This weekend I learned that the music of the Grateful Dead is the perfect accompaniment to hand spinning. DH found an old Dead concert on public tv he wanted to watch and I was working on spinning some Easter egg dyed kid mohair for the cover mittens of the new Spin-Off. This is the first time I've spun a yarn for a specific project and the yarn is quite pretty. We'll see if I can get gauge with it...



I took the Aran sandal socks to Thanksgiving at a friend's house and made a mistake so I gave up on that. I thought I'd spin the mohair on my purpleheart Bosworth spindle to give myself something mindless to do the rest of the weekend.



Here are some of the gorgeous socks in the new Katherine Misegades (formerly Pence) pattern book, The Tongue River Farm Sock Collection.







And here's a pair of socks from her previous book A Time to Knit Stockings.

Mittens in the Snow

I have been reading about Christmas gifts in other blogs. While I agree that hand knit gifts are inappropriate for some people (like most of the males in my family), I do give hand knit gifts to those who want them. I dislike knitting on demand so this year I chose a variety of projects that interested me and knit them. Yesterday I divided my gift knitting into three piles for three long-distance girlfriends and their families. Since they all have growing families I have no desire to agonize over sizes so I've made items in a variety of sizes and colors. I'll include a note saying to use whatever they can and give the rest away. This is kind of similar to my knitting box idea.

Last year I didn't have time to give hand knit gifts. Fortunately I found Baltic Shop. If you look under Crafts, then Gloves & Mittens you'll find some beautiful authentic hand knit Latvian gloves for less than the price of a kit to make them. I believe all of them are under $20. I sent some gloves to my mother last year and she really loved them. I may buy myself some Kurzeme mittens one of these days to analyze their construction.

I doubt I'll get much knitting done this weekend. We're going to spend Thanksgiving with a big crowd at a friend's house so I can just sit around all day and knit. Ahhh, heaven. I hope you all have an equally perfect day. Happy Thanksgiving! I'll be back Monday.

The Cormo wool I bought at Taos Wool Festival from Elsa Sheep & Wool (pictured with the t-shirt I bought) is a complete revelation. It is incredibly soft and feels almost as soft as the cashmere I made some Estonian mittens with earlier this year. You can feel the lanolin in the wool and it is so beautifully bright. I feel almost like I'm in love with this stuff and I simply have to buy a whole sweater's worth next year. I'm greatly enjoying doing the Aran Sandal socks from Socks, Socks, Socks with it.



Perhaps all this love stuff is because we saw the movie Love Actually this weekend. Nice piece of Christmas fluff although Colin Firth works for me year-round.



I apologize again for the poor quality of photos for this blog. Santa Claus is getting me a new scanner for Christmas so I can do a lot more up to date photos and show little details better for the blog. So just hold on for a little longer...

Turkey Mittens

GOBBLE, GOBBLE, GOBBLE









I just had to knit something especially for Thanksgiving so here are the November turkey mittens from the pattern booklet A Year of Mittens (I believe Patternworks still sells it). The mittens were knit in Country Garden DK and size 4 dpns and are a bit large for my hands.

I finished another hat this weekend and decided I'm done with my Christmas knitting. I was just sick of it. I started the Aran Sandal Socks from Socks, Socks, Socks for myself in some beautiful Cormo yarn I bought at Taos Wool Festival. It is nice occasionally to get a break from colorwork and not be surrounded by 50 million balls of yarn on the couch.

HALL OF LOSERS



Here you have some of the most pathetic, sorry, pitiful excuses for knitting projects in their abandoned state. These are just the ones I kept for some reason. Hide your eyes if you are faint of heart!





First we have a photo of four losers.







1. First we have the slipper. This is simply Theresa's Fuzzy Feet slipper worked on a size 6 dpn. I was going to add ears and embroider a nose to make bunny slippers and give them to the rabbit shelter for their store. Why was this abandoned? Because the second sock was knit with a completely different color of gray yarn. I didn't actually even notice this until I made two socks and that is even with an Ott-Lite. sigh



2. Above the slipper we have the beginning of a sock from Joyce William's Latvian Dreams in Nylamb. I don't even know why I abandoned it - how sorry is that?



3. Next we have the cuff from the Gauntlet mittens in the small Vogue Knitting Mittens & Gloves book. You know all those books that say all colors go together at all times - well this proves them wrong. The colors of Cascade 220 together are just awful and I absolutely hate the way slip stitch knitting looks besides.



