Charity Knitting

I was given some yarns for charity projects. There was lots of orange Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride worsted yarn so I have been making socks for Afghans 4 Afghans. They will go to the women and children in Kabul. These are about a women's size 7-8.

I have also made mittens for the children of the Pine Ridge reservation. They are sized to fit a 4-5 year old in the Head Start program. I already have another pair started-- in a different yarn though. I was getting a bit tired of the orange! I will have to see if I have something that I can combine with it to make some other mittens that will look a bit different.

Time Flies...

As the old saying goes, "Time flies when you are having fun." It has been a great holiday season for us but also very busy. We have spent time with family and friends, helped a daughter move, rejoiced about a new baby in the family, mourned for relatives and good friends who are gone from us now, wrapped presents and opened them, played games, and laughed and had lots of fun together. I hope you had a great holiday season as well!

I also got some knitting done during this time. When I get stressed, knitting really helps calm and center me.The charity knitting is always on the needles. I have used up a lot of leftovers for these. Here are some of the hats and mittens that I delivered to the church for the Mitten Tree. There were trips to physical therapy for Amy's tendinitis in her wrist. Of course, I took knitting to work on while we were there. The therapist was always interested in what I was knitting. It always seemed to surprise her when I would pull out a different project. "It's a different color! That's not the hat you were working on last time!"


I did a lot of knitting on this sweater for Carl during those appointments too. The therapist really enjoyed seeing the progress that I made on it. This is the second Wallaby sweater that I have made for Carl. He outgrew the first one and had been telling me that he needed a new sweater. He chose the colors and their placement. It is his favorite sweater now. It is always so nice to get such appreciation for my knitting!


Carl needed a new pair of mittens this year. These are my basic mitten pattern. I knit them nice and tight to keep out the wind and cold. This winter has been so cold that we needed all the warmth we could get!
I had started these glittens for my daughter, Lisa, some time last spring. I finally finished them and she loves them! These are made in Rauma Vamsegarn 100%wool, aran weight yarn. It was a little heavy for the stranding and the extra glove inside, but that has made them extra warm. A good thing when temperatures are below zero!

I used Kathy Cochran's pattern. It was very easy to follow with all of the pictures she has posted. I would like to make a pair of these for myself as well.

I have been working on some other stranded projects too. I will put them in another post.

Cabled sweater for kids

Another sample for the trade show. This one is only a size 2 children's sweater. It is going quickly in Vamsegarn, a worsted weight yarn. Good thing, we leave in one week for the show and this is supposed to be in the display! I have the body done and one sleeve started now but haven't been able to get photos yet.

I had some problems along the way. No, make that lots of problems along the way. Probably because I am trying to get this done quickly. After doing seed stitch for so long on the Window Pane sweater I totally missed the instructions where it said to do the side panels in double moss stitch. I had been working merrily along for about 3 inches above the ribbing when I discovered it! The second picture is of the side panel after I reknit it plus a couple more inches.

I decided that I really didn't want to reknit the whole thing so I took the stitches for that whole panel off the needles -- gasp! -- I know, I know, for some of you that would be a major trauma but the stitches weren't going anywhere . . . yet . . . this is very sticky yarn so the stitches would just sit and wait for me to do something with them.

Now, fast forward a bit. I managed to cross one of the cables the wrong direction later in the sweater. I was telling my hubby how I had to reknit the side panels and now I needed to do the same thing to this cable. He suggested that I take pictures so I could post a how-to about it.

I am working on the how-to. Red is really hard to photograph well by the way! So bear with me. It will be up soon I hope. In the meantime there is lots of preparation underway for the show.

Mitten Knit Alongs for Charity

I keep starting mittens! I really need to finish some of them up don't I?

This yellow one is for a Mystery Mittalong. Basically, the person leading the knit along gives us a few rows of knitting to do each day but we don't know what it is going to look like until we knit it. I am not quite done with clue #3 here. These will fit a pre-schooler.

This orange pair is from a pattern that my friend Esther (Thanks Esther!) shared with a group I am on. She wrote the pattern herself and calls it McMittens because it is an easy pattern to remember and repeat over and over again. Great pattern for charity knitting!

I am using 2 strands of a worsted weight yarn for this one so it is equivalent to the bulky weight the pattern calls for. These are very warm and will fit an adult hand.

Both of these yarns came from my friend Jennifer when she moved! (Thanks Jennifer!) They are wool and I think there was a name on the yellow one but I have been thinking of them as mystery yarn. Perfect for knitting mystery mittens right?

Both pair will be going to Macuwita-sni to warm the hands of the children on the Cheyenne River Sioux reservation in South Dakota.

Do something for someone else today. It is a good feeling!
Denise

Toddler Sweater and socks

Things are coming together for the TNNA trade show. Only 2 weeks to go and much to do yet! Arnhild and I went over the preparations list again yesterday. We are pretty much packed up for the display now except for the models that are not finished. These 2 projects will be going into one of the rolling suitcases.

The River Jeans cotton Cabled Sweater. I made the size 2-4 toddler. This yarn is so soft and nice. The cables really look good in it and it has really good resilience for a cotton yarn. This is a sweater that is going to hold its shape I think!

