Mittens for Cooper

This is Cooper. He likes mittens. He also likes frogs. How could I resist making these frog mittens for him?

I couldn't.  At the request of his mom, I did an i cord too. He loves it!!

Christmas

It's that time of year again. I'm not sure why but the people around me are all in panic mode. I've never been one to do this but every now and again I can feel the sense of panic welling up inside.

I can usually talk myself out of this panic. My children are grown so there doesn't seem to be the same sort of demands placed upon trying to have a perfect (whatever that means) Christmas. 

I do however have four little grandsons and I would like to start some Christmas traditions for them. I think if I made them each a handmade ornament every Christmas, that by the time they were grown they would have an armload of beautiful handcrafted Christmas ornaments.

So, with that in mind I crocheted this little beauty.

The pattern is called snowman lights. The design is by Deborah Arch. It is from the crochet magazine called crochet world.

I couldn't be happier with how he turned out. I love his goofy grin. I did make some mods to the pattern. Instead of black beads, I used safety eyes. And I didn't use beads on the mouth.  I embroidered the mouth with some black yarn. The next one I make I will have the earmuffs down over the face a little more. We shall see how they all turned out. One down and three to go.

Edited December 16

So, I finished all four of the snowman. I couldn't be happier with them I am tickled at how cute they turned out.

My embroidery however could use a little work. Look at this photo.

I'm not sure if the lettering is legible or not but I can read them. So, as long as the boys know who owns what it's all good.

I also wanted to share these mittens with you. They are from the self striping club that I was telling you about a couple of posts ago. I'm pretty sure I will be gifting these to my friend Flo. She has been not so subtly hinting for these. This girl professes not to be a yarn snob but she does recognize good yarn when she sees it and who am I to deny someone who has such great taste.

Winter is coming

Winter comes quickly here in Labrador. The trees are almost bare. Except my favorite tree. That one still has leaves. I know I'm crazy. I have favorite trees. This one is really Interesting - if trees can be interesting. It's a dog berry tree (I think mainlanders call them dogwood)  

 I see this tree on my drive to work each morning. When all the leaves are gone off of the other trees, this one still has leaves. And look at that colour!! It almost glows. Whatever it is about this tree it somehow seems to be a month behind its counterparts. The leaves on this tree were still green when the others were all turned orange and falling. It's beautiful.  

Do you have a favorite tree? I have otter favorites as well. There is a huge poplar near our cabin that I love. There is also a larch tree that I pass on my way to work that has been trimmed to a pefect round tree. And this time of year the larches (or tameracs) are such a gorgeous shade of this golden yellow. They seem to glow in certain lights

In preparation for winter I am back on my mitten kick. I signed up for the mitten club from Blueberry Pie Studio once again. I was very happy with the colours of yarns received from there last year. The first shipment looks like this. 

The colour is called icecream parlour. I love it. I've already finished one mitten and have started the second. This shipment included a pattern for a multitude of sizes so I hope that each of my little boys will have a pair of handknit mittens from this seasons club. Sadly (not really) this colorway is a little too feminine for their parents who believe in gender based colours even though the little ones don't and think that pink and purple are perfectly good colours for boys. I want these mittens to be worn and the parents still have that control. 

So I may keep them for me or I may give them to my neice. But I've been knitting these mittens by Spilly Jane. It's hard to tell from this photo because I was holding the purple yarn in the wrong hand but, that's an octopus. I'm really thinking these will be perfect for my neice. I have to knit her Something since her brothers have (and will have) handknit socks from me. The second octopus is knit in fushia and I changed hands so the colour pops so much. 

The yarn is Jamison Spindrift. Kevin bought it for me when we visited a yarnshop in Mahone bay called "Have a Yarn"

What a lovely store in a lovely town. I highly recommend a visit if you're in the area. They had the nicest samples knit up. It made me want to knit ALL THE THINGS!!! I bought a Lucy Neatby mitten pattern that I've been resisting the urge to cast on. Seriously, I need to get some of the mittens off of the needles.

When you live in Labrador you can never have too many mittens. 

Remember the mittens?

About 5 or 6 posts ago, I wrote about knitting jags. In particular I wrote about going on a mitten knitting jag. I also prophesized that the jag wasn't over because I had a few more mail outs coming from Blueberry Pie Studio's  mmMarvelious Mitten club. 

