Shetland - Yes Please!

First off, a wholehearted "Thank YOU!" to all you commented on my last post.  I usually respond to each comment, but there were so many I thought I'd thank you all at once.  You all made my day with your sweet kind words.  I read them all aloud to my husband who commented "Knitters are so cool."  How right he is!

Speaking of my husband, he brought home one of his knitted vests (he keeps them at work so they're on hand when he inevitably gets cold) that he stopped wearing because it was too short.  It's knit out of the first yarn I ever spun.  I used MN Shetland fiber as the Scots in me loves the heritage connection we have and well, it's super easy to spin too.  Needless to say I did not want to frog this sweater vest, but it was knit from the bottom up making me unsure on how to lengthen it.  The internet came to my rescue and with a video no less!  Seriously, the internet is wonderful for all the knitting information and videos you can find.  Following the Knitting Daily video I picked up a row of stitches just above the ribbing of the vest and then, gulp, cut the row just below and removed the ribbing.  It was very slick, not messy and I was able to save the handspun yarn from the ribbing to reuse.  Yay!  So, I've knit the 2 inches that was the ribbing in stockinette and just started on the new ribbing thankful that I had extra of this handspun yarn on hand.  I'm thinking I will finish it today and block it over the weekend.  There is a bit of a "ridge" from the old to the new knitting, but hopefully that will block right out.

In the Shetland theme of today's post I'm showing you the latest (and probably last for quite a while) addition to my stash - Clara Yarn Shetland 1.0.  Have you heard of this company?  They have a great story which I found so compelling that I bought a sweater's worth amount of yarn.  It came in the mail yesterday and man I am in LOVE!  The color, texture, feel it's just all so perfect for my taste and it's destiny is this sweater.  In my knitting schedule for the rest of the year (don't you have one of those?) I have it blocked off for December for a from me to me Christmas gift.  Thus, all the Christmas knitting I'm planning on has to be done by the end of November, which works on paper, but we'll have to see if I'm biting off more than I can chew as the saying goes.

Joining in with Amanda for Fibre Arts Friday and Linda for Creative Friday.

The Stash Situation and Progress

Small portion of the out of control stash.  And yes, those are each 2 gallon sized Ziploc bags or in other words a sweater each!

Dan's sweater vest.

So, it's happened again.  While my back was turned my yarn stash added to it ranks.  I was down to 1 1/2 Rubbermaid large tubs of yarn and now suddenly it's doubled in size and I have three.  How does this happen you may ask?  Well, definitely with some stealth, forgetfulness, impetuousness and excitement of new possibilities (because that's what yarn is after all - new possibilities.)   That and well...maybe a yarn sale or two and a couple of fiber events might of pushed me over the edge.  But, this of course is not the real reason why I purchased so much yarn.  The real underlying reason, I figured out recently, is that I'm lonely and when I'm lonely I shop.  

Now, don't get me wrong I have friends and a loving family, but what I don't have is knitting friends.  Only one of my friends knit and she has 3 kids with one on the way so you can just imagine how much knitting time she has on her hands (let alone time to visit.)  Knitting has become my passion and fills much of my waking hours.  And not having anyone to talk to about it (besides you lovely people, but let's face it it's a bit one sided on a blog) is really getting me down.  

To remedy this situation I turned to Ravelry and started looking for a local knitting group to join.  It seems the obvious answer and I just haven't done it yet out of shyness and my hermit like tendencies.  Well, there is one other reason I have yet to find a group.  I knit kinda weird.  My mom taught me and she taught herself from a book which wasn't very clear with it's directions.  It works fine.  I make knitted things as you've seen, but sometimes I look rather fumbly and awkward (at least I feel that way.)  It's very silly of me I know to be concerned with how I look knitting, but I do so that's that.  But, I think I really need people to talk to in person about knitting so I'm making the leap to join a group.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming of knitting.  I've made decent progress on Dan's Wall Street Cables vest and will definitely finish it in time for Father's Day.  The yarn is a nice soft merino, but I'm thinking I might not have quite enough or it will be tight to say the least.  I started this project 3 years ago when I was still rather new to knitting and didn't know to estimate more yarn then suggested by the pattern.  I think I will have enough to finish the front panel thanks to the deep v-neck so the worst outcome would be a contrasting neck and arm edgings.  Which, let's face it wouldn't be too terrible.  The frustrating thing is I think this sweater is going to be big on my Hubbie and I probably could've knitted one size down eliminating my yarn shortage issues.  Agh!  I am determined to finish though and well, Dan likes loose clothing so all this wringing of hands might be for naught.  At least that's what I hoping.

