Posts from the ‘Knitting’ category

Finished Object: Northman Mittens

Winter is such a wonderful time to knit mittens, isn’t it? It makes more sense to knit them prior to winter so that they’re put aside, ready for use, when the cold comes, but I find myself thinking of them only when the cold hits. After knitting my squirrel mittens (many times over), I was ready for some fat yarn. David’s pattern was ready right when I was.

carrying wood

DK weight yarn is a favorite of mine, so I had quite a stash to choose from. After some swatching, I settled on Rauma 3 ply Strikkegarn, a Norwegian yarn that, if it isn’t made for mittens, certainly seems like it is! It’s got that crunchy, crispy feel and deep sheen of a long wool, along with a long wool’s strength. The colors are absolutely striking. I doubt these mittens will ever wear out. One of my testers of the Fiddlehead Mittens pattern used Blue Sky Alpacas’ Brushed Suri for her lining and I’ve been wanting to use it myself, ever since. It’s soft as can be and amazingly warm, and a perfect weight for lining DK and worsted weight mittens.

the lining

Pattern: Northman Mittens by David Schulz (PDF may be purchased on Ravelry)
Yarn: Rauma 3 ply Strikkegarn in colors 141 (purple), 198 (lime green), 155 (blue), and 127 (orange), with Blue Sky Alpacas’ Brushed Suri in Gingersnap for the lining.
Needle: US 1.5/ 2.5mm (I am the loosest knitter on the planet.)
Size: medium
Gauge: 28 sts. = 4″

full view

I used:
MC (purple)- 42 grams/ 97 yards
CC1 (orange) 12 grams/ 27 yards
CC2 (light blue) 26 grams/ 60 yards
a smidge of the lime green

Almost all of the skein of Brushed Suri- there are only a few yards left.

The mittens are:
9.5” long
9” around above the thumb
8” around the wrist

The pattern was an absolute pleasure to knit. The charts are clear and large, so knitting just zipped along. The linings make the mittens into cozy little pillows for my hands. It’s just what I needed during these cold months.

full view

Fiber Club:

The fiber club renewals are up for February – April. If you’re a current member and would like to join again, go get ‘em! I’ll leave this up until the 26th, then start emailing people on the waiting list to invite them, if there are any slots left. Please note: I sent out a newsletter today and, as usual, about 20 were returned. Please add adrian at helloyarn dot com to your contacts. Please also note that the waiting list for the club is closed. If I ever manage to get through the current one, it will be so long from now that people’s email addresses will have changed. Starting a fresh one at that time seems like the best plan.

Stuff I Love:

* Woodstoves- As you might guess from the first photo above, there’s wood to be hauled around here! We installed a very beautiful woodstove this winter and have switched to heating with wood. Our lives very much revolve around chopping wood and feeding the fire, as well as enjoying the wonderful heat the stove provides. I’ve even bought a book on woodstove cookery. We’ll see how that goes! So far, it’s been fantastic to proof and raise bread dough by. I can’t recommend Morso stoves highly enough, if you’re in the market. This little tyke is heating our home wonderfully.

* Peanut Butter- My life is changed. I’ve never had Hell’s Kitchen’s peanut butter before, but the recipe is online and holy doodle, this peanut butter is beyond imagining. Caro pointed out the recipe to me, as she is a fan of the restaurant’s peanut butter, and she also advised that the peanuts would be better roasted at 275F. Caro knows of what she speaks, so I did what I was told. The recipe makes about a liter, so I shared with 2 neighbors, who called last night to ask me to marry them. It’s that good.

* The Outlander Series- How did I miss these books all these years? I am angry at every person I know who read this and didn’t command me to. A couple of friends and I are reading them now and giggle like schoolgirls over Jamie. The fact that he knits only adds to his charms. If you’re going to be kept indoors by the frigid weather, you might as well have a giant redheaded Highlander to entertain you!

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Squirrel Sampler Mittens

There are so many projects I need to post about, not the least of which is Pamela Wynne’s Elf Boots (Seriously, need a gift and are short on time? Make these. They’re fun, fast, and charming as can be!) For now, though, it would be sad if I couldn’t even manage to post about my new pattern.

These mittens were inspired by a teeny little photo of a Quaker cross stitch sampler that I saw in a magazine back in September. I made a sketch of the mitten, but was wishing I had a better view of the sampler, so poked around the internet and lo and behold, they are famous! And rightly so. Here’s a much better view of the sampler I saw that little photo of. Isn’t it lovely?

I knit about 5 different squirrels before I was satisfied, put stylized acorns all over the palms, added a picot edge and textured braids, and even an optional 3D acorn.

Pattern: Squirrel Sampler Mittens, my own design, which is for sale in electronic form, both [on this website] and [on Ravelry]
Yarn: Harrisville New England Shetland, in Pearl and Cocoa, and Misti Alpaca Lace Canada in Blue Mist Melange for the lining
Needles: size 0 Addi Turbo, for magic loop
Gauge: 9 sts per inch
Size: S

The lining is picked up from the inside hem edge and then pushed up inside after it’s knit. It is soft, soft, soft.

OMG, acorns!

OMG, stuffed acorn!

A ton of thanks to Pamela Wynne for allowing me to reprint her darling Wee Twee Tiny Acorn pattern. It’s available on Ravelry for all your tiny acorn needs.

Many thanks to David for forcing me to design a new pattern. He is a harsh taskmaster and had me sitting at the dining room table first thing every morning, working on stranded knitting on size 0 needles before I’d even had a reasonable amount of coffee.

Also thanks to my awesome test knitters and tech editor for all their help. It’d be a sad pattern without them!

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Finished Object: Chevron Love Mittens


(Yes, that’s snow in the lower right corner. If that could go away soon, that would be awesome.)

Pattern: Chevron Love Mittens by Julia Vesper/Knitterly Things (rav link for pattern only) (kit link)
Yarn: Brown Sheep Nature Spun Sport/Knitterly Things kit in “Hello” colorway
Needles: Size 1 Addi Turbo for Magic Loop for mitten, size 3 for thumbs
Gauge: 7 sts. per inch
Started: February 22, 2009
Finished: March 21, 2009

The Knitting:

These were great fun to knit! The chart’s super easy to memorize on the first repeat, then off you go! As a tester for this pattern, I got to pick my own colors, 8 in all, which was a blast. The skeins were lovely and sitting down to fiddle around with the color order once they got here was even more fun.

The burning question may be, what to do with all those colors? I carried all them up the inside of the mitten, twisting them into a rope as I went. Every time I changed colors, I wrapped the new color around the rope to secure it. It worked great and I don’t feel the “rope” when wearing the mittens. It took some getting used to the 8 little balls of yarn hanging off the mitten as I knit, but it’s absolutely preferable to cutting the yarn and having 9 million ends to weave in, at least for me.

Conclusion:
Fun to knit, absolutely lovely product, great yarn in great colors. What more could anyone want?

Things I Love Lately:

Milk- I sadly missed all the Oscar-type movies in the theater, so we’re getting them from Netflix. Milk was so wonderful, wasn’t it? Sean Penn was lovable, spazzy and overly excited. Who knew? I’ve seen The Times of Harvey Milk a good few times and have such affection for him, so it was wonderful to have the affection carry over into the new film.

Tilt-shift photographyI’ve made a few using this tutorial. There’s an online generator, as well. I need practice, but they’re such fun to make.

James LeFleur. I love Sawyer all cleaned up!

Everyday Food on Twitter. Just when you don’t know what to eat for dinner, some crazy sandwich is pointed out to you.

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