Amaliya in red for February

I had so much fun designing and knitting this beautiful, textured set!  There is a capelet with a cowl collar that covers the shoulders and neck, a hat to warm the ears and either mittens or fingerless mitts for the hands.  The texture makes pockets on the inside to trap the warmth. The texture reminds me of the bark on our Ash tree. The set looked so good on our beautiful daughter, Amy, that I named it in her honor. 

Meet Amaliya !
The patterns are available on my web site. You can buy separate patterns for each piece or a combined pattern which includes all 4 pieces.

 

Kitty Selbu mittens

I finished the first mitten! This one went really fast. Maybe it was because I really wanted to see it finished? Now I know I will have at least one mitten to display at Arnhild's Retreat with the patterns that I have ordered for the retreat store.



Again, it is Terri Shea's Kitty Selbu pattern available through Ravelry. The yarn is Rauma Finullgarn. Finullgarn is a great yarn to work with for stranded projects. It sticks to itself a bit so the stitches stay more uniform than they would in a slippery yarn. It makes a beautiful project.

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!

Wild Blue Horses and Norwegian Mittens

The Wild Blue Horses Cap is growing. You can start to make out the horses now. See the nose on the right and the mane on the left? Soon I start decreasing for the top of the cap. Then the rows get shorter and it starts to go faster.
Here is where I am on the sides that have the flowers.

I have also been working on some Norwegian mittens. The star mittens are from an Arnhild's Knitting Studio pattern, AH102 Child's Eight Pointed Star Mittens and Hat I made the first one to time how long it takes for me to knit them. We were trying to get an idea of how much class time would be required. So it took me about 6 hours. Some of that was while I was watching TV or tinking back to correct my mistakes. That will allow some time for students who might have the same problem or for questions and instructional time.

These will fit Carl so I will finish them for him. They are made of the very sturdy Rauma Strikkegarn. It is a really hard wearing yarn.



These plain navy mittens are also Norwegian mittens. They are the Tovede Votter (felted mittens) from the Rauma LVS-3 book. The yarn is Rauma Vamsegarn, a heavy worsted/aran weight. I made the men's size because I have long hands and I want to really felt these down for some really warm mittens. They were really fast to make on big needles. Just one more thumb to go. Great quick project. Hmmm, maybe I should make more for Christmas presents. You won't tell will you?

Iowa State Fair

I entered the fair for the first time this year. I have thought about it before but never followed through to get it done. Some of the knitters from the Ames Public Library's Knit and Crochet group were talking about entering so I thought maybe this year should be the year I finally did too. I found that there were lots of categories in knitting. I thought I might be able to enter a few things so I started making a list of what I had and which categories they would fit into. I came up with 15 items!

Click on the picture for a better look.
If you make it to the fair check out the Fiber & Threads, upstairs in the Varied Industries Building.

Progress on AH103 Mitten

The past couple of days have been busy so I haven't gotten as far on my mitten knitting. There is a knitting group at Borders that I recently started attending on Tuesday afternoons so I took the mitten along yesterday. I should have known better! Talking and following a pattern don't mix well! HA! I think I need to look closely at the last couple of rows again before I go on. I did get to the decreases at the top though and did the first 2 rounds there. Here is where I am now:


And here is the chain that makes its way up the sides of the mittens. In a Norwegian mitten there are always a few edge stitches which separate the palm design from the back of hand. They usually have a solid line of the main color(the dark one) on either side. You might also notice on the thumb gusset the solid line of the main color on either side. This line will continue up the sides of the thumb when I make it.


We have company coming this weekend from Wisconsin so I am going to be cleaning, cooking and planning for where we will put everyone in the next few days. My knitting time will probably be limited so I may not get this mitten finished right away. It is a fun project though so I will be motivated to get back to it soon.

Denise

AH103 Eight Pointed Star Mittens by Arnhild Hillesland

A knitter commented on Ravelry that the AH103 pattern possibly had mistakes. Arnhild created the pattern in the early 1990’s for classes she was teaching. She hadn't had any comments before now, but mistakes can happen. She has gone through several computer systems in that time and has revamped many of the patterns. Sometimes in making changes and reprinting things can accidentally be changed. She works very hard to make sure there are no mistakes. She does not want to have to post page after page of errata as many publishers seem to do.

