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

Mittens for Izumi

Last Fall my DIL asked me to make mittens for Izumi. I realized that I had not posted them when I showed the pink mittens in my previous post. I made her a pair of mittens from Annemor Sundbo’s book:

There is a new version of the book out, not sure how many of the patterns are different.

The pattern that I chose was Starfish. It was knit with Dale of Norway Baby Ull (no longer available), and I made each mitten with the opposite main color.

These are warm due to the stranding.

And then, I made her a pair of mittens with yarn from a yarn club. Pink with Purple spots.

I should have known that the pink ones would be her favorite. At least her little brother can eventually use the other mittens. The next mittens will be pink, I have learned my lesson.

Lloyd

I finished my poodle mittens about a week ago.  This pattern had been gifted to me on my Birthday a couple of years ago.  I used Dale Tiur.  They are big, but so are my hands!

 

And for the inside of the thumbs, in honor of the coolest poodle ever…

 

To be used next winter, that I will always remember this smiling mug!  I miss him so.

Now I can show you!

Now I am able to brag blog about these gifts that I sent out to Ria.

The first was a Baby Surprise Jacket that I knit using some of my early handspun.  Mrs. Peterson was visiting and gave me the idea last summer, and I do think that it came out well.  Jill skyped with me when they were opening the presents, and it fits Ria perfectly.  She, however, was only interested in trying to eat the buttons.

Pattern: Baby Surprise jacket
Pattern Source: The Opinionated Knitter (book)
Yarn: Handspun from early spinning days
Needles: US 6
Date Started: 8/8/13
Date Finished: 8/19/13
Finished Dimensions: 58″ wide x 32″ deep

The second sweater was a Dale of Norway, my go-to for baby gifts, they are just so beautiful.  This is a bright pink and tangerine, with bright accents.  Will look beautiful with her gorgeous dark coloring.

Pattern: #14206 Dale of Norway Pattern
Pattern Source: Booklet #142
Yarn: Dale of Norway Baby Ull
Needles: US 1 & 2
Date Started: 8/8/13
Date Finished: 8/19/13
Finished Dimensions: 12-24 months

And lastly, this was an SOS from my sister Diane who was out the past couple of weeks taking care of Ria, a walk on a cool day necessitated some mittens for her hands.  Apparently, hard to come by in California.  I was hoping that these would fit, since I had no little models here to try them on, and they were the perfect size (she is 6 months old).  These were so fun to make, it is a free pattern from Knituition.  I changed the pattern on the back of the mitts to match the edge on the front, and to avoid long float carries every other row.  These will definitely be on my “to knit for new babies” list.

Pattern: Nordic Baby Mitts
Pattern Source: Free from Knituition
Yarn: Dale of Norway Baby Ull, blue and mint green
Needles: US 2
Date Started: 8/8/13
Date Finished: 8/19/13
Finished Dimensions: baby 6-9 months

My extra special knitted wrapping paper held the 2 sweaters, I save this only for special hand knit goods.  It was a birthday gift from a friend a couple of years ago, I wish that I could find more…

Latvian Mitts

When I took the “Twined Knitting” class from Beth Brown Reinsel a few weeks ago I purchased this kit for making a pair of Latvian Fingerless Mitts.

I finally completed them, they are really stunning.  As you can imagine, there were quite a number of ends to weave in, I spent one entire SnB night just weaving them in.  I used the needle for the smaller size, so they do not fit my hands.  These are being gifted shortly. There might be enough yarn left to knit another pair…

Pattern: Latvian Fingerless Mitts
Pattern Source: Beth Brown Reinsel
Yarn: Brown Sheep Nature Spun Sport, 5 colors
Needles: US 4
Date Started: 3/9/13
Date Finished: 3/25/13
Finished Dimensions: Women’s small/medium

Handspun Mittens

I made these mittens for Cass for Christmas.  The fiber is handspun Shetland from Into The Whirled.  I do love spinning Shetland.

I spun two braids of the multi and ended up getting a third braid from someone’s destash to get a nice 3-ply yarn.

They knit up into a fun pair of mittens (and I have enough left to make a pair for myself), the pattern is my own standard improvised as I knit pattern.  This one was on size 3 needles, cast on 48 sts, rib for 24 row, 6 rows of straight stitch, increase for the thumb to 24 stitches and knit to desired length.

So now he can give my Mom back the ones that I gave to her!

The Accidental Knitted Christmas

Knitted gifts were not on the radar for Christmas this year. I was not interested in the stress of completing them, nor trying to decide what to make. Then, I decided to make a pair of socks for Dan this year from one of my sock clubs (thinking of how to stuff his stocking is always a challenge). Then we were going to visit my Mom and Cass, they are so hard to think of things to get and always appreciate knitted items. On the way back we were stopping at my brother’s house, and I had that beautiful Dale of Norway outfit was started when my niece was born (she is 2 1/2 now, luckily I made the larger size). The booties for a soon to be niece/nephew, and lastly—the cute sweater for another niece and her American Girl Doll. Well, none were completed on time and in 3 instances I had to wrap up an unfinished gift and ask for it back to finish. Here they are, to be discussed in length on a future post.

Drumroll please….

I think I will plan ahead next year. And start in June.