4. Finally we have yet another pink mitten for the rabbit shelter. The cuff design is from A Year of Mittens. It is just really pink. Too pink. I simply couldn't face another mitten done in such pinkness.









Here we have some sort of godawful chullo hat done in some very loosely spun stash yarn. Gauge? What is that? This hat is large enough to fit Paul Bunyan. I have a large head and I could wear several wigs and about 20 other hats and still fit this baby over my head.











And here is the saddest of sad - a single unloved glove done in Nylamb from a vintage mitten and glove pattern book. I don't know originally why it was abandoned but I kept it for years. Apparently back when I made it my gauge was a milllion times looser and I could never replicate it today. Plus I think the increases along the thumb gusset were done badly - I probably knit in the front and back of the stitch instead of a true M1.





Now to get these disturbing knitting images out of your mind and to see some wonderful knitting, immediately go HERE to see Robin's (my twin separated at birth) beautiful Fair Isle vest on Alissa's blog and HERE to see Linette's gorgeous Fair Isle vest.

Turkish Infant Cap

Sorry about the poor quality photos but this is the Turkish Infant Cap from Tops with a Twist in Nylamb.







Not much else to report except I finished two more pairs of mittens. I want to finish all my holiday gift knitting by Thanksgiving and then it is finally on to the Poetry Mittens and Aran Sandal Socks for me, me, me. So far for gifts I've finished three scarves, three hats, and four pairs of mittens.

Thanks to Missa for making a neat blog button for me with the Dale baby cardigan in it.

Two Color Knitting

TWO COLOR KNITTING

Most people using search engines to find this blog are looking for information on knitting with several colors at once. I'd like to reassure everyone that knitting with more than one color isn't hard. Really. Even if you are a brand new knitter you can do this. It is more a matter of training yourself on how to hold the yarns and how to read a chart.

Two color knitting (also called stranded knitting & Jacquard knitting - Fair Isle is a type of two color knitting) is different than intarsia or picture knitting. Two color knitting involves carrying the unused yarn on the back of the work (these carries are called floats and if they are too long you can catch your fingers or toes in them). In intarsia, the yarns are twisted around each other every time you get to a color change and the unused yarn is not carried along.

Many knitters prefer to knit with only one hand and simply figure out a way to hold both colors in their right or left hand, knitting English (throwing) or continental (picking). Supposedly Meg Swansen is a one-handed two-color knitter.

In two handed knitting you knit continental in your left hand and English in your right (if you are right-handed). The photo on the cover of the Starmore Fair Isle book shows what this looks like. I sat down with a sock project and just forced myself to learn how to do this method. It is quite fast and I like it because I think it takes some of the strain off my dominant hand.

About the only place your yarns can tangle using this method is at the beginning of a needle. I usually make an effort not to let this happen at a needle change because it can also be noticeable, especially if you're working with dpns. I usually put the skein of background color on my right side and the contrast skein of yarn on my left side to keep things straight as I'm knitting. If for some reason your yarns do tangle just grab the yarns about 2 feet from the project on the needles and let the whole project on the needles dangle and untwist itself.

Although a first two color project with bulkier yarns will go faster, the tension issues won't be as noticeable with smaller yarns and needles so I think a beginner's colorwork project should be done at a fine gauge.

I still occasionally have minor tension problems or puckering, especially in projects with longer floats. All you need to do in this situation is be mindful. If your knitting is puckering when you're knitting with more than one color, it means you are carrying the yarn not in use too tightly. You can remedy this by regularly stretching out your knitting on the right hand needle immediately after it is knit. Purposely knitting looser may also help you and good blocking can make a multitude of tension problems disappear.

By far the best online reference to knitting with more than one color was one done by Anne Featonby for the KBTH Virtual Conference. Anne's online class, Fair Isle 101, has lots of photos that show how to hold the yarn at every step of the process and how to catch long floats. There are even some great photos and info on steeks. Judy Gibson's Cyberclass on Two-Color Socks has lots of excellent info on colorwork. Her Lesson Two on Handling Two Colors has some photos also.

One thing a lot of new color knitters do not know is that it definitely matters in which hand or how you hold each color. Whatever method you use, be consistent or it will be quite noticeable. The yarn you carry ABOVE (look on the back of your work) will usually be less prominent. See HERE for a better explanation and photos.

In Joyce William's Latvian Dreams she makes a case that how you hold the yarn doesn't always result in a certain yarn being held above or below - I don't know. I do know I always hold the main background color in my right hand and the foreground or pattern color in my left hand. Just be consistent. In the Paradoxical Mittens which have a vertical stripe I accidentally mixed up which hands held the which yarns for about only four stitches. It was very noticeable and I had to rip out about an inch of knitting to fix it.