So, in the interest of making sure knitters will enjoy working with these patterns, we decided to test knit it again just to check. I have not knit it before so I was elected to do the knitting. I am following the directions exactly to see what happens. I am making the Ladies size on 2.5mm needles. The yarn is Rauma Strikkegarn as suggested in the pattern. I chose 2 of the discontinued colors that Arnhild had.

4/10/10 so far I have knit the cuff and hand through the gusset stitches. Stitch counts all came out right and the fit is good. The first design (arrows) is a 4 stitch repeat. The diamonds are an 8 stitch repeat. That works.

I have knit the gusset stitches on to a holder and I am ready to do the rest of the palm and fingers. I don’t see any problems so far. Stitch counts all came out right and the fit is good.

4/11/10 tonight I knit about 2 inches up from the thumb gusset. At this point there are no changes in the pattern to worry about. I just keep following the graph until I get to the finger tip decreases.

I have been practicing holding both yarns in my left hand as I knit. I usually hold one strand in each hand when I do 2 color knitting. I am very pleased with how even the knitting is.I am not getting as much bumpiness in the work as I usually do. My gauge is loosening up though as I get more comfortable with this technique. I am getting a slightly larger gauge now than I need for this mitten so I need to try to tighten it back up. Otherwise, I will have a very “roomy” mitten.
I have noticed 2 minor things as I have been working.

1. The diamonds on the cuff need to be shifted 2 stitches over to line up exactly with the stars. Remember that I am following the pattern exactly. If I had not done that I would have checked for this alignment and corrected it. Norwegian patterns generally assume that the knitter will know some of these things.
   
2. There is a funky diamond in the cuff just under the thumb gusset. This is the beginning of the round and there really isn't a good way to avoid a jog at that spot. Who is going to see it on the underside of the arm anyway?
   

This is a very pretty mitten. I love the chains that go up the sides of the hand. I will try to get a better picture of those later.

So far, there don't seem to be any errors in the pattern so maybe the knitter just misunderstood something. These mittens are not a beginner project but hopefully with a little help, she will get her mittens made so she can enjoy them. I will knit this one and then do the right mitten as well to see if it works up the same in reverse.

More later,
Denise

Rose Mittens are finished!

I finished them last night. This is a picture against the snow bank, though you can't really tell it is snow. Yesterday was day 56 according to the weather man. We have had 4 inches of snow or more on the ground for the past 56 days! Several days ago, (about 2 snows ago) I heard there had been more than 40 inches of snow since winter started. That gives some indication of just how cold and snowy this winter has been. These mittens are very welcome indeed.


They are made of Istra, which is a DK weight yarn. They feel thicker than some that I made with light worsted weight yarns from other manufacturers. I tested them out this morning while driving my daughter to school. The temperature was still in the single digits but my hands were still reasonably warm! Holding a cold steering wheel makes my hands painfully cold if I don't have warm enough mittens.

I had to get creative with these mittens. I started a pattern that had a hem but found that after decreasing, the hand part of the pattern wasn't going to fit with the yarn and gauge I was getting. So, instead I picked out some graphs that would match the number of stitches I wanted to use. The cuff is #13-1 from LVS 5, Selbustrikk and the hand is #8 from the same book. They came out beautifully with a nice long cuff to cover my wrists up to my sleeves.

The week flew by....

We had a busy week with our daughter home from Nevada for the first time in a year. It was such fun to have her here. Now it is back to our regularly scheduled programming... school, work, making meals, washing laundry, and hopefully knitting!

I have found some time most evenings to knit. I finished up some slipper socks for the girls. Now they all have a pair of nice warm, thick, wool slippers. Carl is asking for a pair of slippers too so his will be next. These are made in Rauma Polar on size 10 needles. Big needles and fat yarn knits up fast!

Lisa's green slippers got away already but here are Amy's blue ones,

and Jessica's purple ones.
and Rosie's multi-colored slipppers.

I stalled out on my mittens when I ran out of the light pink Istra on the thumb of the first one. I have more yarn now so I am hoping to get back to them soon.

So I decided to finish up these pink mittens but I don't know what pattern I used for the first one. I started counting rows and knitting away one night. When I went to put them away for the night they looked like this.
Somehow they just didn't look quite right. I think that second thumb gusset needs to be a bit longer.

I did finish a pair of plain mittens. They are Lamb's Pride Bulky wool/mohair and will probably go to the church's international student program.
I have been modifying some socks that I had knit extra long. I found that they just don't stay up! They were both knit from toes to top so I was able to easily rip back and knit a shorter cuff on them. They will be more comfortable that way. The first pair is done and the second pair just needs a few more rows. I don't have any pictures of those yet but here is a picture of the progress on the Margrethe Norwegian sweater. The pieces are blocked and ready to be sewn and cut. Then I just need to knit a little bit around the neckline and sew the sleeves and hems.

Almost finished!

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.

McMittens finished!

I finished a pair of mittens this weekend!!

I finally got the thumbs finished and there are no holes! YEA!


The Berries Sweater for Terri Shea is coming along too. I have completed 2 repeats of the berries now. Hopefully it won't take as long as I originally thought it would! It is going to be a gorgeous sweater.


Pattern: Esther's McMittens

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

More Charity Knitting

I have several charity projects that I knit for.

There are

• prayer shawls for our church ministry,
  
• hats & mittens for the international families -- also part of our church ministry,
  
• hats for www.knit-a-cap.org,
• and recently I started making wool mittens for Macuwita-Sni (on Yahoo) (and here on Ravelry) a project for the Cheyenne River Sioux in South Dakota

The hat that I started on my way home from TNNA is one of these pictured. I had some made before the show and I have made others since then. These are really easy and fast to make. Some of them will go to the internationals and some will go to knit-a-cap.

The red mittens in my last post are planned for Macuwita-Sni, as are these red and blue stranded mittens. These have been a fun but frustrating exercise. I do not have a pattern to work from. I just thought I should add a simple stranded pattern to make them a little thicker and warmer. HA! The first mitten didn't work out too badly but trying to make the second one match was really a challenge! As my husband likes to remind me, "It's easy to make ONE of anything alike!"

I have ripped out many, many times! But I think I finally have it. Now to see if I can figure out what to do with the thumbs!!

TNNA Knitting

Of course I had to have some knitting to do while at a trade show that was focused on Needlearts!!

On the way to Ohio we were trying to finish up some of the display projects. I made several rosettes for the green Pillpi/Chiri hat/scarf/wristwarmers set that was displayed. We needed 20 rosettes so as we took turns driving we also took turns knitting them.

Then I started a pair of adult women's size socks in our new Magi sock yarn. These went with me each day so I could knit as I had the time while in the booth. It was also a great display item so people could see how this brown/gold colorway knits up. I would set it down next to the display of Magi when I wasn't working on it. Very pretty I might add!

Back in our room in the evening I started some plain wool mittens for a charity project. These also made for easy knitting to do on the way home in the car. I also started a charity hat on the way home and knit on it until it got too dark to see to do the decreases at the top. More on that later...





Need to get those last tails woven in on these mittens!

Summer Knitting -- Mittens of course!

Nice warm wool mittens! These are for charity. They will go to the Cheyenne River Sioux in South Dakota through the Macuwita-sni (which means "I'm not cold.") group.

In other knitting, the Chiri baby sweaters are drying after their final wash. I will try to get pictures of them up later. I think all of the knitting I needed to do for the trade show is finished! Now, I need to start planning and packing my stuff.

Felted Mittens

I finally found time to post a picture of the felted mittens that I started during the knitting retreat in late February. These beauties are nice and thick and warm! Too bad I didn't think of this sooner. They would have been nice to have when the weather here was below zero.

I used Rauma Vamsegarn for these on size 8 needles. They were knit in the round on double point needles. It took less than 2 skeins of the yarn. I am getting quite the collection of little bits of wool yarn. I might have to find a project to use up the small bits.

This is one of the patterns in the Rauma LVS 3 book. It shows some embroidery and an tassel on the cuffs but I have decided that would just get caught on things so I will leave it off I think.

Now my hands will be warmer!

Pattern can be found here

The yarn is also available at my web site www.denisesneedleworks.com

Children's Selbu mittens finally finished

I finally got these finished this week! Aren't they cute?

These are from Rauma's Selbustrikk pattern book:

Barnevott #9 to fit 7-9 years

Rauma Gammelserie yarn

Size 2 needles

Check out Arnhild's Knitting Studio for sources.

I am finding it much easier to follow the charts now. This is my third pair of Norwegian mittens so far. Rosie has asked me to make a pair with a moose on it for her. She saw a pattern she likes in this book. I guess my mitten knitting days aren't over yet.

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.