My first free form mittens

I found some great pink chunky yarn in my stash. Yes, I was organizing the space and there it was...bright pink yarn begging to be knit.

After working on my Latvian mittens with its teeny tiny stitches, it seemed like a nice diversion to work with chunky yarn.

So, using my knowledge of the Latvian mitten pattern I started to knit.

And here is what I created.

Things I learned:

1.  Make the cuff long enough to cover your wrist.

2.  Make a division between the cuff and the big part of the mitten to keep the warmth in, and make it a more comfortable fit.

3.  When starting the thumb, wrap the stitches on the sides so that a hole is avoided.  See the picture above. In the top mitten I did not wrap (twist) the stitches and you can see a small "hole" where the thumb comes out from the mitten. On the bottom mitten I wrapped the stitches before knitting up the thumb.

A Headband Diversion

Even though it is getting a bit cold, and I will need my mittens soon, I got a bit distracted on a recent trip to my LYS (Local Yarn Shop).

OK, so on my way home from lunch with my family, we happened to be close to The Yarn Garage in Rosemount, MN.  I begged my sister to stop the car, and she indulged me!  She found two of her favorite colors in a really soft yarn, and I found a fun new pattern. The pattern is for a braided headband.

I actually wanted to sign up for the class which it taught by the designer of the pattern, but alas, at this point I am a working girl and the 10:30 am class time does not work for me.

Now that I am gaining a bit more experience as a knitter, I purchased the pattern with high hopes of making the headband by simply reading the pattern.

 

First of all the colors of the yarn are intriguing to me. I think you have to be 4 or over 40 to have the confidence to wear this combination.

The pattern is created for a single color of yarn. And apparently there is good reason for this. I restarted 3 times trying to get the braided effect my sister and I were imagining would work with this pattern.

 Nope! that is not it either.

 

Here is what I have so far. It started out so cool (the right side). This pattern has four sections which cable through the length to create the pattern. I think I may rip it out and try just using three sections with a cable to see what would happen!!??

Latvian Mittens and Pecan Pie!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

At our house we made a great feast. Unfortunately, we did not think to take a picture of our most beautiful turkey yet! If you look at the front cover of the November Bon Appetit, you can see what our turkey looked like. Really, we are getting good at turkey baking.

I did snap a picture of the remaining pecan pie. Also, a great improvement from last year. This year I made two recipe changes and one technique change. First, I made it without corn syrup, and toasted the pecans before chopping them and adding them to the pie. The technique change came from a cooking show I saw. It recommended putting the pecans in the pie shell first, and then adding the filling and then into the oven to bake. I do think my pie from last year, where I sprinkled the pecans on top of the pie filling before baking looked better. However, this pie is the best tasting pecan pie I have ever made.

Next year should be better than ever. 

I got a bit of knitting time in and made a little progress past the thumb.

 

I have found that the space between the lining and the outer mitten is a great place to store my needle number 5. 

Jo

My own Latvian Mitten Pattern!

Before I began knitting my mittens I spent hours looking over all the beautiful pictures of completed mittens in Latvian Mittens by Lizbeth Upitis. There are over 90 pictures of completed mittens and the patterns for each one. Really, how can anyone decide on one? But, I was excited to get started and decided on 10b Kurzeme (a region in Latvia), it is graph 105. Each picture has a little reference to a graph number in the back of the book. 

Graph 105 is a grid filled in with three colors. I am using navy blue, tan and white. The graph is only 14 squares wide and then repeats itself all around the mitten. I started by doing some math first. My total number of stitches must be divisible by 14 (70 stitches for me) if I want a concentric circle of pattern.

The top part of the mitten is also a repeating pattern. This pattern has a 12 row repeating pattern. 

I still need to take the time to figure out what happened.

The mitten pattern that was developing before my eyes did not match the picture I had selected in the book. If you notice the columns in the honeycomb pattern I will show you what is different. In the original picture there is navy knitting around each tan and white honeycomb. In my pattern every other column is connected by tan through the whole column. Meanwhile, the other column is not connected. I am not too concerned about this as it appears that I have created a new pattern that is consistent!!

I also hit a landmark. I am at the thumb of my left mitten!!

Now it is time to go prepare my turkey for baking in the morning:)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Jo

Making progress on the Left Latvian Mitten

Here is a picture of my progress so far.

 

First I made the liner. This went easily, because it is all the same color. However, I was using size 0 needles so it was a bit slow!! 

Next I started the outer mitten by picking up stitches from liner and working up the outside.  I will need to be careful as I think my knitting is a bit tight!

The pattern that is emerging on the needles is going to be repeated to the top of the mitten.

I think these will be the warmest mittens I have ever worn.  It's Friday, that means lots of knitting time in the next few days!!

 

Look Mom, I blocked it!

Since I am sending the prayer shawl off as a gift I decided to finish it off properly by blocking it.

I started out well. I hand washed the shawl. Then I proceeded to put it into a pillowcase and run it through the spin cycle of my washing machine to get it as dry as possible. Most of my resources recommended tying the pillowcase closed so the shawl would not escape in the spin cycle. I have not had good luck tying pillow cases shut and being sure they would stay that way. So, I opted for the rubberband closure method and it worked great!!

After spinning it dry, I laid out the shawl flat and placed the edges as best I could. I used to have a lovely red apple/tomato pincushion with many pins in it. Somehow it has become a favorite "toy" of my children. It has been found in many different parts of the house. Usually found with a new pattern created by moving the pins around. Anyway, today I could not find the pincushion, as you can see! 

