could easily knit in movie theaters (stockinette tube knit on #9s) and I stuck very strictly to only knitting it in movies. So I've been working on it since about this time last year and I'm not quite sure what I will do now that it's finished. But I really couldn't keep going. It's actually a little painful to wear as a cowl now because it's so tall and there's not enough drape. (It's okay as long as I'm not wearing a top that has any kind of neck. But a turtleneck plus this cowl? Ouch.) In order, the colors are Hazel Drive, Rock of Ages Fascination Series (#2), Nectar and Montgomery. Maybe I'll try to get a modeled shot.

But, first, I have a few other things to finish...

Still another Hat

This yarn was from the stash I acquired at Stitches East last year in Baltimore. The night I got home, I sat down and knit this yarn into an original designed-as-I-knit hat - but I was never happy with it. It was too big. So I finally frogged it this fall and dug out the Odessa pattern I had admired on Hannah's postings. Unfortunately I overcompensated a little and this one is a little too snug. I reduced the number of stitches cast on to 80 and I also used smaller needles for the ribbing than the rest of the hat. I enjoyed the yarn, though, and it was a quick project, and I can wear it if I'm willing to suffer the hat hair syndrome. The yarn was called Santa Fe or something southwestern like that and the colors really made me feel warmer on a dreary winter day.

Sideways Grande Hat

This was a case of yarn looking for a project. I went to the knitting shop to buy some long circular needles - size 4 for my current project, a lightweight white Euroflax linen cardigan with a lace border for spring http://www.ravelry.com/projects/mmchurchman/gardenia
- but I couldn't walk away without two skeins of Manos el Uruquay wool classica in a luscious pinkpurpleo,rangeburgundymoss colorway. I kept thinking the colors were really Abigail's, not mine, but I thought I was knitting a warm hat for myself in the Sideways Grande hat pattern in a book I also bought on that trip to buy one knitting needle. I finished the hat in a week, and Abigail admired it as we were getting ready to leave for the airport this morning for her trip back to Iowa for the rest of the winter. She said it would be warm and she would wear it, so I sent it with her, after snapping a picture. I wasn't totally happy with it. I think it's too deep. The construction was strange (knit sideways in a strip, with 4 progressively smaller sizes of needle, then the crown is picked up on the long edge, the side seam is sewn, and the twisted straps picked up at the bottom and tacked to the top I might try it again in a different color and use a slightly smaller needle for the main part, or cast on fewer stiches for the long ribbed strip that becomes the hat.

Baby Shower

I knit this quicky baby sweater out of superwash sock yarn for a baby shower I'm attending tomorrow for a young colleague from work. The most interesting part was watching the designs the striped yarn made. The first time mom to be is an engineer, so maybe she'll enjoy it. Instead of knitting the front and back separately I knit in the round up to the armholes, and I knit the sleeves in the round, too, to avoid seams.