Turns out I was right. Here's a pair I finished in the great colourway named Turquoise Frosting   I love it so much!! I think this pair may be mine. 

Since I knit these very quickly while travelling to Lab City to watch Max play in a soccer tournament, I immediately cast on for another. The great thing about these club mail outs is that the yarn comes all balled up and ready to go.  This is great when you are looking for something to knit in a hurry. Since I was going to be spending six hours as a passenger driving to Lab City plus hours watching soccer and then six hours driving back I knew that I had lots of knitting time to prepare for. So I grabbed some blueberry pie studio yarns as I was going through the door. 

This colour is called Farmers Market (I think). These will be for one of my lovely stepdaughters. 

I wasn't done yet! I cast on for another pair in some handspun that I had recently finished.  Remember that Lisa Frank batt that I had spun into a dk weight two ply? Well that yarn knit up into a beautiful fabric. It wasn't nearly as crazy looking as I thought it would be. 

I love these so much. I may keep these for myself too. Hey! I live in Labrador. A girl can never have too many mittens. And these are the exact weight and fit that I like my mitts - especially for driving back and forth to work.

And I still wasn't done. This pair is for Cooper.  Again the yarn is from Blueberry Pie Studios Marvelous Mitten Club. The colour is called sunny tulips. 

So what do you think? I'm getting a good start on winter (which comes very quickly here in Labrador). I think I may be done with the mittens for a little while. 

Mmmmm ...Mittens.

I go on these jags all the time. Usually it's food related. For example, I will only eat a certain cereal for breakfast. I will eat said cereal for six months (or two years even) and then one day I wake up and I'm done with that cereal for a very very long time. And then I move on to the next cereal. (I do the same thing with chocolate bars too but that's a whole other post)

I have never been this way with knitting. I usually have three or four varied projects on the needles at any given time. And they are usually at varied stages of completion.  I have a simple sock for knitting at the arena. I may have a sweater that I knit on while watching TV. And I may have a scarf or a cowl that I'm trying to finish up quickly for a gift. Perhaps there's even a baby sweater in there too. 

But not lately. It seems that lately I am on a knitting jag. I only want to knit mittens. Need proof??

It started with these. (There were two, I swear!!) The yarn is from the club I was telling you about in the last post. The pattern is Susan B Anderson's "Waiting For Winter" and they are the best fitting mittens I have ever made. I love them. I love the stripes.  I love the fit. I love the simplicity of the thumb gusset.  There's nothing clever or unique about this pattern.  But it is good. They were a birthday gift for my daughter and I must admit to being a tiny bit resentful when I sent them to Montreal. Just a little. 

I blame those mittens on the jag that followed. Here they are in no particular order. 

It's seems appropriate that the last mitten is knit in the second shipment of yarn in my Yarn Club that I joined at the beginning of the year. It was the first shipment that I blame for starting this jag. And the great thing is .... I HAVE FOUR MORE SHIPMENTS!!!

A New Kind of Thumb

I've been knitting these mittens called Arc

Mittens. The pattern is from Interweave Knits Accessories 2011. (Which, by the way, is an excellent mag - I want to make just about everything in this edition). I've had this pattern in my queue for some time now. I'm so glad I took the time to knit these because I am in love. 

Do you see the thumb!? That's the best part!! Instead of the usual thumb gusset as is true of many mitten patterns this designer has you create increases that mimic the lifeline on the palm of your hand. The result is one fantastic fitting mitten. 

Here they are having their soak in Soak. The Puffin yarn from Quince and co held up nicely after the bath despite this being a loosely spun bulky single. There was very slight colour bleeding into the water but it was VERY slight. No need for colour catchers here. 

Now what to do with them? I rarely wear purple myself and my winter coat is red - just a little too clashy.  

I'm sure someone will lay claim to them before too long. 

Yarn Chicken

Have you ever played this game with your knitting? You know the game. It's the one where you pick up a ball of yarn with no ball band so you have no idea how much is there. You decide to use said yarn anyway because it's the right weight and colour. You do this even though you aren't entirely certain you have enough of this yarn to finish the project in question.  Ever play it? I have. 