In Carol Rasmussen Noble's Knitting Fair Isle Mittens & Gloves she says, "To achieve better clarity of pattern put the pattern yarn on your left hand and the background yarn on your right hand, because stitches made using your left hand are a bit larger and show off the pattern more."

The Philosopher's Wool method is a two-handed method that has you weaving in the yarns on back more frequently than you do with regular old stranded knitting. There is a book on the subject and some new knitters feel this method is easier to learn. I think every time you weave or catch a float on the back of the work you risk the color showing through on the front of the work so I minimize this as much as possible. But go with whatever method works best for you.

You will occasionally find rows in colorwork knitting designs where you have the dreaded three or even four colors per row. Dale of Norway designs are infamous for this and I see a lot of them in Latvian mitten designs. I continue to hold the background color in my right hand and the other two colors in my left and just knit, although it is slow-going and yarns do become tangled. Some knitters prefer to simply slip any stitches with a third color and re-work the row a second time with the third color, slipping the first two colors, if they are working in the round. And some just knit with two colors and duplicate stitch in the third color when they're done.


It doesn't seem like any current knitting magazines or books ever discuss this subject. Fortunately there are several excellent older reference sources on the subject. For a good discussion on the different ways of holding yarns for knitting with several colors, you can't beat the illustrations in Anne Feitelson's The Art of Fair Isle Knitting. This book is becoming scarce fast so buy it now before it costs a billion dollars on Ebay. Alice Starmore's Book of Fair Isle Knitting also has some good info. KBTH, Norgeknit, and ASOFlives are online mailing lists you can join that are populated with knitters who do colorwork and can answer your questions as well.

It is a nice cold and snowy day here. This photo shows our yard and the windsock that has seen better days.

Halloween Socks

Here are the Pumpkin Patch socks from Blackberry Ridge Farm in their entirety. The pattern is from the Sock of the Month Collection, Volume II and I substituted orange Nature Spun worsted for the more gold yarn included in the kit. I continued to knit pumpkins on the bottom of the feet unlike the pattern and I added the Boo! from a holidays cross stitch book. These socks don't turn me on at all but I'm determined to try to knit things for all the major holidays. The turkey mittens will be finished this week and I already have patterns selected for Valentine's and St. Patrick's Day. I haven't decided on my Christmas knitting yet.

I really enjoyed the shadow knit hat. Mare made about 45,000 of these hats and inspired me - I purchased the pattern HERE. I looked at the knitted fabric a lot from different angles during the process to enjoy the shadows. Shadow knitting is really a simple combo of knit and purl (I think I'd describe it as kind of an inverse welt stitch) but if you purl more loosely than you knit (as many knitters do I've read) it will be more noticeable in this pattern. IAnd one other cool thing about this particular pattern - the Japanese bind-off. This may be my new favorite shoulder bind-off rather than the three needle bind-off.

I was out this weekend buying some fun used story books for my friend Lisa's four year old son. I bought one called Mr. Nick's Knitting written by Margaret Wild. Mr. Nick and Mrs. Jolley knit together every day while commuting on the train. Mr. Nick helps Mrs. Jolley untangle her yarn and Mrs. Jolley helps Mr. Nick with his dropped stitches. One day Mrs. Jolley stops taking the train and Mr. Nick finds out she is going to be in the hospital for a very long time. He brings her some yarn and needles but she is sad because she can't see the sights she liked to look at from the train every day. So Mr. Nick goes on this knitting binge and ends up knitting her an afghan filled with pictures of sights they used to see from the train.

Katherine Pence Socks

I received the three books I ordered from Schoolhouse Press. There was a small Christmas stocking book and The Tongue River Farm Sock Collection from Katherine Pence (now Katherine Misegades). I've always loved her designs from And a Time to Knit Stockings and this small booklet with 6 patterns is wonderful also. Check out MYKP's beautiful Waves & Rivulet Socks from the Tongue River book HERE - aren't they great? I want to make the Buds & Blossoms socks in black and white first.

Here are some photos of socks I did from her first book - I charted out Noel on top of the Christmas socks.





Best of all is the third book I received. It is a tiny book called Cimdi. Duraini. and it is full of gorgeous Latvian mittens and some gloves. No patterns, not much info, but some terrific photographic inspiration for our first snowy day here in NM. The one thing I notice about the Latvian mittens and gloves in it is that the tips of the fingers are much more pointy than usual. And lots of three color rows which we all love of course.

