11 Mittens for 2011 - A Challenge

There is a group of knitters on Ravelry who have all taken up the challenge to knit or crochet 11 pair of mittens in 2011. Now, you might think we are all crazy but when next winter comes and your hands are cold, think of us with our beautiful mittens to keep our fingers warm. If you are really nice to us, we might share the warmth! A knitter always loves to have her work admired and appreciated!

I for one, love to knit mittens. You can tell that by the number of mittens I already have on the needles. As I was counting up UFMs (Un-Finished Mittens) my count kept going up as I found project after unfinished project. I think I was finally up to at least 6 pair that had been started at some point in the past year. I was told that I can't count the mittens that are already started as part of the challenge but if I have only knit one I could count the other one as half a pair and combine it with another half-pair.

I don't especially like to follow "rules" in knitting, especially rules like this where it doesn't "really" matter that much, right? Hey, life happens! If I commit to knit 11 pair or 111 and don't manage to do it, the world will not end! If there is one thing that I have learned from raising 8 children, it is that you have to be flexible!

So, on to the pictures! That is what you wanted to see, right? I know I love the pictures in a blog. Here are the mittens that I will be working on for this mitten challenge. I already finished knitting the Navy Felted mittens so those won't count but they were part of the UFM list when the challenge was announced. There are some that I don't have pictures of -- some plain charity mittens, and a pair of plain gloves. Oh, gloves count too as long as the fingertips are covered(no fingerless gloves).

First: The blue and white is a Latvian mitten in Lamullgarn. I think it is too tight so I may have to rip out to the red line at the top of the cuff and try it again. Now how do I count this one? Can I count it as 1 3/4 pair? See what I mean about the "rules?"



The pink one is from pattern AH103 in Strikkegarn. This one is almost finished then I need to make a second mitten. There is even a UFH (Un-Finished Hat?), hmmm, I don't think that abbreviation works very well. Anyway, there is an unfinished hat that matches these pink mittens. I really should try to finish the whole set this year.



Next: The teal and blue is a glove from Selbuvotter in Finullgarn. This is another one that was set aside because of fit issues. It is too big for me and needs to be ripped back to the top of the cuff and knit tighter. By the time I do that, I will have knit most of this one.



Lets hope these first 3 pair don't end up like these blue and white ones. They are pattern AH102 in Strikkegarn for Carl. Or at least one of them is for Carl. He is 8 now and the one on the right fits him fine but the one on the left (with the needles still attached) was knit tighter and will hardly fit over his hand and is about an inch shorter! I will be knitting 2 more mittens in the hopes that I can make a mate for each of these. I will donate the smaller pair somewhere. No sense ripping out an almost complete mitten!




Finally: Now this mitten doesn't count in the UFMs. I just started it this year. It is the new Kitty Selbu pattern from Terri Shea, author of Selbuvotter. She designed this pattern to help pay the vet bills when her daughter's kitty was very ill. It is knit in Finullgarn and I am really liking the pattern so far.



Hopefully, I can make the challenge and finish up these mittens plus enough others to make 11 pair. But if life intervenes, that's okay too. What is the saying? If life hands you lemons, make lemonade. Well, for me that means I will probably just make socks! Hey, they will keep your feet warm!

Mitts and Mittens, oh my!

I have been knitting a lot of mitts and mittens this summer. You would think that I would want to knit tank tops or something cool for summer wear. But this summer mittens really took over my knitting.

In August before I went to Norway I sent off a couple of pair of very simple children's mittens to a Ravlery group project called For the Children of Pine Ridge. They were bright orange and purple. Should go over well with children on the reservation there if they are anything like my own children. I used my own pattern for these. I have knit so many basic mittens this way that I finally wrote up the pattern for it. You can find it here.


Then I started a pair of Latvian Mittens from the book of that name by Lizbeth Upitis. I chose 5 colors of Lamullgarn that I liked together. I really wanted to learn some new techniques from this book. There are beautiful scalloped edges, braids and rows and rows that use up to 3 colors at the same time in the row -- yes, I am a glutten for punishment when it comes to kntting. It was really hard to choose a pattern because there are so many beautiful mittens in this book. I finally decided to make mitten #5 because it was fairly simple designs, had the scalloped edge and only had a few rows knit with 3 colors in the row--I have my limits after all! The braids will have to be in the next pair.


The first mitten is just past the thumb opening. I am using 2mm needles with 72 stitches. Tiny, tiny! It grows very slowly. What was I thinking? They are beautiful though, right? They were starting to get a bit tedious and they are hard to take along. It gets to be a big bag full of knitting when you are using 3 balls of yarn at the same time. So they have been resting for a while.


Last week I happened to see that a designer was looking for some people to test knit a new pattern. Sure, why not? I only have .....ahem....lots of projects on the needles already. So I started another one. These were short fingerless mitts so they wouldn't take long, right?

The first mitt came out a little bigger than I need but should fit someone with just a slightly larger hand well. They are worsted weight in a nice denim blue and creamy white. They will be great for those cool winter days when your hands are getting cold but you still need them to type or knit. Or under mittens for those really cold days when you know you are going to have to take the mitten off at some point to dig the car keys out of your pocket.


I made that one mitt and decided to try a different yarn because it was a bit lighter and might fit me better. So came this one in a dark teal green and blue. Mmmm, nice colors and a good fit too. I finished the first blue and white one and made the green and blue one on our trip to Wisconsin this weekend for a wedding. That's why I took the pictures in the car. Great place to take pictures on a sunny day, by the way. It was perfect lighting. I really didn't need the warmth of the mitts though because it was well into the 70's the whole weekend. Beautiful trip too because the trees were gorgeous, but that is another story.


So, where was I? Oh yea, I made this one mitt and then started the second blue and white one..... but once again, I was distracted. I found some dark and light purple PT5 Sport yarns just calling out to be mitts for Amy. Amy loves purple. It is getting cold soon. So Amy needs mitts. Of course, I had to start those right away don't ya' know?