Here is a great example of how the game works. See these mittens? At this point in the knitting I'm not sure if I have enough yarn to finish the thumb. Actually when I first picked out the lone ball of brown yarn without a ballband - I wasn't sure I have enough yarn. I wasn't sure when I cast on or when I knit the cuff or even when I finished the first mitt. I really didn't know. I guess on some level I was thinking so what if I don't have enough.  I am a spinner after all. If push comes to shove I could make more yarn. Right? Yeah. More likely it would have been stuffed back into a project bag and thrown in the back of the closet  never to be thought of again unless I needed those needles or even a bit of brown yarn. But as luck would have it (or maybe I'm just that skilled at predicting yarn quantities) I had enough. Barely. 

The pattern is called Newfoundland mittens (a freebie) and it's a favorite of mine. I've knit this pattern many times over the years. It's a traditional pattern that I grew up seeing all the kids wear. I had no idea they were unique to our province until I started knitting in earnest and realized how much knitting there was on the Internet. The same is true of thrummed mittens but that's another post. While searching out this pattern I discovered it was called Newfoundland mittens because the pattern supposedly had originated here. Who knew?

By the time I got to the thumb on the second mitt, I thought I was in trouble. It really looked like I wouldn't have enough. And these are mittens I plan on gifting to a very special little old lady who does a lot for our community. I didn't want these mitts to have two different coloured thumbs.

Well as it turns out I had enough.  In fact I had to magic knot the bit of yarn that was left over from the long tail cast on. (If you don't know what magic knot is, I urge you to look it up on YouTube along with Jane Richmond - it's brilliant) 

As an aside, I've always thought these mittens would look great inside out. If only someone would come up with a pattern 😉

Blogging difficulties

I seem to have reached a point in my blogging life, where I have stalled out. I'm pretty certain that I know the reason for this. Instagram!

I've gotten in to Instagram big time. It seems to fill that need to document things that blogging was doing - but faster and with more instant feedback from viewers/readers. I'm sitting here realizing that I have several projects that I haven't blogged about and I'm noticing that I haven't even downloaded the photos to my computer. Its because I'm uploading to Ravelry directly from my iphone and I'm posting the photos to instagram as well. Its sort of like microblogging.

In any case, I do pledge to try to be better. To blog more often and to take more and better pictures. So, in that light I present to you my latest two finished projects. This tiny beret is from Hannah Fettig's book Mabel's Closet. I mentioned it in the previous blog post about the little cardigan - which, by the way is finished, I just haven't sewn on the buttons yet. Good thing the recipient is itty bitty and will be able to grow into it. I'll likely have gotten around to finishing it by the time she is big enough to wear it. I think this little striped beret will look very cute with it.

And here is a pair of mitts that I knit for Amy. The patters is from November Knits. I really like this book a lot. There are a lot of patterns in this book that I would like to knit. These mittens were challenging for me. I've never been very good a knitting mittens twisted stitches. Also, I'm pretty certain there is errata in the charts for the cable cross overs for the back of the mitten. I had to make up my own thing in order to get them to cross and look like they did in the photo. The sad thing is, I didn't figure it out until I was on the second mitten. Oh well. I think you would have to look very closely to see the mistake. Amy likes them and thats all that matters right?

Mittens from the Corespun

Very rarely do I knit something with my handspun. I made a resolution that every second project that I cast on needs to be in handspun. I did this in order to force myself to do something with my ever growing stash of this gorgeous stuff. Usually it sits for years until something strikes me. But not the handspun from the last post. My first attempt at corepinning was a success! And I was immediately inspired to knit with it. And I knew just the pattern. Its called Either/Or and its by one of my favorite designers Lee Meridith. I bought her new ebook called Remixed when it was in production. I loved getting a pattern emailed to me every week or so. And this pattern book does not disappoint. So far, I've knit two of them - Either/Or and Wild is the Wind. Both patterns are written as a recipe - whereby you plug your gauge numbers into the pattern and knit away. Lee usually includes different options in her patterns too. The hat pattern could have been knitted beanie style or beret style. It could have had a rounded top or a pointy top. The mittens could be full mittens or fingerless. Long cuff or short cuff. Garter edge or full on garter. See what I mean? The possibilities are endless. I'm a big fan. This type of pattern is perfect for handspun and its perfect for the irregularities that come with corespinning. You won't see things like knit for 22 rows in these patterns, but you will see things like knit until it comes to the top of you index finger. You end up with the most custom made and perfectly fitting accessories. So, without further adieu, I present my Corespun Either/Or mittens.