Joining in with Nicole for Keep Calm Craft On and Ginny for Yarn Along.

Revisiting an Old Project

No, I've not finished the second mitten, or the navy and white summer top, but yes, I have moved on to another project.  I think I have a knitting specific ADD.  Well really, it occurred to me the other day that Father's day is about a month after mother's day and maybe I should make something special for my husband (especially after not knitting him anything for his birthday - for shame Ann.)  When given the option of this spiffy hat or another sweater vest he opted for the vest (he gets very cold at work even in the summer as he doesn't care for AC.)  It just so happens I have one halfway knitted from over 3 years ago.  Yup, you heard me right 3 years ago I started this vest, finishing the backside only to then panic that I would not have enough yarn to complete it so I promptly stopped knitting.  Because if you don't knit you won't run out of yarn and everything will be fine right?  Fine, but no sweater vest to wear.  Sigh.  So, I decided to get back to it for Father's Day and it seems to me I'll have enough yarn and if not, well then there's always contrasting trim right? 

The only bummer is a mistake I made in the middle of the back all those years ago - can you see it?  I made one whole grouping of cables tighter than the rest all the way across.  It's right smack dab in the middle of the back too.  Now, my quandary is do I replicate this mistake on the front panel so the seams match as they should or do I knit it correctly for the front and side seams be damned?  Notice how I don't mention re-knitting the back to fix said mistake?  It's just too much for this faint heart to unravel that much knitting.  What do you think?

Joining in with Linda for Creative Friday and Amanda for Fibre Arts Fridays. 

Shepard's Harvest and Mittens

- The Festival -

 

 

 

- The Goodies -

 

- The Results -

Ok, you made it through the pictures; now onto the text!  This past weekend was Minnesota's largest fiber festival Shepard's Harvest and needless to say I was very excited to go.  It was my first time attending and boy was it a wonderful experience.  It will definitely be an annual pilgrimage for me and my family.  There were beautiful alpacas, goats, sheep and of so soft bunnies (I could just kick myself for forgetting to take some pics of the angora rabbits they were so beautiful.  Sam held one too.)  There were hand knitters, machine knitters, spinners with drop spindles, spinners with spinning wheels (there was even one of these great wheels being demoed) basket makers, tons of vendors, lovely musicians and yummy not so good for you Fair food.  Lots of demos were happening all weekend: spinning, sheep dog herding, sheep and alpaca shearing and machine knitting to name a few.  Crafts were available too for those families so inclined as well as many, many classes (which you need to sign up for months in advance - note to self for next year.)   Ah, it was lovely.

My new friend Mary Lou of Angora Gardens even displayed some of my knitted bunny and cat children's toys (for which I use her yarns) with her fabulous angora products at the festival.  She did a little post about me too on her blog.  Here is a picture she took with one her baby angoras.  She titled it "Real or Imposter?"

She had bigger bunnies ready for adoption at the Fair and my son Sam was itching to take one of the black ones home.  We're considering it and may be making a farm visit to adopt one.

After perusing all the the many vendors I made a few purchases.  From Golden Meadow Alpacas from Lewis Minnesota I bought 5 sport weight skeins of natural colored alpaca yarn.  My original intent was to find Shetland yarn to make this Kate Davies hat which requires 9 different shades, but alas no Shetland was to be found.  So, I "made do", if you can call this beautiful alpaca yarn making do, with only 5 shades of 100% alpaca yarn (I wanted more colors but the price of full skeins multiplied by 9 was a bit too cost prohibitive for me.)  Then to satisfy my spinning urge I purchased 2 buttery soft balls of angora and alpaca roving from Three Sisters Farm and Fiber from Winona Minnesota.  There was quite a lot of alpaca at the festival, which makes me think they must be well suited to our crazy climate of freezing winters and hot humid summers.

