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.
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;
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.
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.
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.
Pamela Moriarty are discussing. 
Knitting before Knitting was Cool 
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