Here is a photo of the Lucy Neatby Paradoxical Mittens in progress to the point where I ran out of the purple yarn. They are done in J&S jumper weight yarn and size 1 (US) dpns. Check out the completed mitten on the left side. One side of the top of the mitten slopes more deeply than the other just like your hand does - these mittens are anatomical. Pretty cool for a mitten freak like myself.



Yesterday Anne wrote in the comments for this blog that she has a one-armed friend who is seeking single mittens & gloves. She was wondering about the single Peruvian patterned glove I made. I was sizing it for a teenage girl and it is a bit tight for me so I'm not sure it would work for a guy. I do believe I have at least one single mitten in the crafts room somewhere that might work. Please read the comments from yesterday and contact Anne if any of you have any single mittens or gloves needing a good home.



Because I haven't been knitting at my usual speed lately starting next week this blog is going to host the Hall of Losers. The Hall will highlight various knitting projects that have been abandoned. I'll show each sorry, pathetic item and tell you why I quit working on it.



I'm almost done with the first turkey mitten. My row gauge is off with the Country Garden DK so these mittens will go to a guy I think. It is weird because the last two pairs of mittens I made from the A Year of Mittens brochure were too small (in Heilo and Classic Elite Tapestry).

Thank you for your comments on the loss of Snickerdoodle. He was such a sweetie and the house feels really strange and quiet without him. We will find another rabbit or two in need of a good home one of these days when we feel ready. I appreciate all your kind words and I can use this time to check out all the great rabbits available for adoption.



For some reason my comfort zone knitting is colorwork mittens so I started on the November turkey mittens from A Year of Mittens in some stash Country Garden DK.



I'm not quite sure about the fate of the Peruvian Patterned Gloves from the small VK Mittens & Glove book. I didn't like the patterning on the fingers so did each finger a different color. DH calls them the "acid trip" gloves and they really are a bit much. Here is a photo of the scalloped gauntlet of the glove in progress and mind you, the colors look quite muted in the photo. I'll take a photo of the completed glove but I doubt I'll make a second one. I just don't know anyone who would wear them. My gauge is fine and the gauntlet goes almost all the way to my elbow.







The Heels & Toes Gazette issues have also been traded to Karine in Norway.



Debi who reads this blog sent me an excellent link to some really cool mini-sock earring kits you can buy. I'm going to buy one and then I can re-use the glove needles in size 0000. You can also just buy the needles alone if you like. Thanks Debi - I think you've found the only online source of 4" needles in sizes lower than 0. I'm looking forward to making these earrings. Perhaps some mini-Sanquhar sock earrings?

SNICKERDOODLE 6/19/95 to 11/8/03







Snickerdoodle died on Saturday morning. His appetite had been decreasing all last week and I spent a lot of time with him on the floor coaxing him to eat with his favorite treats. On Friday DH came home early and we sat vigil with him, playing Scrabble and making a fire (Snickerdoodle really loved to stretch out next to a warm fire) and telling him how much we loved him. I slept on the floor next to him petting him on Friday night. He died soon after I woke up on Saturday morning.



Snickerdoodle was 8 1/2 years old and my very first bunny. I bought him at the county fair from a rabbitry (long before I'd heard of rabbit rescue groups) and he was so tiny I held him upside down in my cupped hands to check his teeth. We initially thought he'd be a caged rabbit but we let him out of the cage after we brought him home and he shook his head and did this enormous jump landing in the opposite direction. Of course I thought this was some sort of seizure but in actuality it was a binky, sort of the same as gamboling for lambs or goats, and an expression of sheer happiness. He never went back into his cage again.



I was worried about having him neutered so I waited about 6 months too long. By this time he'd run circles around me and he started to nip at my feet. Finally we did neuter him and fortunately I no longer had to wear 5 pairs of socks around the house. Although he was quite bonded with our white cat Bosco I figured I'd get him a bonded bunny friend. I brought home another dwarf bunny baby, Cookie, and they adored each other at first sight. We called them America's sweethearts and they groomed each other constantly.



Cookie died suddenly 3 years later. Snickerdoodle didn't seem unhappy about this at all so we thought we'd keep him as an only bunny and he really thrived. He loved to chase the cats around and growl at the broom and vacuum cleaner. Several times he had skirmishes with my black rabbit Flip who died four months ago. Flip was three times as large as Snickerdoodle but Snickerdoodle would bare his teeth and launch himself at Flip like a ferocious bunny missile. My favorite memory of Snickerdoodle is once when a friend brought me a large box of apples from his apple tree. One day I went into the kitchen and found Snickerdoodle in the box of apples in absolute bunny heaven. Each apple on top had a tiny bite taken out of it.



