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Part two of my vacation knitting! These are also for AnnaMarie.
(The oh-so-willing model is my brother, whom I roped in to helping me with pictures)
Pattern: Endpaper Mitts
Yarn: Cephalopod Skinny Bugga in Punchinello Butterfly and Bronze Moth
Needles: US 2s or 3s; I can’t remember
Mods: None, knit as written
Y’all, this pattern gave me fits. I have made it before with great success (until I accidentally felted them in the washing machine), but this time… I don’t even know. I made a total of three mitts, each completely finished and ends woven in, and I almost made a fourth. The first one came out fine. A little snug but fine. The second one had an extra repeat before the thumb that I some how failed to notice. The third came out way too big, though strangely in line with the second minus the extra repeat. Apparently after I finished knitting the first mitt, my knitting loosened WAY UP. Like WAY UP. At the point I finished the third mitt, I was COMPLETELY OVER THEM and wanted to knit ANYTHING ELSE, but I figured if Anna-Marie wanted me to redo them or one of them, I would. Fortunately, she said it was fine, which is good because there might have been bloodshed at that point.
You can’t really tell the size difference when the mitts are on. You can kind of see it in the above picture, but I stretched the smaller one a bit to make them appear to be the same size in the pictures. But they are definitely different sizes. I had wanted to knit some colorwork mittens, but this experience is giving me pause. Not a tremendous amount of pause, mind, since you know I tend to just jump right in to craft things. But still, pause.
When I was knitting these, I kept thinking the colors reminded me of ketchup and mustard. Neither of which I eat, but the colors are distinct. The pattern is pretty subtle, but still nice.
I have one more FO to show off and by the time I get there on the blog (since I delay the posts when I have a bunch of things to show off at once), I’ll probably have finished a sweater (worsted weight; started a sleeve yesterday) or seventeen sharks (okay, I only have three open orders, but still). Oh, I also have a weaving thing I need to finish up and maybe post about. So I guess it’ll be two more FOs (well, one is still a WIP but the weaving is all done). And then maybe I’ll try to get back on a regular posting schedule.
Man, the parade of FOs just never stops around here. I made some mitts for Anna-Marie!
Pattern: Susie’s Reading Mitts by Susie Rodgers
Yarn: Blue Moon Socks that Rock Medium Weight in Rare Gems Fire
Needles: US 5/3.75mm
Mods: I used a provisional cast on instead of sewing up the bottom hem. As usual, I mostly just threw the stitch pattern in to my basic mitts pattern
So these knit up super quick. The yarn is a bit light for what’s called for, but I think this worked out okay. Both Anna-Marie and I have tiny hands, so the small gauge means they fit really well. I’ve had this pattern in my queue for a while and I got a chance to knit it up here. I probably won’t make them again, but they are cute. I like the picot hem. But then I love a good turned hem.
The yarn was an absolute delight to work with. It’s a very round, dense yarn, which I really love with fingerless gloves. And hats. And everything. The color’s nice too, although I don’t usually tend toward red for myself (recent sweater project notwithstanding). There’s a considerable amount of the yarn left. I can’t recall if Anna-Marie wants it back, but if she doesn’t, it’ll make a lovely hat. (It will make a lovely hat regardless, but you know what I mean.)
In only tangentally related news, I think I’m out of FOs for the moment. I have several works in progress, so expect tomorrow’s post to be something that isn’t finished yet. Imagine that–you guys can see something I’m making it before it’s finished. Remember when I used to do WIP posts? It’ll be just like old times.
Happy Halloween, folks! I’m pretty sure I have no plans (some friends had a party last weekend; I was Little Red Riding Hood–I’ll take any excuse to wear my capelet), but there’s knitting to show off!
Pattern: Nalu Mitts by Leila Raabe
Yarn: Cephalopod Yarns Traveller in Kalamazoo, about half a skein
Needles: US 4/3.75 mm
Mods: I did my plug&play mitts as usual, although I did use the cast on number from the pattern
I made some mitts! They were super quick and the pattern was easy to follow. I don’t usually care to knit 1×1 twisted ribbing, but I liked how the cables flow from the ribbing in the pattern, so I went with it. It looks stunning in this yarn, y’all. So glad I went with it.
These came out a little bigger than I would have liked. The pattern calls for casting on 46, which is just a bit too much, I think, for Anna-Marie’s hands (and mine as well) I usually cast on about 40 for dk weight yarn and US 4 needles for our tiny hands, which works out pretty perfectly. Not that I’ll make these again because there are too many other fun mitt patterns to try, but still.
I really love this yarn, y’all. It’s so pretty. It was SO lovely to work with. Cephalopod (and before them Sanguine Gryphon) has such gorgeous colors. Love them.
I finished another thing! This was going to be the last of my WWFY knits for CorgiHillFarm, buuuuut then we agreed on a couple more projects. So it isn’t. But it is a finished thing.