Here they are, laying on the snowbank in front of my house. Yes, still snow! Still need mittens.

Here they are, as I'm finishing off the second cuff. This photo gives you an idea of the clever construction. You actually cast on at the thumb!! Its not the first time I've knit mittens like that, believe it or not. I knit Target Wave mittens by Norah Gaughan. Don't get me wrong, I love Norah's patterns but these paled in comparison. They looked funny and even worse, felt funny when worn. But not the Either/Or....they fit like...well, a glove.

Mittens for Me finished!

But they are unlikely to remain mine. Stepdaughter Nat has been bumming asking for a pair of fingerless gloves for quite some time now. She has taken up curling this winter and fingerless mitts are just the thing. So, I will give these to her with a good heart.

Her father is modelling them here, which just goes to show how stretchy this pattern is. The design is from Laura Lineman of the Knitgirllls podcast. They were doing a KAL on their ravelry board, and I find it hard to resist a good KAL especially one involving mittens. Lol. You can find the pattern here. The blue yarn is Malabrigo Sock that I think I got in Montreal, but am not 100% sure. The orange is Tanis Fibre Arts purple label (with cashmere) that I bought from Jenny at A Good Yarn in St. John's.

And in other news, I'm working on these after thought heel socks that Im knitting using the yarn from the last blog post. I love, love, love knitting this yarn. But I'm currently stalled on these because I didn't measure my feet correctly and they are too short after putting in the heel. I need to undo the toes and knit them longer, which is easy enough, but right now, I just couldn't be bothered.

They sure are pretty though, aren't they?

And then there were mittens!

I finished my second pair of Cloisinee mittens from the yarn harlot. I'm much happier with this pair. I did the clusters much better. That is, I followed the directions properly instead of trying to do my own thing. I don't know why I thought I knew better than the yarn harlot. She's called the yarn harlot for a reason - she knows these things.

I also had another good mail day this week. I stalked this etsy shop - and I mean stalked. I was hitting the F5 (refresh) button every 30 seconds or so. And literally within 2 minutes of posting her update, her shop was empty. Thats how in demand these balls of yarn are. Well, who can blame people for wanting these gorgeous colours? I can't believe I managed to get two of them!!

The green one is called Green a Go Go and the other one is called Kaboom! I love them so much. I love the colours, I love the way they are hand wound, I love the way the stripes are exactly even. I've already cast on for a pair of socks in the Kaboom colourway. They'll be my purse knitting. But I want to knit on them all of the time, the colours are that fun.

And another finished object this week. This time in my handspun! Yay me for keeping my New Year's resolution

The pattern for the cowl can be found here. I did make a few changes to the patterns (mostly due to lack of yarn) but I also left out 3 edging stitches. And to be honest, I'm not sure why there were edging stitches there since this pattern was written and knit in the round. I'm happy with the result too. It might even be a gift for someone. Yes, I'm getting better at sharing the handspun love!

Again with the Mittens

Like I said in the last post - its mitten season. And Amy's birthday is coming up. She specifically asked for mittens for her birthday so here is another pair that I made. The pattern is the Yarn Harlot's and I like them a lot. I had a tough time with the little clusters on the cuff, and you can tell in this pair.

But I think I've mastered it on the second pair. I've not finished them yet, but need to get at it, since I want to give them as a gift on Monday.

I've also been spinning. Here is my latest.

Boy, did this stuff ever plump up when setting the twist. Its navajo plied BFL
combed top from etsy seller Mulberry Fibers. I only spun up half of this bump and I loved how it turned out. I've got a hankering to spin some other things so I wanted to clear up the wheel. The Knit Girllls are doing a spin along featuring different fibers and this month they are spinning Shetland! I've ordered some but haven't gotten it yet. I'll post pictures when I do. The point of the spin along is to sample different fibers. I've spun BFL, polwarth, merino, corriedale, targhee (see last post!) alpaca, and silk blends. This seems to be pretty much common fare in the spinning world. The most different thing I spun was tessewater and I'm thinking I should have done a bit more research to see how this fiber likes to be spun because what I ended up with was like rope.