Of course upon arriving home I quickly abandoned my current knitting project to knit with these new yarns.  Such a fickle woman am I.  I tried stranded mittens for the first time using this Knitting Traditions pattern.  It calls for eight colors so I had to modify it a bit, but I don't think using only 5 colors detracted one bit from the outcome.  I'm very pleased with the results to say the least.  Although I did pull my strands a bit tight in places, even with knitting them inside out to keep them loose, the blocking seems to have eased the yarn tension sufficiently.  The only bummer is the thumb is a tad bit short, but still wearable.  I was suspicious it would be (I have long thumbs), but then it seemed like it was going to be ok, but then it wasn't.  Trust your intuition Ann!  I'm hopeful that the yarn will stretch a bit with use.  I know I could always undo the thumb and add more rounds, but that sounds too daunting to do with stranded knitting so I'm just going to leave it as is.  Now to get going on the second mitten, then maybe a matching Scottish tam and cowl?  Hmm...so much for summer tops.

Joining in with Nicole for Keep Calm and Craft On and Ginny for Yarn Along.

A New Project!

Casting on for a new project - yay!!  The Summer Top is currently blocking and though I have yet to wear it, it has turned me on to knitting even more summer tops!  Thus the above project has begun and will be the Astonish Top from Knit Picks Golden Morning collection of patterns.  It's knit on the bias and has a lovely drape.  I'm using Valley Yarns Charlemont fingering weight yarn (the other yarn I got for Mother's Day last year - see the theme?) which is mainly merino wool, but has 20% silk in it's makeup.  The silk should really add to the drape of this pattern as well as lending a lovely sheen.  I chose my favorite classic color combo of navy blue and white (which is starting to take over my wardrobe.)  My only trepidation to this project is the fact that it is fingering weight yarn knit on tiny US 2 1/2 - 3 mm needles.  This is making progress slow, but oh, do I love the look! 

Joining in with Andrea for Fibre Arts Friday.

Summer Top!

I'm finally finishing up my warm weather sweater I planned on knitting last summer.  I received the yarn as a gift from mother's day a year ago, and knit the bulk of it while on retreat this Spring.  The pattern is Gemini by Jane Richmond and it is free and very easy to follow.  It's meant for a DK weight yarn and while the Hempathy by Elsbeth Lavold is considered DK I thought the fabric was a bit too loose at gauge.  To remedy this I added a lace weight strand of Malabrigo merino yarn and now I love the resulting fabric and the color variation the Malabrigo lends.  Of course this addition means I have to handwash the sweater, but I think it will be worth it in the long run.  I have about 4 inches left to knit which is so close and yet so far as it's boring stockinette (good TV knitting though.)  Then just a few rows and some ribbing to finish off each of the sleeves and I'm done.  This is my first knitted warm weather top and I can't wait to wear it.  Now, if it would just warm up already, but alas Spring in Minnesota is temperamental to say the least.

Joining in with Nicole for Keep Calm Craft On and Ginny for Yarn Along.

Socks for Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day!

Since I filled my mom's quota for knitted hats I've turned to knitting socks for her.  Who doesn't need more hand knit wool socks right?  I used this simple toe up pattern, using Artyarns Ultra Merino 6 DK weight yarn and US size 3 needles.  They came out quite squishy, bouncy, soft and fit just right.  I gave them to my mom early as I never seem to be able to hang on to a finished gift to the actual occasion (if I finish early that is.)  

So Happy Mother's Day everyone:  to the moms still with us, those that have past and especially to those women who want to be but haven't been able.  I wish you all a wonderful day full of love that lasts all year.

Loss, Illness and Hats

I have been absent from this space at first because I left for a trip to visit a friend, then because I was getting ready for a craft fair and lastly because of a large loss.  We lost a wonderful neighbor whom we known for over 18 years to suicide.  She was a woman who always had time for a chat and a chuckle and was the glue that held our little city block together.  Up and down our alley way she would walk and check in on people working in their yards or tease the kids riding their bikes.  She didn't mind the neighborhood children filching her delicious raspberries out of her garden and was always generous sharing plants and her love of gardening.  I still can't believe she's gone and keep expecting to see her in her yard weeding or watering as I pass by on my way somewhere.  It hurts to know she was suffering and none of us knew she needed our help.  It was a total shock to us all.