When Snickerdoodle became ill with pasteurella last month my vet tried to tell me that he was not going to be around forever as he was already quite old but since he'd been so healthy previously I figured he'd be around for many more years. I spent several hours every night on the floor with him. I'd knit and he liked to lick my socks and hang out next to me and occasionally if I was lucky I'd get a bunny nose kiss.



Goodbye Number One Bun - we love you.

Landra's Gloves

I was disappointed with the article in the current IK giving a pattern for gloves knit in worsted weight yarn on size 7 dpns (yikes) along with no information on starting the fingers on different rows. The article includes such gems as "Mittens can be considered the sensible flats of handware, whereas gloves are the high heels." and "Be aware that a yarn knitted to a gauge of fewer than four stitches to the inch will be bulky between the fingers."

I did save the helpful Pam Allen info on thumb gussets. I'm surprised that there was no information on doing a peasant thumb which is lot easier than a thumb gusset and easy seems to be the focus in knitting magazines these days. Nancy Bush uses the peasant thumb in all the gloves in Folk Knitting in Estonia (see photo of my version of Landra's Gloves below) although I think she calls it Stocking Thumb Straight. The peasant thumb in gloves looks weird when the gloves are not being worn as you can see but I think they are just as comfortable as gloves done with a gusset. Your mileage may vary.



Anyway, here are some of my glove knitting tips. I hope Lisa, my fellow terminal glovitis sufferer, will post some as well.

GLOVE KNITTING TIPS

1. I ask family and friends to trace their hands (like children do when they're making a turkey) on a page in my knitting notebook and sign it along with their birthday and any particular glove preferences. I've successfully made gloves to fit from these drawings - just hold up the glove in progress to the drawing to size it.

2. Most glove fingers have a tapered top and I begin the decreases at the top of the finger when I get to the center of the fingernail of that finger. For the very top I draw all the stitches together in what Nancy Bush calls a "heart of a blossom" closure. I've done kitchener stitch for the tips but it really isn't worth the extra trouble. Whichever method you use for glove fingertips do a really neat job of securing the yarn ends in your fingers. If you are messy and make a lump it will forever annoy you when you're wearing the gloves. Yes, I do know this from bitter experience! sigh

3. I find gloves can be knit to fit better if you start knitting the fingers at the little finger - that also is the only way you can adjust them so that each finger starts at a different point with the little finger being the lowest point. Stick your hand in the glove at regular intervals while you're knitting it to check the fit of not only the hand but the width and length of each finger.

4. There are three ways to deal with small holes that may appear at the base of the fingers. You can add extra stitches when you pick up stitches for the finger and then decrease them on the next row. I dislike the way this looks. You can twist the stitches purposely when you pick up the finger stitches, i.e., knit them through the back loop. This doesn't often work well enough for me. Or you can do as I do and take the yarn end at the base of each finger and use it to tighten up the area after you're done knitting and working in the ends.

5. Most hands have fingers that do not start at the same horizontal axis. Nancy Bush recommends that you start the little finger about 1/4" lower than the rest of the fingers but I take it further and do the fourth finger lower than the middle and index finger as well.

6. To block gloves to fit better, I wet the finished glove and try it on. Move the hand and fingers around a bit to help it get the right shape.

7. I think a lot of knitters have slightly different tension for the glove fingers so check your gauge on the fingers as well as on the main body of the glove. This tension change may be because you're worried the needles are going to fall out of the knitting when doing the tiny fingers. I usually use a larger size needle for the glove fingers to keep the gauge consistent. Some patterns recommend going to a smaller needle just for the fingertips but I think this is only necessary if you're using a thicker yarn.

8. Gauntlet gloves and mittens are designed to go over your sleeve cuffs and outerwear so make sure they are wide enough at the gauntlet to fit over several layers of clothing or a coat sleeve.

9. Sometimes in knitting glove fingers in several colors I get little bumpy "ridges" at the beginning of each needle. I think this also is because of the tendency to knit the fingers at a tighter tension (so as not to lose the needles) so I purposely make sure to carry both yarns loosely at needle changes on glove fingers.

10. Previously I've tried to save time by leaving the remainder of the stitches on the dpns while knitting a finger. