Smitten with Mittens

Smitten with mittens.  

When I thought of that title I was so impressed with myself, that is until I realized that it was the title of the Vogue Knitting Fall 2008 magazine, where I have gotten my past few mitten projects from.  I already blogged about the Yellow Harvest and the Snowbird (Let it Snow) mittens that I have made from that particular magazine issue.  When I originally started looking at this magazine I questioned my decision to stop the subscription.  Let’s just say, that the next issue firmed my resolve.  

I am currently working on 2 different pair of mittens, the Green Autumn from the above magazine and the Chrysanthemum pattern available as a free download on Ravelry from Mary Ann Stephans of kidsknits.com.

I have not gotten very far on the Green Autumn mittens.  I am using Softie from Kimmet Croft Fibres.  I bought this a few years back, thinking that I was short on the natural for the Bohus mittens I was making for my daughter.  Never mind that they sent me an angora/Merino blend instead of the Shetland.  But it was a good mistake, as I knit up these mittens with this yarn.  I haven’t gotten to the main body, I need to take the pattern to the library and enlarge the chart.  My eyes are not what they used to be.  These I am definitely going to keep for myself.  I like the pattern repeat also, it will easily allow me to make these mittens large enough for my big paws.

The other mittens which I have been working on the past couple of days, are the Chrysanthemum mittens.  I was looking at other patterns by Mary Ann for mittens, as that is my obsession of the month (could it have anything to do with the bitter cold winter that we have had this year?).  This pattern was a free download from her website http://www.kidsknits.com, and she used Dale of Norway Heilo or Falk yarn for the project.  I had originally ordered all of my Heilo for the Polar Bear sweater from MaryAnn, and not wanting to run out while on vacation, got a couple of extra balls.  So, I had just enough of 3 colors to make these mittens, and they will coordinate perfectly with my Polar bear sweater.  Incidentally, I wore that sweater inside twice in the past 2 weeks thanks to the bitter cold, but it is one heavy pullover, and most likely will be an outside moderate winter temp sweater—so these mittens with it would be so cute to wear with it.  I am not sure however if they will fit my big hands.

I used a size 1 for the cuff (pattern calls for a size 2 for the whole mitten), and a size 2 1/2 needle for the main body of the mitten.  Anything larger than a 1 for the cuff made them huge.  On the second mitten I learned to make a bobbin for one of the colors in the braid (in this case I used blue since it was being broken off after the braid anyway).  That made it so much easier to do the braid, and not have this tangled mess of yarn.  I seem to remember doing this with a class on Estonian knitting with Nancy Bush years ago.  Like their sister sweater, these are very heavy mittens.  

I have gotten a lot done on these as I watch the historic proceedings on TV to impeach our ass of a Governor.  It will be good to have him gone, especially to not have to see his Elvis hairdo any more.  I cannot figure out who voted for this idiot one time let alone 2.  I should name these mittens Elvis in his honor…

The great sock giveaway

In January of 2007, coincidentally enough the same time that Barack Obama was planning a run for the White House, I made the decision to make socks for the entire year and give all of them away.  I was just starting the Socks that Rock sock club (which I did for 2 years).  I wanted to see how many socks I could make, have them all be different patterns, and then give them away all at the same time.  So, I started knitting.  And as I finished each new pair of socks, I put them in a drawer.  I knew most of the socks that were there, but forgot exactly how many I had made.  The one exception was when a friend asked me to make socks for someone who was very ill, and we were not sure how he would do (he is great now by the way, and wears my socks whenever he knows that he will see me).  January 2008 came, and I seemed to be too busy with life to get it together to pull all of the socks out and mail them off. So, I kept knitting through 2008.  Sock knitting was interrupted by sweaters and shawls, mittens and life.  But still the drawer kept getting fuller.  

At the beginning of this month, I pulled all of the socks out and laid them out on a table

I made little pieces of paper with names of those that I wanted to send socks to, and started matching the sock up with the recipient.  Much to my surprise, I initially did not have enough people for all of the socks.  I told my husband that I did not have as many friends as I thought.  So, I kept them out on the table, rearranged the tags, and kept adding. Then, I suddenly found that I had more names than socks, and I had the difficult task of pulling names out.  Never fear though, those people are on the list of the next recipients.  I pinned the name tags to the socks and took them out a couple of times to look at the matches.  My family was quite impressed with all of my sock knitting.