To deal with my sadness I've turned to knitting hats for cancer patients who have lost their hair to chemo therapy.  I just have this need to give comfort and help someone since I can no longer help my neighbor.  My friend Amy lost her mom to cancer a couple of years ago, and to deal with her grief she organized a group called Team Yarn to knit chemo caps.   She then personally distributes them all over the Twin Cities metro area here in MN.  Sadly, their is a large need for these hats as many people come here from all over for treatment.  It's really helped her process the loss of her mother.  I have knit hats for her here and there over the last 2 years for fun and to support her, but now I am knitting in earnest.  In fact, I've gone through my entire stash and scraps of yarn and knit up everything that is soft enough for a chemo cap.  I'm up to a dozen so far, knitting about one hat per day.

I have the time for all this knitting because a week after the news of my neighbor I had an onset of Vertigo that landed me in the hospital.  Vertigo is extreme dizziness that then causes nausea and vomiting.  After a lot of tests the doctors told me it was brought on my an inflammation in my inner ear and that I just have to wait it out until it goes away in some 2 - 6 weeks.  Now, I'm much better than I was in the hospital and the nausea has past, but I'm still dizzy and I can't drive.  The first week my husband stayed home and took care of me as I couldn't walk around that well, but this week I'm on my own and am managing ok.  Except now, my son contracted Strep Throat and is out of commission as well.  Thus, my poor husband is working his regular job, caring for us, doing all the driving to Doctor appointments, washing dishes, cooking, laundry and cleaning.  And what's amazing is he does it all with a smile.  We may be down and out, but I sure feel very lucky.

Joining in with Andrea for Fiber Arts Friday.

A Gift

My long time girlfriend was having a party for her birthday which I was going to miss due to being out of town.  So, instead of my presence I decided to knit her a present to celebrate her special day.  I sent it off in the post today even though she only lives about 20 minutes from me because we both LOVE getting packages in the mail.  We don't always exchange gifts, but sometimes the timing works out and I can knit something special for her.  I even shopped my stash for this one, Madelinetosh tosh dk, and COMPLETELY used up the yarn only having a few snipped off scraps leftover.  Yay!  I adore using up all my yarn on a project.  Leftover yarn seems sad and burdensome to me; it wants to "be" something, but it's never enough yardage.  

This is the pattern I chose for the hat which I followed to the "T" only adding a pompom at the end.  It turned out more beanie than slouchy as the pattern described, but I think that will fit Emily better anyway.  I used this fun free pompom maker for the pompom which you can simply download and cut out.  It works surprisingly well albeit a bit fussy.  The mitts I knit loosely based on this pattern and you can see my notes as to the changes here.  The combo is pleasing to me, but with one catch - if it's cold enough to wear the hat, you won't likely wear just fingerless mitts and if it's warm enough for the mitts you won't likely need to wear the hat.  Hmm... To solve this dilemma I purchased these stretchy gloves (which are also conductive so she can use her i phone with them on) to wear with the mitts on top of them to make them pretty.  Sorry no photo of this combo, as the gloves arrived in the mail after it was too dark for picture taking.

Now, I'm off to Washington DC for 3 nights and 3 days to spend with another longtime friend.  She is single with no children so it's an all girl, all grown up weekend and I couldn't be more excited!  I'm bringing my souffle dish in my carry-on bag along with truffles, tea and knitting - all the necessities in life ;) 

Joining in with Ginny for Yarn Along and Nicole for Keep Calm Craft On.

Mid Winter Funk

 

Sorry for my absence.  I am in a funk of sorts:  not being able to focus on much, not settling on what to knit and ignoring my house's needs.  Time seems to be slipping by without much happening.  But, while I've been moping, my friend Emily has been busy finishing the layout/design of two of my new knitting patterns.  The first is the bunny pattern I mentioned here and keeps in the vein of my toy making, but the second is something completely different for me - a knitted hat.  

