Eleven Stitches

FO: Glittens

Last March, while David and I were on the train on the way to the airport, we had a conversation about mittens.  Wouldn't it be nice, he opined, if there were mittens with the index finger separated off, so you get more dexterity but also keep your other fingers warm. A glitten, if you will. I thought that was kind of a silly idea, and told him as much.  We arrived at his mother's house in San Francisco that evening to find that she was making a glitten.

Well, after that, there was no stopping him.  When I announced to him this fall I would like to make him a pair of gloves or mittens, he carefully looked over my Selbuvotter and Folk Knitting in Estonia books, and selected Annemor #17 because he thought it would be easiest to convert to glittens.

Pattern: Annemor #17 from Selbuvotter by Terri Shea
Yarn: Dale Baby Ull #2908 (orange) and Claudia's Handpainted in Argyle, 1 50g skein each
Needles: US 2.5 Knit Picks DPNs

Along the way, I had to make various other changes.  We didn't like how the thumb traditionally came off of the palm in these patterns, and I added palm stitches and make the thumb come out from the side instead.  This was also helpful for up-sizing the pattern, as it was sized for a woman's hands in the book.  Also, since the chart only came up partway on his hand, I repeated the band on the cuff and started the finger chart without separating the fingers off.  It was easy to just knit three of the fingers together instead of making them all individually.

I also reversed the wave chart on the cuff for the second glitten, because I just like to do that.  You'll also notice that the cuffs look pretty different.  I've learned that when I do combination knitting, the yarn in my left hand is more prominent.  One I figured that out, I started always knitting with the background color in my right hand, and things worked out nicely.

I've found colorwork knitting on an airplane really maximizes the wow factor with my non-knitting passengers.   On one flight, the stewardess was exclaiming over the glitten I was finishing, and I gave her the first one to examine.  She immediately said "Oh, I have to show this to someone." and took off!  Too funny.

All in all, I'm very satisfied with this FO.  It really satisfied my colorwork urge (which plagues me often), and I got to make a lot of interesting modifications along the way.  And David is happy with his warm, interesting glittens!

Twenty Fingers

Two Christmas gifts are finished, and I feel pretty safe blogging about them early.  (Hey- if you don't normally read this blog and you've lived with me at some point in your life, maybe you should put it off for a few days? But thanks for stopping in!)

Pattern: Herringbone Mittens (sort of) by Elliphantom
Yarn: Dale Baby Ull and All Things Heather (I've got no colorway names for either one)
Needles: Knit Picks DPNs in US 1.5 and US 2.5
Modifications: I added four extra stitches for fit, and made them fingerless gloves instead.

My sister just got a new pink coat, and I think they'll go very nicely with it.  And whew, I'm so glad she stuck with her favorite color scheme when picking that coat. 

I also finished up some fingerless gloves for my brother.  I'm a little worried about the fit, but other than that I really like them.  He's a picky guy, so I'm hoping my color choice and pattern will suit him.  The guy sitting next to me on the plane yesterday assured me that they're a very fine gift, so that's something!

Pattern: My own
Yarn: Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool, less than 1/2 skein and Rowan Felted Tweed, less than 1 skein
Needles: US3 DPNs

I hope all of your Christmas knitting is going well also :)

Four Singles and a Pair

In an effort to catch up on blogging, I'm going to report on a bunch of different projects all at once.  In a surprise move, only one of these projects is actually for me.  Yes, I am proud of all the gift knitting!

Pattern: Annemor #17 from Selbuvotter
Yarn: Dale Baby Ull (orange) and Claudia's Handpainted in Argyle Socks
Needles: US 2.5, Knit Picks DPNs
Modifications: I added a side thumb gusset instead of off the palm.  I knit with larger than recommended needles to upsize it for a man's hand, and I also had to repeat a band from the cuff in order to make the palm longer.  Oh, and I fused three of the fingers together to make a glitten.

Pattern: Rainbow Socks by Susanne Kitzmann for Magknits
Yarn: Yarn Pirate Merino Sock in Killer Bees
Needles: US 1.5, Knit Picks DPNs
Notes: 6 repeats on the leg and on the foot.  I also knit a picot cuff instead of ribbing.