So today, I put together the letter and placed it with a pair of socks, addressed all of the packages, and took them to the post office.  The lady at the post office commented that many of the packages were to people in the neighborhood.  I said that sometimes it was nicer to get a package in the mail.  I also did not want to deliver these personally.  Now I have given the US Post Office a huge leap of faith that all of the packages will be delivered.  On my route, that would be a dubious task indeed, but I do not think that anyone is on my delivery route.

            

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the note that I sent along, with the fan photo of the socks shown above:

To my wonderful friends and family:

I started making socks in the early winter of 2007 and I promised myself to give all of the socks that I made during that year away.  I had planned on mailing them out last January, but the winter got away from me.  That allowed me to add to my giveaway pile during 2008.  I started this project when Obama was a little known senator seeking the presidency, and I cannot think of a more fitting time to send these off than when we now can say “President Obama”!

You all have been in my thoughts, and consequently in my knitting, over the past 2 years.  My well wishes and prayers are in every stitch of these socks.  

•     To those whom I have cheered alongside during the good times
•     To those whom I worried with during the difficult times
•     To my sisters (including marilyn and anita with spirit socks)
•     To friends new and old
•     To everyone who is there with an email, note, visit, coffee or wine (especially wine)

May these socks keep you warm and bring you comfort.   

Pink mittens

These mittens were made using the pattern Yellow Harvest from Vogue Knitting Fall 2008.  I was not initially drawn to these mittens, but went to them after finishing 2 other pair from the same magazine, and working on a third other.  I made them with Manos del Urguay, the yarn used for the sample in the magazine.  I had to use size 8 double points, and I am the girl who just loves 1’s and 0’s.  A size 3 seems big to me lately.  I had my doubts about how warm these would be given the large guage and bulky yarn.  But, they seem to be nice, and are sitting waiting to give to a dear friend for her birthday.

I took the yarn, nicely wound up, 2 needle sizes to check guage, and the magazine with me when we took my son back to college, and thought that I would get these completely finished in that trip.  Well, I checked guage, cast on, did the first part, and then went to look for the chart.   There was a very small note that said to see page 116, where they instructed you to either look online for the chart, or send a stamped addressed envelope envelope to the magazine.  When I did go online, there are several patterns from each issue that require charts not included in the magazine proper.  Very disappointing, and what is one to do in a few years when those charts are no longer available.  The stated  rational is to keep the pages in the magazine down.  I don’t buy it… if you purchase a magazine of patterns, everything that you need for those patterns should be included.  I had been reconsidering not letting my Vogue subscription expire, then this happened.  And 2 days later I recieved the winter issue, which was very disappointing.  I think that I am going to go back to purchasing magazines only when something really interests me, and just using books and purchased patterns.  I love the website Twist Collective, and that will be a new source of ideas for me.  That way, I purchase only what I am really interested in.

Oh, and I used up another skein of stash with this project!  It also got me interested in going back to work on a Manos sweater that has yarn sitting waiting for it.  It would be a very quick knit up.

President Obama

Boy that seems so good to say.  I meant to post yesterday, but spent most of the day watching the festivities.  What a lot of expectations Obama has being placed on him, I wish him all the best.  I loved the neighborhood ball in particular, and that the best entertainers, Obama’s first dance was there.   Hopefully the nation will heed the call to volunteerism, and helping neighbors.  

I watched a repeat of the inauguration ceremony and Obama’s speech last night.  It was better the second time, although I fell asleep before the end.  My husband was able to watch it with me.

I am very happy and hopeful.

Potpourri hat and mittens

I just sent off the Potpourri mittens and a matching hat using the same motifs, to my mother.  She normally spends her winters in Florida, but is stuck in cold Michigan right now.  I hope that these keep her warm.  My daughter is the model, she is much more photogenic than I.  I used the Koigu KKPM which is one of my favorite sock yarns, and it naturally transfers nicely to mittens and hats.  I think that I might try some of the Selvobutter mittens with the Koigu solid.  That would give a nice twist to the pattern.  