Pattern: Cafe Au Lait
Yarn: Cephalopod Yarns Traveller in Winter Garden, about half a skein
Needles: US 4/3.5 mm
Mods: 2×2 ribbing instead of 1×1, different thumb probably… Basically, I just threw the stitch pattern into a mitt of my own design. As you do.
These were super quick and fun to make. And the yarn is absolutely gorgeous–plump and squishy with lovely colors. I should make more fingerless mitts for myself. Course all of my long-sleeved shirts have extra long sleeves so I end up not needing them because the sleeves cover my palms, but still. I should make some for myself.
In life news, things are going pretty swimmingly. I’m hoping to trade up in jobs soon (waiting to hear back about one and there’s an opening in the office where I work currently that I’m going to apply for). I’m planning to move out of where I currently live in December, so I really need a better job in order to finance that move.
In fandom news, I was going to start watching MacGyver or Breaking Bad or Supernatural or a hundred other things and then Joe and I watched Children of the Gods and now I’m rewatching Stargate: SG1. What actually happened is that I put on the movie Stargate on a whim, decided I wanted to watch the SG1 pilot, and got sucked in. Sam Carter is simultaneously the more adorable and most badass thing ever, so you can understand how I was pulled in. LOVE HER. I probably won’t watch all ten seasons (and anyway, I’d be skipping the episodes that are terrible but there are SO MANY GOOD ONES in the first season, I don’t even) because of series rot, but still. Why can’t someone pay me $60k a year to watch science fiction tv shows and make things? That’s my real career goal right there.
Not the disease or even the Robert Browning poem (which is excellent, btw), the fingerless mitts pattern:
Pattern: Porphyria
Yarn: MadTosh Merino DK in “Flashdance”, about half a skein
Needles: US 4/3.5 mm
Mods: Well I used a dk instead of a fingering, so basically I just took the stitch pattern and made it up as I went.
This is pair two of the first round of WWFY swaps for my new best yarn friend AnnaMarie at Corgi Hill Farms. Like the first, they were super fun and fast to knit in a yarn I am completely in love with. The stitch pattern for Porphyria is interesting–it looks like a cable, but it’s not actually. Kept me on my toes.
The MadTosh is absolutely gorgeous. The color saturation is amazing. The base is pretty nice too–really sproingy and squishy. The US 4 needles were a wee bit too small for the yarn, but the resulting mitts are gorgeous. The fabric is pleasantly dense without being unyielding. I might have added another stitch repeat to make them slightly bigger, but they stretch nicely.
I had to redo the thumb a couple of times before I was happy with it, but the result fits really well. The recipient’s hands are sized similarly to mine, so they should fit her well too.
I’d definitely like to knit this pattern again for myself. I might even use the same yarn since I have about half a skein left from the first pair that I get to keep. I also have another skein in return for the next round of knitting, so I can make a matching hat or cowl or something. If I make these mitts again, I’ll probably go up a needle size to make them just a wee bit less snug.
What did I get for knitting these mitts and the previous pair, you ask? (As if the gorgeous leftover yarn wasn’t enough.) I’m glad you asked, because I got THE MOST GORGEOUS braid of fiber ever:
60/40 BFL/Tussah Silk. Colorway Senoma. OMG DYING IT’S SO PRETTY. I have like three other spinning projects (only one of which I’ve mentioned at all and has any significant progress on it) so I should wait, but OH I want to spin it. Immediately.
In life news, I am leaving this evening to head up to New York for the long weekend. It’s to visit my grandparents but also it’s to pick up my car! My grandfather owns a business buying and reselling cars, so I asked him to keep an eye out for me. He found a 2003 Pontiac Aztek and it’s mine, all mine! I’m super excited. I’ve been without a car for a while (I rely on my boyfriend’s to get around) and I’ve never had one of my own. I am thrilled and there will definitely be pictures of my baby when I get home. (And bumper stickers, especially geeky ones, are a go).
Sooo I’m doing another set of WWFY trades. Which works out to be awesome for me since I’m getting awesome stuff in return and getting to work with really nice yarns that I could not afford on my life. The first round (of at least three) was a couple of pairs of fingerless mitts. Here’s the first pair:
Pattern: Framed Cable Mitts
Yarn: Sundara Yarn DK Silky Cashmere in the colorway “Where the Tame Things Are”
Needles: US 4/3.5 mm
Mods: I only cast on 40 to better fit a smaller hand. I probably mucked up the thumb too, but it came out all right.
These mitts were super lovely to knit, y’all. They only take about 30g of yarn, which is just a couple hours of knitting time. The cable pattern is kind of hard to see in the variegation of the yarn, but it was fun to knit. A great, fast knit to cleanse the palate.