I also finished up a hat!

Its another Icing Swirl hat by Ysolda. This is such a fast knit and the result is so on trend right now. (Like I know...hahaha) Probably another gift for Amy. I do like to spoil her with handknits. She does appreciate it. Since I've gotten something off the needles, that means I can cast on for something new. In keeping with my resolution it should be in handspun. I'd like to participate in Diane of Knitabulls podcast February KAL that she is hosting. Her viewers are knitting one of three valentine/heart themed knits. I do have some pinkish handspun that would be enough for the La La Love You Cowl. This is a cute cowl that would be a great gift for someone. We'll see!

It's Mitten Season

We have been having what the older folks around here call an 'old fashioned winter'. This means colder than usual and more snow than usual. I've been living in Labrador for over 20 years now and I can actually remember the old fashioned winters. I know weather does seem to go in cycles, but the past two winters were really scary and to me is proof positive of global warming. We actually had our first official green Christmas last Christmas and the Churchill river didn't freeze up until well into January.

Which brings me to this winter. No evidence of global warming so far. We've had a tonne of snow and temperatures have made me extremely grateful that I now have a car with auto start. Long stretches of temperatures in the minus 25 degrees Celcius have become the norm this winter. So much so that when the temperature warms up to minus 10 it feels downright balmy.

Which brings me to knitting. And mittens in particular. I need more, my daughter needs more, everyone I know could stand more mittens this winter. And if pressed to name what my most favorite thing to knit is, I would say mittens everytime. They are the most useful thing especially when living in the climate that I do. I knit a lot of them, but it seems that the people who are important to me (Yes, Amy, I'm talking about you!) also lose a lot of them. So, I'm in a crunch to knit more. And in keeping with my resolution of every second project being handspun, here are my handspun mittens.

The pattern is called Warmest Mittens and can be found as a free download on Ravelry. Very simple yet effective pattern. I don't really need to use a pattern at this point in my knitting career and I did alter this pattern to fit the yarn a little. I'm sure the intended recipient will like these since the cuff is quite long and that was her very specific request.

I like them a lot. They are obviously not matched as is often the case when knitting with handspun. That dark stripe in the middle of the right mitten really surprised me as I don't even remember the roving having any dark spots.

I recently purchased this roving when I was in Halifax. It is targhee and its the first time I've ever spun this fiber. I enjoyed spinning it. I was going for a worsted weight and adjusted my sidekick to have a quicker uptake and it worked! The yarn was nice and consistant. The lady at the Loop in Halifax told me that Targhee is a decendant of Corriedale, and it felt exactly like spinning Corriedale. Its nice to try different fibers.

Here is what the yarn looked like right off the bobbin. Totally over spun or over plied but definitely not a well balanced yarn.

But after a nice soak and a few whacks it ended up being a very nice plump springy worsted weight yarn. I even have enough left over for another pair.

Silk Hankies

Last February, the yarn harlot posted about knitting with silk hankies. I was intrigued. Her mittens turned out beautiful. Then Caryn from 'Round the Twist' video cast started knitting mittens with silk hankies. Her's were also beautiful. Again, I was intrigued. Then Amy from 'Stockinette Zombies' video cast also started a pair. Finally, I gave in. I ordered 1 oz from etsy seller Mulberryfibers. I loved the look of the hankies as they were.

When you separate each hankie, you can see how thin each one is. I understand that they stretch each cocoon from the silk worm over a square box, and keep adding on cocoons, layering them and layering them until you have the silk hankies. These are definitely not the silk hankies that a refined gentleman would keep in his suit pocket.

And then, to get the 'yarn' I poked a finger through the center of the hankie layer and pulled and pulled on each length (not unlike predrafting fibre to prepare for spinning) until I got a thickness of yarn that I was happy with. Like this.

Then I knit them into a beautiful pair of fingerless gloves. I am so happy with them. I made them fingerless because I was afraid that I didn't have enough of the fiber to make full mittens - but I did. Oh well, I guess I'll save the leftover hankies and maybe blend them into something else with the drumcarder.

They are so light, but yet warm too. I've already ordered two more ounces of the silk hankies from Mulberry fibers to make another pair!