The pattern is called A Dab of Neon as the neon colored bobbles reminded me of dabs of paint on canvas.  You've often heard me talk of the lack of color here in Minnesota during the winter, well here's a blast of color to keep you going, but not so much as to overpower.  I thought of the hat being a dark grey stormy sky with flashes to vibrantly alive color dancing about.  My friend's beautiful daughter Maisie modeled it for me, and while I should have taken more pics/views I think the photos I did get turned out well. 

The yarn I used was Madelinetosh tosh dk 100% superwash merino in Dr. Zhivago's Sky and Fluroro Rose colorways.  Now oddly enough I don't wear neon colors myself, but I just had this idea and wanted to give it a try.  You can purchase the pattern either here on Etsy or here on Ravelry.  Emily gave it a lovely layout in colors that match the hat.  In fact, the pattern is so visually beautiful that I have been admiring it on and off all day long .  So, yeah I'm pretty excited as well as quite nervous about it being available and out in the world for all to see. 

Joining in late with Ginny for Yarn Along, Linda for Creative Friday 

 and Andrea for Fibre Arts Friday.    

 

Distractions form Distractions - Startitis Has Struck!

OMG!  I'm getting completely distracted from my distraction blanket knitting this week.  First, yarn arrived from eat.sleep.knit (don't you simply love that name for a yarn shop?) which had me casting on for this shawl/scarf immediately, then more yarn arrived in the mail and I found myself casting on and knitting another cozy coaster.  All the while my blanket is looking at me saying "You just have to knit one last ring Ann.  Finish me please!"  I can feel myself justifying the switch to the scarf as I "need" it for my trip at the end of the month, then the excuse to switch to the coaster is that it is small and wouldn't it be great to actually finish something.  Indeed it would, now if I can only focus!  

Both new yarns are golden yellow and super soft so I'm thinking that has something to do with it.  Minnesotans really need bright color in February, or at least this Minnesotan does.  The first yarn is from Handmaiden and it is a lovely blend of half wool half silk.  The best part about this yarn is that it was free.  Yes, free!  Eat.Sleep.Knit sends out a scratch off card with each of your orders and you can win lots of lovely prizes.  Now, I never gamble but yarn scratch off cards - yes please!  I've won a skein of yarn and a couple $5 store credits before, but this time around I won a $50 store credit!  It's been sitting in my account for almost two months as I schemed and planned what to purchase.  I pretty pleased with my choice and there's still leftover credit for something else in the future.  The second yarn is from Frog Tree and is a sport weight 100% Alpaca.  I'm holding the yarn double for the pattern and using larger needles as the original coaster I knit last year was so tiny it didn't even cover the bottom of my mug.  It's another double knit pattern like my mittens, but knit straight back and forth on a double pointed needle so much easier on the mind as well as the hands.

So, you can safely say startitis has come to roost at my house, but with no more yarn coming in the mail I'm hoping this next one will have me settling down to at least finishing one project.

Joining in with Linda for Creative Friday and Andrea for Fibre Arts Friday.

Plugging Away and An Upcoming Project

 This morning I find my right forearm is sore from all the blanket knitting I've been doing as of late.  I have been diligently plugging away and finished another square ring yesterday.  While I'm pleased I'm a bit overwhelmed that there are still 2 more skeins left to knit the final edging.  There will be some leftover yarn to be sure, but it's still quite a lot of yarn to knit when I just want to get this project done and out of my WIP pile.  Actually, I want to put it into use as the weather has turned colder and in our drafty house you can feel the difference (not that you can tell by my barefooted short sleeve t-shirt wearing son but that's another story.)

