New Mittens!

These are to replace the pair I made my daughter a couple of months ago, which she promptly shredded on the playground (beyond repair). These are knit more tightly and should hold up better. The photo shows the back of one mitten and the thumb side of the other. I used the Generic Norwegian Mitten pattern from Hello Yarn with a pattern from Swedish Mittens. I reversed the colors in the pattern from front to back. That was a brainstorm that came about when I was charting out the pattern using Microsoft Paint, which has an "invert colors" feature. I think it adds a little something to the design.

I used a Plymouth worsted-weight yarn. Maisie chose the colors. I also made her a cute (though non-matching) hat with some of the leftover yarn. I built in a lining using a soft, mostly acrylic (25% wool) worsted-weight yarn in a similar color that I had lying around. I started the hat by casting on the lining yarn on a circular needle. I knit about 2 inches in the 2x2 rib, then switched to the wool yarn for another 2 inches of ribbing. Then I folded the ribbing up to the inside and knit the next row from the circular, knitting each stitch together with a stitch picked up from the cast-on edge. It provides a double layer around the ears and forehead, and is pretty tidy on the inside (see photo). She loves it and has been wearing it around the house constantly since I finished it.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

The "reduce" mandate was easy as it was quite by accident (see prior post). "Reuse" and "recycle" required a bit more crafty thinking. I'd been thinking about trying a felted handbag anyway, and decided that the shrunken sweater had potential. I cut the sweater off at the underarm, cutting a 2" right angle at each side (2" horizontal, then jogging up 2", then cutting horizontally straight across). Like this:

The sweater was knit in the round so I had a tube with a top that had two longer flaps on each side. I turned this upside down, so that the ribbed bottom of the sweater became the top of the purse. I stitched the "flaps" (the long ends, after the right-angle jog) together to create the bottom seam. Then I sewed together the 4" bottom side seams, which were created by the two-inch jog that I cut into the underarm. That gave me a somewhat rectangular bottom on my bag. It's hard to describe, so here's a visual (bottom side seams are represented by the heavier blue line).

The actual purse is not quite so angular, of course.

I had nearly a full skein of yarn left, so I knit up some wide I-cord for two handles. I felted them and ran the purse through the washing machine a second time. Then I made a short length of fine-gauge I-cord with one strand of the same yarn. This became the button loop. I threaded it into a large darning needle and pulled it through the purse, inside to outside, then pulled it through again. I stitched the two ends of the cord together to form a loop, then pulled the loop through to the outside of the bag, so that the seamed end was pulled up against the inside. Sewed a large button on the other side, and bag was done.

I'm quite pleased with the results, though I never would have spent as much as I did on yarn for a bag like this. I like the way the ribbing that started out as the bottom of the sweater ends up as the top of the bag. Quite decorative. I think my method of constructing a purse from a sweater would work with a thrift-shop wool sweater. One could use slices of sleeve, stitched into an I-cord-like tube, as the handles.

Disaster Strikes

It's been years since I actually knit myself a sweater. YEARS. So, a couple of months ago, I indulged myself with a big pile of Dale of Norway's chunky Hubro yarn, in a delicate aqua. I selected a quick-knitting pattern, the Weekend Neck Down Pullover from Knitting Pure & Simple. It knit up quickly (not quite in a weekend, but fast enough). Here's the work in progress.

Once off the needles, it needed blocking. Because it its bulkiness, I decided to skip the sink and soak it in my washer, a front-loader. Tossed 'er in, set it on "soak," cold water, walked away. A few minutes later (or so -- I was really not paying very close attention), I realized with a certain sense of bone-chilling dread that my machine was not merely soaking - it was agitating. Turning. Over. And. Over. I ran to the basement, canceled the cycle, and pulled it out. Yes. It had felted to a size that would perhaps have fit my six year old, at least in length.

I couldn't bring myself to photograph the disaster, so you'll have to use your imagination. Chapter Next: Day of Atonement, or, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

Six Diamonds Hat

This was going to be called Chevron Hat, but that name was already taken. Hot off the needles - I just finished it yesterday.

I meant to document this hat while it was in progress - I spent a lot of time working out the design. It's the first pattern I actually worked out in advance of the knitting.

I first worked out an early version of the pattern using perler beads. Unfortunately, I did not photograph this effort. This being somewhat laborious, I switched to Microsoft Paint, magnified to 8 times, which allows you to fill pixel by pixel. However, this printed out microscopically small. There it is, to the right.

I copied the image to Microsoft Word and enlarged it. It showed up fuzzy on screen, but printed perfectly.

Then, I printed the image six times (the pattern repeat), cut them out, and taped them into a prototype. Isn't it cute? This actually was a useful exercise, because it made me realize my decreases for the top were way off and the top didn't fit together properly. I was decreasing as you would for a four-sided hat, and I wanted six. So I went back to the drawing board, so to speak, to create the correct angle (about 60 degrees).

I finally began knitting, and ended up modifying the top as I knitted by keeping a 2-stitch wide brown border between the repeats. I think it is a modest success. I may try a four-sided one using worsted weight and larger needle size (this one was something like a sport weight, knit with a size 3 circular needle).

Here's the top. This is for my husband, who has a large head, so it is generous in both circumference and length. It's loose on me, but fits ok if I turn up the ribbing. It's knit with a super-soft blend of merino, cashmere, and microfiber. I love the look and feel, but am dubious that it will keep its shape. It just feels like it's going to stretch out.

If I get ambitious, maybe I'll work up the pattern to post online.

November Means New Mittens

Recently completed mittens, for Maisie. These are knit with a superwash Merino that I have been hoarding for several years (and I have at least 20 skeins). The pink and green are Kool-Aid dyed, pink lemonade and lime, respectively. Maisie helped with the dying and selected the color combination. I used a basic mitten pattern from The Mitten Book, adding the third color to the body pattern and a picot border on the bottom.

They're a little lumpy. Research suggests I was pulling the float yarn too tightly. There's tons of information out there on stranded knitting. Here's a link.

Arts & Crafts

It's been a rainy weekend, good for crafts at home. Here are a couple of things we've made recently. To the left - pressed leaves ironed between two sheets of waxed paper. The right photo shows off some of Maisie's amazing perler bead designs (for the uninitiated, perler beads are small plastic beads that you arrange on a pegboard, and then fuse together with an iron). These designs are destined to be Christmas tree ornaments.

Current projects

I have two projects currently on the needles. This is the more labor-intensive of the two. It's a stole using a double strand of thistledown from Blackberry Ridge. I hate to admit how long I have owned this yarn - two skeins left over from a stole I made for my wedding in 2000! I Kool-Aid dyed two skeins, originally natural cream, each in a different shade of green (one a light sage, the other a pale chartreuse). I am adapting La Belle Dentelle from Knituition. I added two repeats of the main body pattern to make it a bit wider. It's on number 2 needles. This is a start-from-the-bottom, keep-knitting-til-you're-done pattern. But it includes a symmetrical border on the sides that will, with the main body pattern, give it a slightly zig-zaggy edge all around. I did have a rough time getting the pattern established (more times than I can count, I've ended a row with one less stitch than was supposed to be there, requiring very tedious frogging due to all the yarn-overs), but that's the fault of my attention span, rather than the pattern. After seven or so repeats of the pattern, it's gradually getting to be more automatic. Sorry for the out of focus photo - best I could manage today.