Angora Lined Mittens

It's plain looking, which is what Dad will like about it, but I'm happy that it works exactly how I thought it would in my head. As a bonus, it feels even better than I imagined. Now I want to make myself a pair of wool mittens lined with angora, it feels so cushiony and WARM and soft.

This looks like a practical joke here, mittens with no hole for the hand

I don't have a pattern written down, but this is what I did: provisional cast on with the wool, knit 1 round plain, knit 2 rounds of K1P1, purl 1 round (turning round), work 3 inches of K1P1 for the cuff, and then blahblahblah knit a mitten. Weave in all ends and trim them now, it's easier than waiting until the liner is almost done. Note: When the liner is closed up you can't reach the inside of the wool mitten to weave/trim the ends. Release the cast on sts from the scrap yarn and knit a second mitten (the liner) with the angora yarn. The thumb will be on the same side but make a left thumb for the right mitten's liner and vice versa (so when the liner is turned inside-out stuffed up in the mitten the gussets will line up). If your favorite thumbs are not hand specific then this isn't an issue. When the liner is done push it inside the mitten. There are some concerns in there about working with different yarns and maybe different gauges and the outside mitten should be big enough to accomidate the liner. Measuring the swatch around my hand revealed I needed 1/2 inch ease for the liner so I went with 9" for the mitten and 8.5" for the liner to fit an 8.5" hand. I guessed at his hand size, hope it fits.

Attention thrifty knitters on a budget: I unravelled the sleeve of a 99 cent thrift store sweater for the angora yarn, making this a very cheap project. They originally priced the sweater much higher but it was ugly so I found it on a 99 cent Monday. (At that point it'd been in the store for 4-5 weeks, nobody else wanted it.) The yarn is lovely but the sweater had a few dozen tiny satin rosettes and faux pearls sewn all over the front. Ew. It was in brand-new condition so I suspect it was a gift and the unfortunate recipient was unable to return it.

I'm off to the Kitsap Peninsula for my Dad's 60th birthday where I'll see my younger brother and his wife for the first time in 2.5 years. They recently moved to Chicago (from Florida) and you know what that means... more handknits!

Oh the weather outside is frightful

It's snowing!



Good thing I finished the gloves before the first snowfall. But I should save them as a just-in-case Christmas present. Oh well.

The colors in this 2nd photo taken outside in natural light are more accurate.

I'm not knitting for everyone in my family this Christmas, doing that for four years in a row is enough. My family is always very appreciative so it's not a thankless burden but I just didn't feel up to challenge this year. I might make some stationery/card sets, grandma and mom and my sister-in-law would love those and it'd only take a weekend of mad crafting to accomplish. I still want to knit mom a Fair Isle cardigan but I have yet to find or design a pattern that is worth the effort and time. Bleh. That and I'm feeling unreasonably lethargic lately so I'm pretty much useless for anything requiring actual brain power.

I'm currently making socks (are you surprised? ha-HA) with this pretty Trekking sock yarn. I can't decide which photo is better so you get to see both.

Next up are lined mittens for Dad's birthday present, using this soft and springy worsted dark blue wool and white angora yarn for the liner.


I found 2 skeins at a thrift shop, score

There won't be a patterned exterior, my Dad isn't a fancy kinda guy, but he'll appreciate the warmth and softness of the lining. I'll start with a provisional cast-on in the blue wool and do a couple rounds of K1P1 then do a purl turning round and continue the ribbed cuff. When the mitten is done I'll rescue the cast-on sts from the scrap yarn and knit a mitten inside with the angora yarn. Sounds like a plan! Gotta start swatching tonight.

Up for trade: Rowan Book 4

I might as well post this here too. I'm offering up for trade a Rowan pattern book, it's the #4 issue of their magazine from 1988. I live in the United States and will ship it anywhere.