The right edge is looking good. I did do a bit more tugging and pulling for the left edge before I left it to dry.

Tomorrow it goes into a package and out in the mail!

9960 Stitches in 5 days!

My sister-in-law just had abdominal surgery for the third time this fall. We are all grateful that she is home and is healing:)

When my first daughter was born I needed a C Section as she decided sideways was a very comfortable position to be in. When I heard news of my sister-in-laws 3rd surgery my own scar shuddered with pain. The healing process for me took a long time.

So, I set out to make her a prayer shawl. First so we could all send her a "big hug" since we are 1000 miles away. Second, so she could have something to snuggle with as she healed.

I picked some yarn from my stash. One of my favorite things about having a stash is that when an idea comes to mind I can start knitting within 5 minutes! I selected a creamy beige alpaca yarn and paired it with some yarn I bought in Austria many, many years ago. I knit the two yarns together for a nice warm blended look.

Usually as I knit I pull the yarn from the middle of the skein. With my yellow yarn from Austria I knit from the outside in. Not sure why....just happened. Now maybe this is true of yarn created in America, but I have never tested it. As I was getting to the end of the ball of yarn the coolest shape became clear. In the middle of the ball was a star. 

Now all I have to do is block and send!

t

Another pair of Latvian Mittens

Here is a picture of my progress on a pair of Latvian mittens for me. I created a pair of plain navy mittens which are now becoming the liner of my beautiful new mittens. 

 As I began to knit the outer mitten I noticed that the braiding is not as neat as my pattern makes it look. I can see the purl bump between the two parts of the braid, and I'm not liking the look. I must be missing something!

Also, I made a pair of mittens last year for my daughter and the braid seems to look just fine.

Hard to tell from this, but it does seem to be more of the finish I was looking for.

Jo

Shopping Distraction

Today I went to a thrift store to look for a pair of shorts...


I did not get any shorts, but I did get something...

Two lovely pairs of knitting needles. A pair of 2s and a pair of 3s. Only $1.00 for both sets!  

I wonder about the former owner of the needles. If these needles could talk I wonder what they would tell me about the projects they have been used to create. Or maybe...they have never been used at all???

On Cruise with the Birthday Shawl

I just discovered a great way to get lots of knitting done!!

When your kids are old enough to go in the pool without you, let them go swimming. It was worth every penny of the $6.00 per kid to get into the pool (OUCH!!) I spent on Thursday. We did manage to avoid the $2.25 per hot dog at the concession stand. Really, over $10.00 for 4 kids to hot dogs? and then they are thirsty.

Anyway, with hours of "free time" in a shady spot by the pool I completed ball of yarn #6.

 

 

And now on to ball #7. I am started to get distracted by my next few projects!!

The Birthday Shawl is Half way complete!!

After knitting through much of the 4th of July weekend I have completed ball number 5 of the shawl. I even found a shady spot during the parade to knit and stay out of the sun. Since I was already sunburned from a picnic on the 3rd, it was perfect!!

Here are some kids dancing to a float playing "Cotton Eyed Joe" during the parade.

You can see I had a great place to knit and enjoy what was going on from the trees. I wasn't being snobby really. Just protecting my skin and getting more knitting in too!

From the top...

Tadaaaaaaaa:)

One more down!

OK, now that I am in the grove with the Birthday Shawl AND also in the grove for summer break I should be making some stellar progress.

I now have 4 balls of yarn knit...

And now to keep going.

I am going to a wedding the last weekend in July it would be great to be able to wear this. It seem like the bamboo yarn will drape beautifully.

And now back to knitting!!

3 down 7 to go!

I am making progress on my shawl. And learning a few things along the way. 


First the progress...

After looking at the most recent picture of my progress, I have realized that I live a very distracted life right now. I guess I have always known that, but it is showing up in my knitting!! Really this is a simple pattern, once a lot of time is taken to decode it! It is a repeating pattern of 4 rows. Two of which are purl rows. So really, one would think it could be done rather easily. However, if you look at the left side of my growing shawl you may think you see some mistakes (creativity) with the pattern. You are right, somehow I lost control. 


I have decided to continue and not rip it out. I am going to try to do my best to pay attention to the pattern. I would like to wear this later this summer!


Some day I will look back at my work, see the inconsistencies in the pattern, and remember all the inconsistencies in my life right now. And I will smile:)

Knitting in the Summer

Some people say it is to hot to knit in the summer! Are they crazy? If you like to knit, then find a way to keep knitting. I plan to knit right through the summer. I have my Birthday Shawl to finish and an awesome new sock pattern to try!

I was going to post my progress on my scarf, but it would look like this..

...the same as the last post.

I have been to 3 music concerts, (one of which I sat towards the back a did get a few rows of knitting in), two First Communions, a wedding, a medieval fest, a track and field day, and a bunch more that is blurry at the moment. 

So, needless to say, there is not much knitting going on here. I have higher hopes for June. As I see it there is no reason to stop knitting because of the weather.

I am looking forward to this again soon...

Happy Summer!!

Finding my groove with my Birthday Shawl

OK, so I may be a bit of a slow learner, but after knitting two complete balls of yarn, I am in a groove. I can knit without the pattern! I went to a band concert tonight and took my knitting. Just slipped my knitting into my handbag and knit my way through the concert!

First this..

Then this..

 And now...