Arched Gusset Mittens

I saw these mittens on Instagram I believe, and was so intrigued that I ordered a ton of yarn from Purl Soho to make them as gifts.

The pattern Arched Gusset Mittens, free on Purl Soho website, is ingenious. I ordered several colors, and 2 greens by mistake, so I chose to knit up the first pair in green. I really like how they turned out, and the fit is wonderful. Next time, however, I will make a ribbed cuff, as this is a bit loose.

I wish that I had a photo of them on my hand so that you could see how well they fit. I gave them to my sister over the Holidays. Need to make a pair for myself.

#PurlSoho

#archedgussetmittens

Train Mittens

My DIL asked me to make a new pair of mittens for my grandson, as he had grown out of those from last season. When we were visiting in November, I asked what kind of mittens he would like, and his older sister piped up: “Train Mittens!”. A search of Ravelry brought up a couple of ideas;

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/rainbow-express—real-train-mittens

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/victors-train-selbu-mittens

But we settled on these:

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/tuut-tuut-said-the-train

While the pattern was free, it was no longer posted. The author said that you would message her for a chart. It wasn’t until we were visiting after Christmas that I finally had the time to work on these mittens. Since I was planning to do them on a train trip with the kids, I needed the chart sooner, so I decided to make my own chart, using this as a guide.

I had a couple of false starts, and needed to change the needle size and the stitch count. But while riding on a long train ride, these were coming to fruition. I used these old mittens as a guide to size up from. All my knitting boos were at home.

First mitten was finished, and I left my handwritten pattern at the house! So the mitten became my pattern for the second one.

Can you spot the difference between the 2 mittens? One has the blue yarn held in front, and one the black. I always knit Fair-Isle with both yarns in my left hand, and only use my right hand if I have a third color. I had never noticed a dominance before. I am wondering if it has anything to do with being on DPN’s as opposed to circular needles. It will also be interesting to see how/if these even out in tension as he wears them.

I made the back and thumbs very simple.

And Voila, finished before we left. I opted to knit the train engine on both mittens, as opposed to a tender on one of the mittens. If I did it again, I would reverse the pattern. When I gave them to my grandson, he put them on and said CRASH as he smashed his two little hands together.

Mostly knit on Amtrak riding through the beautiful Colorado Rockies.

#trainmittens

#daleofnorway

#babyull

Advent Socks

This is the second year that I chose to knit the Advent socks. You knit one stripe/day during Advent. There is enough yarn for a second pair of socks. This is the perfect Advent required knitting, as it only takes a few minutes each day, and at the end you have a pair of socks to keep or gift. I chose a white accent color for the cuffs, heels and toes.

And, I did not peek until December 1st.

In my previous posts I documented the progress, along with opening my other Advent boxes. Here is the finished pair of socks, I knit 2 at a time (with DPN’s). I used an afterthought heel with a gusset. Need to modify my gusset a bit on the next pair.

And here is the comparison to last years socks, which I gifted to my husband for Christmas last year. This years socks are sitting in the to-be-gifted pile.

This year feels like much brighter colors, although you can see some of the same colors in both socks.

Looking forward already to next year! And I still have the yarn for 2 additional pairs of socks.

#TheCozyKnitterAdvent

#24-StripeAdventSkein

Advent Completed

Boy, I got too busy at the end of school then the Holiday rush. I did not post the rest of my Advent openings or my Advent socks. Here goes in one big post. I now wish that I had posted daily.

As a reminder, the Advent boxes with fiber related items are ones that I packed for myself. I did several of them months ago, and while I remembered a few items, I did succeed in happily surprising myself.

Day 13

Day 14

Day 15

Day 16

Day 17

Day 18

Day 19

Day 20

Day 21

Day 22

Day 23

Day 24 & 25

Opened these on the 24th, as we were heading out to spend the Holiday weekend with our daughter.

And here is most of the items all put together:

This was fun to have something to open every day. I made myself knit the daily stripe on the Advent sock before I allowed myself to open any packages.

I did get carried away with the daily yarn Advent, especially given that I had nothing in mind to knit with them. While I love the colors and transitions, I would only do this again with a pattern in mind, and knit each day.

Here is the total Hue Loco transition, I absolutely love it. Thinking of a simple garter stitch Faroese shawl to show off all the beautiful colors. The boxes were very cute to open.