Here's a page with all the details, including what I'm looking for and photos of some of the sweaters and jackets in the book:

http://www.az.com/~andrade/knit/rowanbook4.html

You can comment here or email me directly: andrade (at) az (dot) com

I finished up the second Trekking glove last night and soaked both gloves in water and hair conditioner. They're still damp so I'll take photos when they're dry. I had this crazy idea to make blocking hands (like a cross between my sock blocking faux foot and flat wooden blocking hands) out of Fimo clay. Maybe someday I'll get around to using the old Fimo sitting in a drawer and give it a shot.

I had a dream last night that David Letterman co-wrote a knitting book (it evolved into a general crafting book as the dream went on) which is strange because this happened Saturday night, so it's not like I watched his show right before going to bed.

A glove and swatches and LYS reviews

Here's a glove made with Trekking sock yarn on size 0 needles (I switch to 000 after the top finger joint to help shape the top of the fingers without extra decrease rounds):



1993 called, it wants its plaid shirt back


It'd be a good idea to knit the mate before I forget what all the numbers scribbled down on paper mean. That's an asymmetric thumb gusset. It's my favorite because the increases are done on just one side (every other round) and the increase line is hidden under the thumb. Use M1R for the right hand increases and M1L for the left hand. Instructions for this gusset, and a few others, are in the Winter 2003 Interweave Knits.



detail of gusset on right glove palm


The IK Winter 2003 article on basic gloves is pretty good but the math formulas don't work for small gauges and they don't tell you to start the pinky finger a few rounds before the other fingers. Gloves fit better if the pinky has a head start. I work the pinky finger and then knit 1/2" more on the hand before starting the ring finger.

Swatchin' Time


(L to R): Nature Spun Sport, Dale Baby Ull, Nature Spun Sport

I swatched for the Ullared hat from Hats On! using Dale Baby Ull and Brown Sheep Nature Spun Sport from the stash. I love working with the Baby Ull (which is fingering weight) but I prefer the high contrast between the Nature Spun pale blue and black. Also, the Baby Ull is so soft it should be used for a pair of gloves. The Baby Ull blue is not at all true in the photo, it's darker and prettier than it appears here.

New Yarn Shops

There are a couple new yarn shops in Bellingham. Marilyn's Yarn is on Northwest Ave (across the street from Yaeger's Sporting Goods). Northwest Handspun Yarns is on Commercial, three blocks from the downtown bus station.

Yesterday I stopped by Marilyn's Yarn for the first time and the workers left me alone for an entire hour. Some people are offended if they're ignored in shops but I prefer to browse in peace. Surely they would have helped me had I asked for help. (One employee was on the floor sorting through 100+ skeins of some type of Noro, looking for the last two skeins of a specific self-striping colorway for a customer.) Personally I can't stand it when people hover and ask what I want to make, what I'm looking for, etc. They have a pretty good selection of yarns, including several I haven't seen before, but no Dale Baby Ull or Brown Sheep Nature Spun fingering/sport and those were the only yarns I was looking for. There seemed to be a lot of novelty yarns but plenty of good staples too so it's not like the fluffy stuff was taking over. Prices seemed normal for a LYS.

Afterwards I walked to Hank & Bolt, a few blocks away, and was disappointed to see their selection of Baby Ull has shrunk to just a few colors. They probably weren't exactly thrilled about Marilyn's Yarn opening up down the street. That had to hurt.

Northwest Handspun Yarns opened a couple weeks ago so I stopped by on Saturday to check out their yarn. I was pleased to see their selection of Brown Sheep Superwash. I don't see the LP Superwash very often in yarn shops so I was happy to find it right here in Bellingham. The prices are inflated above the norm, no doubt to help cover the cost of renting downtown. This shop actually used to be located in another building downtown but it was hidden in a converted basement closet (really!) and they had very odd hours (open only one night a week) so it didn't exactly count as a LYS. Their new location has room for a lot more yarn and there's a second floor where people can sit and knit or spin. I'm not sure if college students will respond to the prices but the convenient location and hours (open 7 days a week) might win thrifty students over. Maybe they don't need college students to survive anyway.

Wow, I went to three yarn shops in the last week and didn't spend a dime! No, that's not true, I also went to Wool Station on Saturday and bought an Inox size 2 16" circular for the Ullared hat. I already have 16" circulars in every size from 3 to 10.5 so of course the hat needs a size 2.

Norwegian Knitting Designs

I found a small OOP treasure at a used bookstore in Fairhaven the other day:


Norwegian Knitting Designs
selected by Annichen Sibbern Bøhn
Published in Oslo, Norway 1975 (©. 1965)

I have a weakness for old knitting books and this is a sweet little book, it appeals to the Norwegian in me and there are a few patterns I plan to use. The written sweater patterns are vague so they are mainly of use to those who already knit traditional Norwegian sweaters with steeks in their sleep. (Actually, if you're skilled enough to knit a sweater from these skimpy instructions then you probably don't need 'em.) The graphs of course can be adapted into any pattern:





Can you see this woman dancing around a sweater or mitten, she makes me smile:


As much as I appreciate the book I can't say it's worth the asking prices on bookfinder.com (so it's not going on my recommended list) but it was certainly worth the $6 I paid.

Plotting the Frankenstein Cardigan

There's good news in the final paragraph so I won't blame anyone who skips all this rambling and heads straight to the end.

I finished the 2nd sock over a week ago and forgot to post a photo. Thanks for the kind comments in the last post about the edited socks, they really did make me smile. I must say when I finished the toe and turned the sock inside out my first thought (both times) was "Oh thank god I already wove in all these ends, what a pain in the ass that would have been." ;)




I'm now working on a new sock but it's nothing special, it's just another cuff-down to match one of the socks in the mismatch pair (which I haven't worn because I knew I'd eventually knit their true mates).

Plotting the Frankenstein Cardigan

I was hoping I'd be able to find the perfect Fair Isle cardigan pattern in the numerous books and magazines around here. It hasn't happened and I don't think it will. So I'll design it myself, using information in Alice Starmore's Fair Isle Knitting book (which I don't own but have borrowed from the library), Meg Swansen's Knitting (ditto), Latvian Dreams, and the Philosopher's Wool book. That's how I like to do things, cobble together the best techniques from various sources. And by "best techniques" I only mean those that make the most sense to me and seem like they'll give the result I want, that's all.

Some things I know for sure:

1) Yarn: I have plenty of white worsted wool and only small amounts of Shetland jumper weight so worsted wins. It'll be dyed after I figure out the colors.

2) Style: cardigan

3) Construction: knit in the round, so there will be steeks at the front and sleeves (and maybe the neck). I'll likely do crocheted steeks, as shown over at blogdogblog -- that makes more sense to me than using a sewing machine.

4) Design: Fair Isle based, in the sense it will have shifting shaded background colors. No snowflakes, I'm sick of knitting snowflakes. I'd also like to avoid anything obviously non-traditional, like most of the Philosopher's Wool sweaters, but I'm not going to stress about it.

5) I'm tired.

Some things that are still up in the air:

1) Size: I forgot to measure one of mom's favorite sweaters when I was there a month ago but I think 46" would work (that gives her about 8" ease, does that seem like too much or not enough for a cardigan?) Hmm, I hope I have enough yarn for a 46" cardigan. I'll do the sleeves last and if it looks like there won't be enough I can buy more and dye a new color to use in the sleeves.

2) Sleeves: I'm leaning towards picking up sts and working down to the cuff

3) Button band: mitered button band/collar OR double i-cord trim with hidden i-cord buttonholes.

4) Colors: It will likely have shades of blue but this isn't even close to being decided.

One of these years I'd love to make mom an Alice Starmore design (oof, those kit prices) or Dale's Ingeborg but for now a self-designed cardigan in worsted will have to suffice.

I was gazing at the Ingeborg photos last week and sent Knitpicks an email (customerservice at knitpicks dot com) to inquire about the possibility of them selling fingering weight 100% merino in solid colors. They confirmed that is in the works for early Fall! Killer. We can also hope they'll offer an extended color palette within the next year or two.