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

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

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

Organizing

My front hall closet has been sitting for years with the paint stripped with the heat gun, and new shelves, waiting for the stripper and painting. We finally got to this project the week before school started and continuing on for a long 3 weekends (the only time either of us had free to work on it). This is where I store a lot of my hand-knits, and they needed some organization.

I took them all out and sorted them according to weight and seperated out the shawls.

Then, I put them in bins, some open and some with zippered tops. A lot of knitting and memories here. One sweater even dating back to Freshman year of college (and it just so happens to still be one of my favorites).

They fit nicely into the closet and now it is much easier for me to choose a sweater since I placed them vertically in the bins rather than on top of each other. Easy to just pull out a bin and quickly look at what is there.

I have a few more sweaters in my clothes closets, but this is the bulk of what I normally wear.

Michigan Fiber Fest

A couple of weeks ago we attended the Michigan Fiber Fest while spending the weekend in Michigan with my daughter’s family. We took my grandson and thought that he would be interested in the animals.

Apparently, it was not as exciting as we had hoped for. It didn’t help that he was eye level with many of the sheep bleeting out loudly.

It had been a few years since I had attended this event. I really like the fairgrounds, and there is ample room. However, the last time that I was there more animals were present, and there was a barn that had many types of animals that people could pet and talk with the owners. We even saw a camel and alpaca the last time. This year it was about the competitions. I am not sure if the reduced amount of animals has to do with Covid, less small farms, or what.

We saw rabbits, sheep and goats.

Since we had a 2 year old with us, I had limited time to spend at the market. I only bought a couple of items, as you can probably guess I need no more yarn. I did like these socks.

This beautiful knitted coat caught my eye.

And for a few minutes I had a lovely chat with a woman who was demonstrating her beautiful sock machine. I lust after one of these.

We did get my grandson a stuffed alpaca, absolutely necessary. He calls it Paca.

This weekend we are heading to the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival, I have always loved that fair and market. And I will only have my husband, so more time to meander through the barns and shop.

Baby Surprise Again!

Why I was ever reluctant to knit this sweater in the first place, I do not know. When I knit it for the 1st time and gave it to my sister, she declared it her favorite baby sweater. Both of my kids have felt the same. It is easy to put on, the sleeves are short and do not get in the way. And, it “grows” a bit with the child.

I was late making this sweater for my nephew with his first baby. The colors were chosen to be feminine, but not too much.

I ended up not using the pink in the sweater itself, as it seemed to get lost. Instead, I just used it for the ties on the Heart hat.

Hoping that it still fits, as the baby is 3 months old, although she was tiny when born. Fingers crossed.

Sweetheart Part II

I had yarn left over from the Sweetheart socks that I posted in April. Was it really that long ago that I posted?! School got super busy, as I needed to cover a couple of additional classes the later part of the semester. Then summer came, with summer came Architecture Camp, and then vacation with my son and family visiting. Hard to believe that most of my summer is gone. I intend to make the best of the remaining few weeks, which includes catching my blog up.

While I have not had a ton of time for knitting and weaving, and absolutely none for spinning, I did finally finish these socks. The reason that it took so long was all the ends. It was a bit overwhelming, and I just worked on them when I had spare time with lots of light. Finished them up on Saturday when my knitting group met here in my garage.

I opted to make the toes striped and used reverse stockinette stitch. I thought that the inside of the socks was as beautiful as the right side, and wanted to embrace that.

Here are the original socks from the kit. Happy that i was able to get 2 pairs out of this. I measuredd to use every last inch of the colored yarn.

Now I have another yarn package from Moonglow that I am working on. Debating how to add the pink accent color into this.

#Sweetheartsockalong

#Moonglowyarns

Sweetheart Socks

I finished my Sweetheart socks, and could not be more pleased with them. They are so fun and playful. I have not decided yet if I will keep these or not.

I reversed the color sequence to make them a bit more interesting.

There were a lot of ends to weave in! When doing the heart section, I had woven them in as i knit, but it still required some more fastening.

And, there is enough yarn left for some anklet socks. I think that I like the rainbow in this sock using less rows better.

#moonglowyarns

#sweetheartsockalong

Sweetheart Socks

I have been working away on my Sweetheart Socks, but did not finish in February. I used size 1 needles, and 64 stitches. The socks looked beautiful and I love the heart pattern that I designed. I started with small hearts, but they just didn’t look quite right.

I enlarged the hearts and worked with a 16 stitch repeat. One heart open and one solid. On the solid heart, I added an extra row with the open center stitch.

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I knit one entire sock with size 1 needles for the colorwork, top sock. It looked too tight and did not fit well when I put them on. Before ripping that one out, I knit the second sock using a size 2 needle for the colorwork section, bottom sock. I think that it turned out much better.

I adore these colors, and the feet with have solid bands of each color. This has been a fun knit, wish that I had more time for them. I will finish soon.

#moonglowyarns

#sweetheartsockalong