And here is the Moonglow yarn Advent. I had not planned on purchasing a second one, but when I heard the word Rainbow, I was hooked. These were all small numbered bags inside a larger tote, and came with a large skein of white yarn for accent.

Where it all started at the beginning of September.

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#HueLocoAdvent

#MoonglowYarnsAdvent

#TheCozyKnitterAdvent

#24-StripeAdventSkein

Lost Sock

I started knitting these socks for my SIL last week. He has large feet, so they were a lot of knitting on the foot. We went away for the weekend and I took the newly started second pair to work on. While knitting in the car, I quickly realized that I had forgotten the first sock to match. No matter, as I had the pattern and color changes easily memorized, so I started knitting the second pair. When we got home, I looked and looked for the first sock. Even my husband helped, but it was nowhere to be found. I knew that it was in the house somewhere. This befuddled me, and I had a restless sleep over a lost sock, but kept knitting away on the second.

I have plenty of orphan socks from the washing machine, but this was a first to lose one of the socks as I was knitting up the pair. I normally keep them together in the same knitting bag.

I finally resorted to my friend Becky’s all-time cure for finding lost objects. Say the following while turning around 3 times.

“Tony, Tony turn around I’ve lost the sock and it cant be found.”

I had to text Becky to say that it wasn’t working, and with her review while I was sitting in bed, low and behold there was the sock. Sitting amongst the patterned cover on my husband’s side of the bed. He had been sleeping beneath it for the past 2 nights! Luckily neither he nor the cats were stabbed by the darning needle that was still hooked in the toe.

It was like a “Where’s Waldo event. This made me so happy.

This is the 4th of my #BackyardChicken socks from #HueLoco. There is still a bag more of roosters and hens to come. The yarn is the Swedish Flower Hen. There were lots of photos, but I thought this looked the closest to how she dyed the yarn.

It is knitting up a little pinker than I had thought it would. I am trying to knit each of these Chicken socks a little differently. I opted for cuff stripes and alternating toe colors. Here is my progress thus far.

I am alternating the purple adn green stripes from sock to sock. The toes will also be alternate colors. Should have them finished in plenty of time for Christmas.

#HueLocoBackyardChicken

Counting up, 1/2 way there

I have now finished through Day 12 of the Advent box, yarn sets and striped sock yarn, I want to find a pattern for the Advent mini-skeins. School is winding down, and I think that I will have time now to start one of the Advent mini-skeins. the Hue Loco one is calling me. My afternoon is searching for that perfect pattern.

Day 9

Day 10

These were Alpaca socks that I bought at the Michigan Fiber Fest last summer. Will be very cozy for the winter.

Day 11

Koigu skein of yarn, pretty Christmas colors. Destined to become a pair of fingerless mitts.

Day 12

I have not finished the 12th Advent stripe on the socks. Normally I knit top down socks, and have my lengths down to a science. Starting at the toe is not my go-to and I am not sure where exactly to put the salvage yarn to do the after-thought heel. I am thinking mid-point of the day 11 stripe. Still muddling this over. And the Herman the German roasted almonds are one of my favorite treats!

#HueLocoAdvent

#MoonglowYarnsAdvent

#TheCozyKnitterAdvent

#24-StripeAdventSkein

Caboodle

Caboodle is an informal way to talk about an entire bunch of some item or category, frequently within the phrase “the whole kit and caboodle,” which has the same meaning. You might say you love everything about movies — the whole caboodle — or buy all the ice cream from your neighborhood shop, the entire caboodle.

I grew up using the phase: “The whole kit and caboodle”. I am not sure that I ever knew what that really meant.

Apparently, the phrase began as “the whole kit and boodle.” Kit meaning collection and boodle is thought to have derived from the Old-English word for bottel – meaning a bunch or bundle. Researchers believe the phrase morphed to “kit and caboodle” for alliterative purposes.

If spelt with a K, there are several Urban slang definitions that are too offensive to write here.

Now I find out that there is another definition for the word Caboodle. Apparently, it is used as a term for a train case.

The Caboodles Voyager train case is an ideal bag for those who like their luggage to have a touch of pizazz and glamor. Robin Raven, Forbes, 20 Apr. 2021

Over Thanksgiving, I had my new leather knitting case at my daughter’s house. She told me that she liked my Caboodle. I was not sure where that term came from, although she swears that I used the terms in reference to a case. In any case, this is the Caboodle that she likes. Me too.

And inside my Caboodle on that day was the shawl that I was making with Gauge Dyeworks yarn, Colorwheel.

Blocking out

And finished, this has become my favorite “shawl de jour”. The bright colors keep me happy on these short dark days.

I used the concept from Boneyard Shawl by Steven West. He had a reverse stockinette every 12th row, I opted to do this every-time the color changed. When I got toward the 1/2 way point in the color change, I just knit the shawl in garter stitch. Unlike many shawls, this looks great either side.

#GuageDyeWorks

#Colorwheel

#BoneyardShawl

#StevenWest

5,6,7,8

I need to catch up on my Adventing. I continue to surprise myself with what I put into the Advent re-used box.

Day 5

And the Advent self-striping socks from Cozy Knitter. This is absolutely the best Advent item. It is a very busy time of the year for me, and I can always find the time to knit 4 rows on the 2 pairs of socks. By Christmas, I will have a pair of socks to gift out. As a bonus, this yarn will make 2 pair of Advent socks. I still have the remainder from last year to knit up.

Day 6

Yummy caramels

Day 7

Needle point guards, and more beautiful mini-skeins.

Day 8

One of many Coco Knits products, stitch markers. And the Moonglow rainbow continues.

#HueLocoAdvent

#MoonglowYarnsAdvent

#TheCozyKnitterAdvent

#24-StripeAdventSkein

Adventing

Last year I participated in Knitting Advent for the first time. I did the Advent socks by Cozy Knitter, and the beautiful Advent box by Twice Sheared Sheep. I knew that I wanted to participate again, and was not sure I would find a knitter’s box for Advent, so I chose to take the box from Twice Sheared Sheep last year, and refill it myself. I started in the Spring, hoping to fill all of the 25 boxes. I planned on surprising myself by forgetting what I had purchased.

And then, I signed up for the Cozy Knitter Advent socks again. I truly enjoyed this last year, the perfect knitting challenge in this hectic time period. and the bonus, on December 25th, I had a pair of handknit socks that could be gifted out.

Next I was sucked down the rabbit hole. First it was Hue Loco and their Advent yarn collection, I thought that was enough. And then, Moonglow Yarns had to go and post their rainbow Advent. I was hooked again.

Here are all my Advents together. This is giving me something to look forward to during these busy times.

Day 1 & Day 2 together.

The project bag was purchased last summer at the Michigan Fiber Fest. I love the sheep fabric.

This is the Advent yarn all spun up. I was not able to start knitting until today, but was able ot catch up on both socks. I opted to start toe-up, which is not my preferred method. I find it very fiddly to get the toe started, but it worked. I figured that this would be easier to make the socks the correct length and use all of the yarn. Aren’t the colors so pretty!?

Day 2

Day 3

I surprised even myself with the CocoKnits needle gauge for Day 3. See, just a few months and I even forgot what I had purchased to surprise myself.

Day 4

i am finally caught up. Some Eucalan for my handknits, and more beautiful mini skeins that I am still at a loss as what to do with.

More Advent to come. I will attempt to blog on a more regular basis.

Happy Advent everyone. To those who do not celebrate, please have a safe and Peaceful December.

#HueLocoAdvent

#MoonGlowYarnsAdvent

#TheCozyKnitterAdvent

#24-StripeAdventSkein

Chicken #2

The second pair of Chicken Socks is finished. This time, Dark Cornish Rooster. I do seem to be attracted to the Roosters, I think that they have more vibrant colors.

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This was a highly variegated yarn, and therefore also needed a pattern to compliment that. Hence the Monkey Socks by Cookie A yet again. I cannot count how many times I have knit this pattern.

The sock knit up nicely, I opted to change the heel and cuff colors and do a striped toe.

One thing that was written in the original Monkey pattern, was after you have finished the heel and picked up the sides for the gusset, on the next row do a twisted stitch to firm that pick-up. I had glossed over that part on my first few Monkey socks, but when I tried it, I really liked the effect. Every sock that I make with a heel gusset now has this technique. If you look closely, it is visible in this photo.

#HueLoco

#BarnyardChickens

#MonkeySocks

#CookieA