Plus also: THE YARN. Dear Jesus, what a soft yarn. I kept stopping the knitting in order to pet them (and they still only took a couple hours). The colors are really pretty too and in a simple stockinette or ribbing would really shine.
I love these things. I would have loved to keep them. I can’t. BUT. For the next round of knitting, I get my very own skein of Sundara DK Silky Cashmere. *excited squeak* I’m gonna make my very own ribbed mitts and wear them all the time.
Sooo it ended up being a little while since my last post. In my defense, I didn’t have a good way of taking pictures. My phone was out of commission and I lost my camera charger. All has been remedied, at least partially.
Anyway, I have a finished object to share. I made a pair of fingerless gloves for a WWFY swap.
Pattern: None, but I’m pretty chuffed with it so I might write it up. It’s been ages since I’ve written or released a pattern. It’ll probably be free.
Yarn: recycled wool/angora/nylon, overdyed not by me.
Needles: US 6/4 mm and US 1/1.25 mm
The yarn I used for these was a heavy lace weight/light fingering. I wanted to make these as quickly as possible, so I tripled the yarn to get a worsted weight, with which I made the body of the glove. I knew worsted weight would be too thick for the fingers. The recipient wanted half fingers, otherwise I would have left them off.
What I ended up doing was just using the yarn untripled (as the weight it actually is) and knitting the fingers out of that.
The result is pretty nice. The body of the mitts worked up super fast because it’s in worsted weight and the fingers took practically no time at all. Maybe an hour per glove including weaving in ends?
I’m definitely going to make a pair like this for me and take notes this time. The pattern will probably be in one size and you can change needles to change sizes. Maybe I’ll write more than one size.
I’m doing lots of other knitting and weaving too. I have some really cool inkle bands to show off but I need to get pictures. In fannish news, I finished watching Star Trek Next Generation and started on Deep Space Nine, which I like. I took a break to rewatch some Stargate Atlantis and have feeli.vs because I adore that show. And Joe and I are still working through the Star Wars EU. I like science fiction. In other.breaking news, water is wet.
As promised, here’s what I made for the Doctor Who Swap on Craftster I participated in:
Pattern: TARDIS socks
Yarn: Lion Brand Sock Ease and some white and black scraps
Needles: US 1/2.25mm
Modifications: Well, they’re mitts and not socks soo….
I’m pretty chuffed with how they came out. They were a bit large for my hands, but I have small hands.
I made this zipper pouch, the fabric of which you will recognize from the drawstring bag I made myself.
This drawing of the Doctor’s name from his cot in “A Good Man Goes to War” (the second part; can’t remember what that one’s called). I actually traced it from my computer screen, though I did sketch it out more fully on my own.
I painted a notebook to look like River’s spoiler journal and coated it with mod podge. I drew this on the inside front cover:
It says “Spoilers” in circular Galifreyan. I love it.
I also made a card, but I don’t have a picture of it. I signed my name in circular Galifreyan thought. : ) My package should arrive sometime next week (excite) and I will definitely show that off.
Next time: What I received in the yarnies vs. hoopers swap. Because it’s awesome.
Yes, I know the Oncoming Storm refers to the Doctor and not the daleks. I did not name the pattern. But clearly I am the oncoming storm since I punched up through some daleks and out through the top. Suck on that, Davros. And yes, my obsession with this show is cemented.
Anyway, I finished these mitts:
Pattern: The Oncoming Storm
Yarn: Black Patons Classic Wool and silvery grey ArtFibers Ming, a merino/silk blend of delightfulness.
Needles: US 6/4mm
Mods: Changed the ribbed thumb to garter and fixed the first black stripe so it doesn’t have the grey purl bumps on the color change. I also used worsted instead of dk.
I really love how they came out–they fit really well and the Ming is soooo soft. It’s like kitten fur mixed with clouds and dreams. Seriously nice. And the silk makes it really strong too–I couldn’t break it with my hands, which is pretty impressive seeing as it’s a single.
This last picture features one of our four cats. His name is Scrawny and my mother found him in my grandparents’ barn as a stray. I think he’s getting old now because we don’t know how old he was when we found him, but he’s a sweet cat. Loves to sit on my lap and curl up next to me while I sleep. He never used to like coming in my room but now he pretty much never leaves. Here’s a better photo:
So I finished up that second pair of Baby Fan Mitts. They look exactly the same as the first pair:
I believe I’ll be mailing them today. I also finished up the grey mitten part of some sharks, so I rewarded myself by casting on for a new project (more on that later).
GPoY stands for Gratuitous Picture of Yourself. GPoC stands for Gratuitous Picture of Cat (says me). I think I introduced Stretch a week or so ago. This is why he’s called that:
He sleeps on his back, spread-eagled. Frequently in the middle of my bed, making it awkward for me to get into. I’ll let him though since he usually sleeps snuggled up next to me, and that is super cute.
Stitch, Brinn, Stitch! 