Pattern: Modified Herringbone Mittens by Elliphantom
Yarn: Dale Baby Ull (purple) and All Things Heather
Needles: US 1.5 and US 2.5, Knit Picks DPNs
Modifications: It's knit on smaller needles, so I added 4 extra stitches to the hand.  I also added some short fingers.

I like the finger detail.

Pattern: My own
Yarn: Rowan Felted Tweed and Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool
Needles: US3 Bamboo DPNs

Pattern: Natalya Gauntlets by Savannahchik
Yarn: Mountain Colors Twizzle in Bitterroot Rainbow
Needles: US4 DPNs, Lantern Moon

I knit a second pair of these mitts for my friend A, who was nice enough to send me this yarn for my birthday.  It was a perfect way to use up the skein.  One pair for me to enjoy, and the second to give back to my friend.

Whew!  There's a whole bunch of knitting all at once.  I'll give you more details when I have actual FOs to show you!

A Quick Knit

I've been busy working on Christmas gifts (more on that later), but I needed a quick hat to keep me warm.  I have had difficulty finding knitted hats I like in the past.  Usually the hats I pick have a brim, and those of the sock hat variety look kind of silly on me.  When I was at the mall the other day, I tried on a beret, and I liked how it looked.  Enter my new hat.

Pattern: Le Slouch by Wendy Bernard
Yarn: Morehouse Merino 3 Strand in Raspberry, a little more than 1 skein
Needles: US8 and US9
Time to Knit: Dec 1 - 2
Modifications: I went with the less slouchy version, so I only knit 4.5 inches before I started the decreases.

I had a little over a ball of yarn left over from my CowlTop (more on that later, too), and I really wanted to mark this yarn as "All Used Up" on Ravelry.  (Is this a huge motivator to anyone else?  It is to me.  Huge.)

Quick knit, easy pattern, nice end product, checking things off on Ravelry, and a warm head.  What's not to love?

Now back to the gift knitting!

NaKniSweWe?

Um, so I started and finished a sweater without taking the chance to blog about it.  I had been mildly thinking about knitting Cobblestone for NaKniSweMo, but at the beginning of November I was in the middle of other projects.  I finally cast on on November 15, and I finished it exactly a week later, on Thanksgiving.

Pattern: Cobblestone by Jared Flood, from Interweave Knits Fall 07
Yarn: Green Mountain Spinnery Green Mountain Green, 8 skeins
Needles: US 8, Knit Picks Harmony Circulars
Time to Knit: Nov 15 - 22

My gauge was looser than recommended, and I wanted a smaller sweater anyway, so I recalculated the number of stitches I needed to cast on, and followed the basic length measurements for the smallest size.  I also added waist shaping to make the sweater a little more girly.  At the end, I did the final four rows of stockinette after the last short row so that I had a little more open neck. 

Dark grey has always been a comfort color for me.  With Cobblestone, I was just going for a comfy, warm sweater.  I love this yarn!  It's so soft and squooshy.  I loved knitting with it, and I love the finished product.  I'm really happy that I have another sweater's worth of this yarn in my stash!

I haven't done any calculations to see how many stitches this sweater is (NaKniSweMo specifices 50,000 stitches), but since it only took a week I can't say that it matters to me very much!  Yay for quick knits!

Cherry Blossoms

Even though we're in the middle of fall, I have a springy pair of socks to show you. 

Pattern: Embossed Leaves by Mona Schmidt from Favorite Socks
Yarn: Sundara Sock in Cherry Blossom
Needles: Susan Bates DPNs in US2
Modifications:  I needed to end the toe on the first sock 1/2 repeat earlier than called for in the pattern.  This messed up the toe shaping, so I flipped it to go the other direction.  For the second sock, to avoid this problem, I started with row 9 of the lace chart, which put the toe in the right place. It also makes the socks mirror images of each other (which is fun) but it's kind of hard to see.

I also liked the way the brown twisted around my leg in the first sock, it was reminiscent of the branches on a cherry blossom tree.  I thought I would be clever and wind the remaining yarn in the opposite direction so the branch would spiral the other way.  I turns out that there's more brown in the end of the skein than in the beginning, so I got a lot more "branch" on the second sock. 

Yay, another single sock turned into a pair!  It turns out that I'm knitting faster than I'm blogging again, which is a nice problem to have.  I'll try and catch up!

