I can't seem to get away from mittens!

I am working on a pair of Mitered Mittens. This is an Elizabeth Zimmermann pattern found in both Knitter's Almanac and Knitting Around. The mitten is knit straight using pairs of decreases and increases to give the shaping. It is a very interesting technique and very simple to knit.

The thumb will be added later by snipping a stitch and unraveling some stitches to pick up and knit with. Take a deep breath......and cut my knitting!!

I am working on another pair of Selbuvotter as well. This one is supposed to fit about 7-9 year olds. It is too big for my 5yo and a little snug for my 10 yo so I think I have the gauge correct so far.

I did pull out an old project yesterday. It is a cabled sweater that I started just over a year ago. It is getting really cold here in Iowa and I need sweaters!! I am hoping that I can get more knitting done in the next few weeks though that is unlikely I suppose with Christmas coming.

My first Norwegian Mitten

I finished the first one! I am amazed that it came out so well. I have dabbled in fair isle techniques but I hadn't made mittens like this before. I am very pleased with it.

It needs to be blocked yet. And of course I have to try to knit a second one that looks enough like this one to make a pair! As my DH is fond of saying, "It is easy to make one of something alike."

Mitten Progress

I finished up another pair of mittens to go into the church donation box. These fit my hands with a little room to spare. They will be nice warm wool mittens for one of the International students here.

I have been working on the Elizabeth Zimmermann Norwegian mitten this week too. It is almost to the shaping at the top. I did have to rip a bunch out because the hand part was not going to fit. I started again at the wrist with larger needles. I will tell you later how I messed up the thumb.

I was having trouble following the tiny graph in the book so I enlarged it. Then I printed it on cardstock and covered the whole thing with clear contact paper. Someone suggested having it laminated and using wipe off markers but I was afraid that they might get rubbed off in my bag and I didn't know if they would work with the contact paper. I ran across this great Omnigrid Glow-Line Tape at the fabric store. It sticks well to the contact paper but peels off so I can move it easily. I have been using the same piece for the entire graph!

Warm Woolen Mittens

The weather is changing here in Iowa. The northern part of the state has already had a freeze. We haven't had frost yet but the leaves are starting to lose their color. It will be cold soon and there are lots of hands that need a pair of mittens to keep them warm.

I have been making some simple mittens for the International students at our church. These are some odds and ends of wool yarns. For this pair I used the Easy Striped Mittens pattern. I had to go up to size 8 needles to get the right gauge. I don't usually have problems with gauge so that puzzles me.

I also think there was a mistake in the pattern. There should be 3 more rows before the thumb shaping. The photo's stripes don't match the instructions. This pair should fit a pre-teen to teen. It is a little short for me. I think I will add the extra rows to the next pair so it will fit an adult.

Then I started an Elizabeth Zimmermann pattern--the Norwegian mittens from Knitting Around. Size 4 needles with a blue Nature Spun wool and a dark teal Lion Wool. I am using the snowflake design for the back of the mitten.

I haven't done a lot of Fairisle because it takes more concentration than I can usually find around our busy household!

I am enjoying this though. I have been trying to get the tensions balanced which has been tricky. The two yarns are slightly different thicknesses which I think is affecting my tension. I keep trying different holds, knitting one looser, the other tighter etc so this mitten might look a little funny when it is done. But as Elizabeth says in her books--blocking can work wonders.

There are stripes on each side of the mitten and on the thumb. Not as easy as it looks because with the increasing stitches of the thumb gusset the sequence of colors keeps changing.

The palm has a simple pattern. I kept looking at it though and thinking it didn't look quite right. I finally discovered that the white boxes in the chart should have been black and the black-white. I had to rip and restart at the wrist again! I remade the chart in my Easy Graph Designer program so it would be easy to follow.

It has been moving right along since I straightened that out. Having a yarn in each hand is becoming more comfortable as I work. I start to miss it when I pick up other projects!

Blue and White Baby Surprise

This BSJ is a long time coming but isn't it pretty? After knitting the light blue for what seemed like forever I decided that it was a little boring looking...well, maybe a lot boring...so I added the white and I love the way it came out!

It is made of Hobby Lobby's Baby Bee Sweet Delight Twist in bare blue, 85% Acrylic/15% Polyamide. The label claims it is bulky weight but it seems more like a heavy worsted similar to the Red Heart yarns. Has anyone else noticed that Hobby Lobby's Baby Bee yarns are not labeled correctly? I used most of 2 skeins, 226 yards each, on size 8 needles. The white is some Utopia acrylic yarn that was left over from another project.

I think this one would probably fit about 9-12 months, maybe even to 18 months. It measures 11 inches across the chest when flat, so 22 inches circumference and 14 inches neck to hem.

I added fold back ribbed cuffs and did an I-cord bind off around the edges. I cheated on the shoulder seams and crocheted them together with the white yarn. I haven't decided on buttons yet. I need to go dig through my button boxes and see what I might have.

Yes, I have more than one box of buttons, shoe box size actually.

Pi shawl--Is it big enough yet?