You can see the cables better behind the Magi Socks here. Magi is another one of the new yarns that we will be displaying. It is a machine washable sock yarn. 75%wool/25% nylon. Really nice stuff too! This pair is just over 5 inches long. I made the sock to fit a little wooden shoe last that we are going to use for display. I really want to make some socks for myself now with one of the other colors!

I don't usually worry about having the stripes of the 2 socks match. I kind of like having them be fraternal twins but since these are going on the display at TNNA and on the pattern that I still need to write up (ahem), I thought they should probably match. I am very pleased at how closely they match. And I only had to cast on the second sock twice! Oh, if you can't tell in the picture, one of the socks is turned down at the cuff. They will work either way.

My web site designer, and second oldest son, took the socks to the park for a photo shoot. Here is the lovely photo that he took.

I made both of the socks from one 50g ball of Magi and still had some left over.

I am now finishing up the Ladies Cabled Cardigan (2090RVF) in Vamsegarn and Finullgarn. I need to sew in the sleeves yet and knit a neckband. Then I have to pick out some buttons that will go well with it. I find that to be the hardest part sometimes. I will often have an idea in my mind of what I want but does it exist? maybe-maybe not We will see what I find!

I thought I was getting almost finished with the projects for the show but after Arnhild and I went over the list again she handed me a baby sweater in another new yarn--Chiri Alpaca--which needs some crochet for finishing. Then she said that we needed to make more of the baby sweaters in this yarn if we could find the time.

So, I will be knitting.........

New Assignment

Arnhild's knitting retreat is coming up in just 3 weeks! We decided that we needed more samples of the new patterns that have come in from Rauma in Norway. My assignment is to make this stockinette children's sweater. I don't have the pattern picture to show you so you will have to wait to see what the rest of it looks like.

It is made in worsted weight yarn: Rauma Vamsegarn

The pattern uses what is usually considered the wrong side of the fabric. The stripes blend together more this way. I just need to knit a little more on the back and then it is on to the sleeves!

There are other things that need to be knit up for the retreat. I will be busy knitting and planning for the next few weeks!

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.

Barnevott - inside and out

I finally finished the first pair of Selbu mittens. Barnevott #10 in the Selbustrikk book. It is a child size pair of mittens. They just fit my 5 yo.

I have already started on the next pair which is a slightly larger size child's mitten. Again it is in the black and white. That is the traditional colors for the Selbu mittens.




Details of the mittens:

Pattern: Barnevott #10 in Selbustrikk LVS-5 from Rauma

Yarn: Rauma 2tr. Gammelserie Strikkegarn, 50g/160meters, one ball each of #400 and #436

Needles: size US2


I thought you might find it interesting to see the inside of these stranded projects. The floats of yarn show the design in the reverse colors.

Finished knitting

Some finished item pictures:

My Candy Wrapper Hat pattern done in Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Worsted yarn. This will be a nice warm hat!
More mittens for the International students. They are 100% wool. Should feel good to someone who is not used to Iowa winters I hope.


And lastly, a child size hat. I knit this during Amy's basketball game. Remember how I said that I could knit simple things without looking at them? I was surprised at how quickly I finished it. I had it cast on before the game so I didn't have to worry about counting. I almost finished it during the game. I think I knit faster when the game gets exciting! Amy made the first basket of the game for her team! It was also the only basket made in the first half I think. It is a very inexperienced, young team. They lost 59-12 but they had a great time playing and felt good about how it went.

Four boxes of yarn have been donated recently for the knitters at church. Of course it came to my house because I am in charge of the group. We don't have a very large group at this point so I guess I better keep busy. I certainly won't run out of yarn any time soon!

Selbu mittens

Well, my knitting has been going rather slowly in the past week. I have been busy working with Arnhild and learning all about the Norwegian company that she works with and the Rauma yarns and patterns. Their yarns come in so many beautiful colors! Many of the yarns are in the lighter weights which are hard to find. But Rauma has them! And Finullgarn comes in 100 colors!

I have been working on mitten #10, a child's mitten, from the Selbustrikk book that Arnhild translated from the Norwegian. I started it on size 0 needles in Gammelserie which is the traditional yarn for the Selbu mittens. I knit it just past the thumb but found that it was way too small. The mitten was so small that it didn't look like it would fit a one year old. It was supposed to fit 5-7 years. My 5yo couldn't get it on at all.

It was difficult to find time to knit this past week. The kids have so many lessons, practices and activities that I was only getting to knit a row at a time. By the time I would pull out the chart and get the yarn and needles arranged it would be time to go do something else!

I moved up to a size 2 needle though and tried it again. One row at a time I got back up to the thumb again and finally last night I was able to sit down and knit for a longer stretch of time. I was so excited about how this one was coming out. Now it fits the way it should!

At first the Gammelserie yarn seemed a little scratchy but I think that was mostly because of the tiny needles. It was really difficult to knit because it was so tight. With this yarn though, I think these will be very hard wearing mittens.

This is one of my favorite designs. I love the snowflake and I think it came out very nicely. I just need to knit a thumb for this one. The thumb will have a little person on the outside and the palm pattern will continue across the inside.

Be sure to ask your local yarn shop if they carry Rauma yarns. If they don't, tell them that they can easily order it from Arnhild's Knitting Studio There is no minimum order for the shop to meet and she will even drop-ship it directly to the customer at no extra charge.