I would not knit up this pattern again.  It has some inherent problems, and there are way too many really cool patterns out there to waste time and yarn unless it is stunning.  The mittens are warm though, and the yarn is so soft.  Now on to new mittens, started the Green Autumn and the Yellow Harvest both from Vogue Knitting Fall 2008.  I was a bit upset by the chart for the Yellow Harvest not actually being in the magazine itself,  you have to go online to get it.  This became apparent as I was trying to work the mitten in the car on the way to take my son to college.  I have it on my computer now, so hopefully I can work it up a bit during this trip.

 

 

17 below socks

I woke up this morning to 17 degrees below 0 outside air temerature.   We left the heat turned up overnight, and normally only keep it set to 66 during the day.  So, most of the house was warm enough, but the floor and basements were colder.  I do not usually wear my knitted wool socks every day, as I am not always that cold.  This winter seems to be proving to be an exception. So, I have been going through the knitted socks in my drawer at a very quick pace, as has the rest of my family.  I need to wash them all this morning, so that we are covered for the weekend.  I was down to my last pair in the drawer, the ones that I do not wear on a regular basis.  Not because of any flaw in design or style, but because I consider them my “show socks” and pull them out only occasionally.  

When I took my first sock knitting class, I was so excited to be making socks.  Imagine my disappointment when we made only boring plain ribbed socks.  I was so energized to finish socks right away, but the class was 4 weeks long:  casting on and ribbing, turning the heel, the toe decreases, and kirchner stitch for the toes to finish.  I had 4 pairs of socks going for just that one class since I needed something to work on constantly.  I only purchased one pair of knitting needles, and had to keep transferring socks to holders as we learned each new step.  These were the socks that I had imagined making, and did finally about a year later.  They were a bit of work, as I am not a huge fan of the diagonal knitting that was required to do the entrelac cuff.  I used 5 colors for each sock, and made the fair isle portions entirely different.  So they match in a way, but the patterns and color arrangements are unique to each sock.  These were made with Dale of Norway Falk yarn, so they do not have that little bit of nylon for wear and stability.  They are, however, very warm, albeit a bit thick for shoes.  They do work perfectly in this weather in the house with slippers and inside my Uggs outside.  I fear wearing them out for all of the work that they involved, so I only save them for “special” occasions.  Not to mention that they require hand washing, and not just the gentle cycle on the machine.

40 years and 5 days

How long did those mittens take to make?

40 years and 5 days.

I finally got to use this answer the other night.  When I had mentioned to my sister Jill that I sometimes get rude comments regarding the speed of my knitting and I did not know how to answer the question of how long something took, she gave me this answer.  Mostly the questions are just curious or rhetorical.  There are sweaters that have taken me literally years to make, as I have lost interest in the knitting, hated sewing them up, or just moved on to the newest exciting project.  I guess people are trying to gauge my speed verses theirs.  In the past it has sometimes been accompanied by rude comments such as to whether I had a life or did anything else.  Admittedly, there are times when I have not had a non-knitting life, as when I was obsessed to finish my Polar Bear sweater in 2 weeks, or the birthday gift of a stranded Dale of Norway for my husband in 3 weeks.  But, those are the exceptions rather than the norm.

Back to 40 years and 5 days.  My sister is a potter (and recently rediscovered knitter), and when I told her about this she told me the story of Japanese Potters who spend an entire lifetime mastering a technique, and they can throw a perfect bowl in 5 minutes.  They answer the question of how long with “40 years and 5 minutes”.  So, my speed is a factor of a lifetime of knitting and loving it.

This is a hat that I am knitting up for my mother to go with the Potpourri mittens, using the same stranded pattern.  I hope to finish today and get this mailed out while it is still so cold here.  This is her first winter in years in the cold Michigan weather, and if I had thought about it, this would have made the perfect Christmas present.  Oh well, it is always nice to get a package in January also.

It is very cold here right now.  I wore my Polar Bear sweater for the first time on Monday to SnB, I finally sewed all of the ends in over the weekend.  It was too hot for that day.  But today, in our cold house, it should be just right.