Since I don't have too much new to show you on that project I thought I'd show you a future project I have planned that I'm both excited and a bit nervous about.  When reading the Interweave Press KNITS magazine Santa so kindly left in my stocking this Christmas, I ran across an article about some very unique yarn.  It's called Silver Spun and as the name implies it actually has silver spun into the yarn.  The contents to be exact are 87% Combed Cotton / 5% Silver / 5% Nylon / 3 % Spandex.  We all know what cotton is, nylon I know is added for durability and strength but I was thrown for a loop as to what the silver and Spandex would accomplish.  Well it turns out the silver makes the yarn therapeutic because it has excellent thermal properties as well as making it conductive.  The Spandex is then used to keep the silver from breaking apart.  Interesting no?  The conductive properties really hooked me because that means you could wear gloves made out of this yarn and still use your smart phone.  The Feel Good Yarn Company who makes this yarn thought of that too and put together the above kits with this free pattern for making just such a pair of gloves.  I instantly thought of my husband who is in the tech trade and gets many business calls on his cell phone, sometimes at less than opportune times as he is on call 24/7.  For example, he was walking home from the bus stop this winter with his hands laden down with many bags and got a call on his phone.  He managed to get it out of his pocket but with only three rings before voice mail kicks in there was no time to take off gloves so what did he do?  Why used his tongue of course!  Can I get an ewww!  Yes, that was my reaction too.

Anyway, I purchased this kit right away after I read the article in December, but they have yet to knit themselves into gloves so I thought I'd give myself a deadline.  My plan being to knit these up for Dan's birthday which falls on the last day of March.  Plenty of time of course, but they'll come after this blanket, a hostess gift I'm knitting for a friend who's hosting me on my trip to Washington DC at the end of February and of course since I'm going on a trip I want to knit this scarf to wear while there...  So, I'll probably won't start these gloves until I'm on my plane to see my friend Anna.  They are the perfect travel knit though as they are small and will tuck easily into my purse.  The only reservation I have is knitting 10 individual fingers knit in the round on US size 2 needles.  Sounds very laborious, but hopefully they will knit up fast.

Joining in with Nicole for Keep Calm Craft On and Ginny for Yarn Along.

Distractions - Blanket Knitting

 

The double knit mittens I'm making have my fingers cramping (my needles are very pointy too leaving my finger tip sore from pushing the stitches off - angora yarn can be "sticky") so I started looking about for a distraction.  Well, knitting distraction that is, as there is plenty of housework needing to be done I'm just not of a mind to do it.  But, being productive is important to me, which had me turning to my WIPs hoping for something simple and a bit mindless.  This blanket fit the bill even though it's technically not a WIP, as it was finished and has been in use for some months, but I decided a few weeks back that it was too small at only 45 inches square (it doesn't really wrap around the body enough when cuddling on the couch).  

I began searching for some yarn on Ravelry looking through people's stashes of Lorna's Laces Shepard Worsted and Green Line Worsted, as those were the yarns I used previously, to see what was available in the sell or trade category.  This is a good way to find great yarn at discounted prices.  Although, really this blanket is not an economical project even having purchased all the yarn in this manner.  The afghan was knit using 8 1/2 - 225 yard skeins and now I'm looking to add 6 more - yikes!  Tallying up the cost officially is something I'm not ready to face up to, but in for a penny in for a pound and I might as well end up with a blanket in a size I'll regularly use.  See, I never really thought this project through and I think that's the problem.  It began with a lone skein of worsted weight yarn along with a bad case of "start-itis" (you know when you want to start a casting on a million knitting projects at once?  Oh yeah, it's a disease all right which comes and goes like the common cold, but leaves a devastating wake of partially knit projects behind) and thought "Hmm an afghan knit with only ten stitches - that sounds like fun."

Back to searching for those 6 more skeins of yarn.  I found 2 skeins of a Navy Blue which I loved, and I thought would make at least one ring around but I still needed even more yarn to get the 60 inches square blanket I desired.  As luck would have it I found 4 skeins of the exact same yarn, same colorway (Lorna's Laces Shepard Worsted in Edgewater) that I began with in the blanket's center.  Yay!  It will now look like I planned the colors out instead of buying random yarn as I went along.  The messages were sent, money changed hands and in a manner of days 6 skeins of yarn arrived in the mail  - easy peasey!

The navy ring was completed yesterday and I'm hoping by next week I'll finish the last 2 multicolored rings.  Then the blanket will be complete and the distraction will have passed and maybe, just maybe I'll get back to those mittens. 

Joining in with Linda for Creative Friday and Andrea for Fibre Arts Friday.