I am still working on this shawl. I have almost finished with the first 880 yard ball of yarn. I was afraid for a while that the ball would never quit. It seemed to go on forever!

Is it big enough yet to add the edging? When I grab the center and give it a gentle tug it comes just past my shoulder. I wonder how much it might stretch when it is wet?

I have another big ball of this yarn. I know I won't run out of yarn for my border at least!

Mindless knitting projects

I needed something extra for a baby gift so I started the baby bib from Mason Dixon knitting. It is one of my mindless knitting projects. Very easy garter stitch with cotton yarn.

Another mindless project is the hats I am making for Knit-a-cap and the kids at church. I vary the number of stitches, size of needles, type of yarn and even how many strands to get different sizes. I have 15 hats completed now. The top two are the same yarn with different numbers of stitches. The green one is a strand of worsted and a strand of baby yarn.

I also picked up an unfinished Baby Surprise Jacket last week and decided that I should finish it. It is a nice soft yarn from Hobby Lobby's Baby Bee line. It is a fairly heavy worsted weight and I am using a size 8 needle for this one. I think it would be large on the one year old I am babysitting this week.

I have been looking at it and wishing I had added some stripes though. It looks a little boring doesn't it? I am to the buttonhole row at this point. Maybe I can add some color with an I-cord binding and some cuffs?

Pi is growing

Well, we didn't go on vacation and I am just now catching up with my blog. Our daughter had to have her appendix out so we were in the hospital instead of traveling. Fortunately we caught it early and she has recovered very well. We have been busy finding her an apartment at school and collecting furniture for it. This week I have been babysitting for a friend's 2 little ones. Busy, busy times.

I have accomplished some knitting in the meantime though. The Pi shawl is growing as you can see. It even looks a little like a pie here.

I am at 576 stitches and maybe a little over halfway through the first 880 yard ball of yarn. When I hold the center of the circle in my fingers and stretch it out it goes from my fingers to just above my elbow. I think it needs to be quite a bit larger yet to make a nice shawl.

Pi shawl--A Fresh Start

So, I was knitting along on my shawl, and noticed that the circular needle was giving me much smaller stitches than the double points that I started this with. I kept knitting for a while hoping that it was just my imagination but no, it was true.

Since the beginning was a little shaky anyway, with the ladders that had formed between the needles, I sought out a second opinion from the LYS owner, Rosemary, at the Rose Tree Fiber Shop. We decided that it must have been the fact that this needle was more slippery than the dpns. I have had that happen with heavier yarns before but somehow thought that it wouldn't make that much difference in this lace weight on such small needles.

I wasn't liking the 16 inch circular I was using anyway because it wasn't very flexible. While I was at the shop I bought 16 and a 24 inch circulars in the size 4 so I could restart and hopefully have all of the stitches come out approximately the same size. I used the 2 circular needles to do the cast on and the first few sections. I still have a bit of a ladder between the needles even though I tried to keep those first stitches very tight. I think it is just the yarn!

Now I am almost back to where I was and things are going smoothly.

My knitting bag is packed for vacation. I probably have way more than I will find time to work on I wouldn't want to be sitting there just wishing I had some knitting!

EZ as Pi Shawl

I had a quiet moment today so I decided to get my Pi shawl started. I want to take it along on our vacation next week so I needed to do the fiddly part beforehand.

Bob and Larry helped me keep the needles from slipping through those first wobbly stitches! I had read that you should put it on a pillow and turn the pillow as you go instead of trying to turn the needles around. It worked very well!


When it got big enough, I added another needle. I prefer working with 5 needles rather than 4. Here it is at the 36 stitch stage.

And again at the 72 stitch stage. The ladders at the corners got rather big. I am hoping that with some washing and blocking they will even out more. But if not, this is a learning experience right?

I now have it at 144 stitches and on a 16 inch circular needle so it is ready to go on vacation with me!

Pi Shawl preparations

I joined the yahoo group Elizabeth's Year which is knitting along through the projects in Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitter's Almanac. We are starting with the Pi shawl, a beautiful circular shawl knit from the center out.

I was going to try to do a Bugs In My Garden Pi with another group but decided that I was just not quite up to all that lace and counting right now. I needed something simpler. I think this project will be perfect. I am going to make a very simple Pi without lace for the most part I think, though that is subject to change at whim.

It will also be perfect for the yarn that I already have. Knitpicks laceweight. I have 3 hanks that are each 880 yards. I dyed one of the hanks with Easter egg dyes that were leftover from the holiday back in April. Aren't they pretty?

My plan right now is to start with the white for the center of the shawl and when I near the outside I will used the dyed yarn. I am pretty sure that I have more than enough yarn but I am not sure quite when to start the colors. I will just have to see where whim and whimsy take me.

I have about 13 inches of the Silky Wool tank knit and will soon be to the underarms so I am hoping to get it finished before we go on vacation in July. Then I will start this Pi Shawl so I can knit on it during the times that I am not driving on our trip. I imagine that it will not be the only project that I will take along though. There are more hats to knit and the kids need mittens too. Then there is always a sock or two that I could take along. DH has already asked how much yarn is going along! Between my daughters and I it could be half the baggage!