Stranded mittens

I just finished, and blocked out the Potpourri mittens, from the Fall 2008 Vogue magazine.  I plan on giving these to my mother, along with a hat if I can finish that in short order.  I was less than enthralled with these mittens.  If I am going to take the time to do another pair of stranded mittens I am either going to go to my Selbuvotter book, or the Magnificent Mittens by Anna Zillbourg.  Those patterns are much more thought out in my opinion.  I had looked online to see comments on Ravelry about these mittens priior to starting, and should have taken heed about the thumb being a bit wider than I would like.  I made them out of Koigu, part of my knitting from stash 2009 mantra.  (Can I really keep this?).  The look is very different from the photo in the magazine, as that was baby blue/white and orange.  Using the Koigu, however, gave me the same solid variegation that is so appealing.  I think that I want to try some of this yarn with other mitten patters.  It just adds another layer of interest.

I am including 3 different photos of these mittens.  It is amazing how much the background changes the color of the mittens.  The main body is really green with dark purple (as shown on the cherry table).  I was not able to get a close-up of the mittens, my camera skills seem to be lacking for this thing.  The thumb pattern does transition nicely from the main body, and in the photos you can hardly notice that one thumb is up and one is down.  

 

Speaking of knitting from stash, when I mentioned to my sister (who has just rediscovered knitting after many years) that I was going to not purchase yarn for this entire year, her question was why?  When I said that I had enough yarn to do me just fine, she was a bit surprised.  She obviously hasn’t heard about stash.  She also is a much more pragmatic person than I, moves more frequently, and is more frugal.  I suspect that she will be one of those persons who only buys for the next project.  I used to be like that, not sure how exactly I fell off the wagon.  I think that Stitches did a lot for that, having friends at yarn stores that are like drug dealers, and the internet and the exposure to so much more out there that I want to make.  I think that keeping sock yarn, baby yarn, and mitten type yarn in abundance is a fine thing, but sweater kits and yarn packets is too much.

Let’s see how long I can hold out…

I am being tested

Just when I made a resolution not to purchase any new yarn in 2008, I am being sorely tested.  I saw this coat on Ravelry, knitted up by one of my friends.  This let me to join a wonderful new online magazine, with many great designs by many of my favorite designers.

http://www.twistcollective.com

This online magazine appears to be exactly what I was looking for.  I had let the subscription on Vogue and Interweave Knits lapse.  The latter particularly has been a disappointment the past 18 months, projects seem to be too simplistic, not a lot that I would consider knitting.  Then this came, and I am so tempted to make this sweater:

The sweater is called Sylvie, and can be purchased online.  Every photo of this sweater knit up that I have seen has been beautiful.  My big problem is that it used a bulky weight yarn, and I do not have the requisite quantity in my stash.  I normally would never use a bulky yarn, but this pattern is changing my mind.  Can I wait until 2010 to knit this up?

The pitfalls of stash knitting

I finally finished my “Let it Snow mittens”, actually called Snowbirds in the Vogue Fall 2008 issue.  They are very pretty and warm.  I spoke earlier about using white Baby Ull instead of the natural that I should have, and had to rip back the top of one mitten.  I have now discovered that I also used Baby Cashmerino for the main body of the first mitten.  I was so anxious to start these, that I just gathered what I thought were partial skeins of the same yarn (both color and type).  The Cashmerino I should have caught, as it is a tubular yarn instead of the plied yarn that Baby Dale is.  Well, the mittens are staying as is, if you look closely you could see a difference in the yarn on the left mitt.  The real difference came when I just washed them in preparation for blocking.  The Mitten with the Cashmerino was much heavier and more stable in the wash water.  It will be interesting to see how they block out and wear.  I am not taking them out again, that is an exercise that I repeated too many times for this little pair of mittens.  The other noticeable thing was the slight change in dye lots on the Natural Baby Ull.  Just lessons to heed as I prepare for my year of stash knitting.

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The mittens are beautiful on the inside also…

Now, I want to make a second pair from the same magazine:  Potpourri by Tanis Gray.  I am going to try and use some of the many colors of Koigu that I have in reserve.  I am not able to find a natural color in the Koigu, so I think that I will use a grey-purple as my base.  This will give the mittens a very different feel.  I think that this merits a swatch test.