Double Knit Mittens

 

First attempt.

 

Second attempt.

 Here you can see the inner and outer layers of the mitten.

I was flailing around a bit this weekend trying to figure out where to put my knitting energy when, while cleaning up, I found the above lone failed mitten.  Perfect small project to crank out to completion, or so I thought.  The first attempt was a fail because I made them too big and my brilliant idea for making them double layered with an angora liner (ooo bunny warmth!) was poorly thought out.  I started with a provisional cast on thinking I would simply undo those stitches and begin a second mitten that would mirror the first.  This is the same method I used when I sewed a pair of double layer mittens out of felted sweaters a few years back.  But, after trying the idea out the cuff got too bulky and stretched out funny on the folded edge where the two layers met.  So, I frogged back and did a stretchy cast off on the cuff with a new plan of picking up stitches on the inside above the cuff to knit the second layer.  Well, that idea also crashed and burned leaving me with a too big single layer mitten - exactly what I didn't want.

In come Ravelry to the rescue!  I knit double knit coasters a while back and the thought occurred that I could use the same construction method to make the mittens.  I love that Raverly has such great search options and I could choose to search this specific construction method, as well as what I wanted to knit.  Most of the patterns that appeared in my search had two color patterns which looked awesome (I love this one), but weren't a good fit for the handspun yarn I was using (You may recognize it as leftovers from that yellow hat.  That's right I'm making a matchy-matchy set - yay!)  Then I ran across this pattern, which was a simple single color on the outer layer with a liner - perfect!  It's more of a recipe than a pattern per se, but still really easy to follow.  Now I'm finally on the right track, a slooowww track, but the right one.  You see you knit the one row in the outer color and then work back around in the opposite direction in the liner color.  It has no formal gusset for the thumb.  Instead you knit in a scrap piece of yarn which you will undo after you complete the body of the mitten, picking up the now "live" stitches to knit the thumb in the round just as you did before.  The only tricky thing is to remember to make a right AND left mitten as this style makes the mittens hand specific. 

I wish you could feel through the internet how squishy soft these are, but alas you'll just have to trust me the resulting fabric is fabulous!  The only downside to this project is that I cannot just crank them out like I was hoping for, but the end product will be just what I want and that's what matters most. 

Joining in with Rachel for Yarn Fanatic Party, Nicole for Keep Calm Craft On and Ginny for Yarn Along.

Fresh Off the Wheel - I've Got the Blues

 

Lately, I've been at my spinning wheel finishing up projects like trying to complete my yarns before the plys sit around for too long and lose their energy.  The above fiber is from The Painted Tiger and is New England Wool Top dyed in beautiful shades of blue.  Navy blue is my favorite color, besides orange that is, and I love finding it in yarns and fiber as I know it will go with all the clothes I own.  I also purchased this fiber for it's "type' which is really a region and not a specific sheep, basically a representative of American sheep in the Eastern United States.  It's not super soft, but is rumored to be hard wearing which suited my needs for luscious blue socks.  Now, I am still pretty new to spinning (as can be seen in the tangled mass of plys plied in the wrong direction in the photos above) and I realized I should have given this yarn more twist to make it stronger and more durable.  Thus, I am a little forlorn to have gone to so much effort for socks which might not last as long as I want (which is forever of course.)  The yarn turned out to be a bit thicker than planned which pushed me to use US size 3 needles instead of the US size 1s I would normally choose for socks.  They were knit from a general gusseted heel toe up sock pattern from Wendy Johnson's book Socks from the Toe Up.  Honestly, I have yet to knit any complicated sock patterns as the yarn always seems pretty enough in a simple ribbed pattern.  Which is your "go to"sock pattern?

Joining in with Linda for Creative Friday and Amanda for Fibre Arts Friday.

representative of American sheep in the Eastern United States - See more at: http://www.thepaintedtiger.com/category_69/New-England-Wool-Top.htm#sthash.GZdPT2AY.dpuf

representative of American sheep in the Eastern United States - See more at: http://www.thepaintedtiger.com/category_69/New-England-Wool-Top.htm#sthash.GZdPT2AY.dpuf