Natalya

When I received a box of yarn as a birthday gift from a friend, I really fell for one skein in particular.  I had been wanting to make some fingerless mitts for a few weeks (it's getting cold outside!), and the Mountain Colors Twizzle seemed to be just the right yarn.

Pattern: Natalya by Jody of Savannah Chik
Yarn: Mountain Colors Twizzle in Bitterroot Rainbow, 0.5 skein
Needles: US4 DPNs
Time To Knit: Nov 1 - 5
Modifications:  Even though I knit this on much smaller needles, I didn't have to adjust the number of stitches to make it fit my hands.  I did have a different row gauge, so I knit more cable repeats after the thumb gusset, and I picked up more stitches around the thumb than called for.  I also reversed the cable on the second mitt.

This was a very fast, enjoyable knit.  I chose the options to make fingers, and I'm glad that I did.  It was a bit fiddly, but I love having the fingers.

One cool thing about these mitts is that the yarn was gifted by a friend, and I used a pattern written by a friend.  I think about them whenever I pull on the mitts, and I think it makes the wool just a little bit warmer.

I used less than half of the skein, and I'm planning to make another pair to give to someone else!

The Second Sock: Arguments Pro

1. There is no anguish of which pattern and yarn combination to choose.  It has already been decided for you, and has worked out well already.  As an example, Evening Stockings for A Young Lady by Nancy Bush (from Knitting Vintage Socks) works well knit up in Brooks Farm Acero, 1 skein.

2. There is also no nagging feelings of dread about size issues.  These have been resolved.  I know that if I knit the above pattern and yarn in size US1 needles, the sock will fit perfectly.

3. The famous knitter's black hole does not exist with a second sock.  There are 14 repeats of the lace pattern on the leg, and 14 repeats on the foot. I can keep track of exactly how many repeats I need to do to finish the next section.  This is very satisfying.

4. Any modification decisions have already been tried and tested.  Also, thanks to Ravelry, they have been documented for easy retrieval.

5. The clever design elements that I marveled over in the first sock?  Still clever.  Nancy Bush is the queen of details.

6. When I finish knitting a second sock, I can immediately wear the matching pair outside on a blustery day.   

Bloom

There are discussions about product knitters and process knitters.  I'm pretty sure I fit into both categories, depending on the knit.  Bloom certainly falls into the "product knitter" category.  It was lot of stockinette in grey yarn, but I do love the finished product.

Pattern: Bloom by Carol Meldrum for Rowan 36, size L
Yarn: Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool in 03, 3.5 skeins
Needles: Addi Turbos Size US5
Time to Knit: Sept 29 - October 24
Modifications: None

I was driven to knit this after seeing this picture.  I was very excited to cast on once I had acquired the yarn, but the knitting stalled between the front and the back pieces.  It was kind of, well, boring to knit.  I had a new resolve after Rhinebeck, and decided I couldn't cast on any new yarn until Bloom was finished. 

I love the finished piece.  It's warm and comfy.  It will go with a lot of things in my wardrobe.  I'm so glad that there's a chill in the air.

Chalet Sock

Well, that was fast.  My second incarnation of the Chalet sock seemed to just fly off the needles.

Pattern: Chalet Socks from Folk Socks by Nancy Bush
Yarn: Tess Supersock & Baby, 1 skein
Needles: KnitPicks DPNs US 1.5, 2.5mm
Time to Knit: October 9 - 14
Modifications: I knit 8 rows after the third foot chart before starting the toe.

I think this pattern was the perfect level of difficulty.  It was complicated enough for me to keep interested in the knitting and remain in need of the chart, but once I had glanced at the chart for that row I could knit it by memory.  I've had problems in the past with twisted stitches being hurty, but this time I didn't have any trouble.  This might be because I did more of a cable-without-a-cable-needle method rather than the slipping-two-stitches-as-one method.  I think it puts less pressure on my wrists doing it this way.

As always, Nancy's patterns have such great details.  I love the band of stockinette at the top that breaks up the pattern from the ribbing.  And there's a sweet seam detail running down the back.

I love this sock.  In fact, this sock has made me excited about knitting socks again.  I got a little burnt out over the summer, and the combination of a great pattern and the cool weather has brought me back.

Alas, this sock is not for me.  I made it for a friend, a knitter, and I'll be sending her this sock and the remaining yarn so she can knit the second one.  I hope she enjoys knitting it as much as I did!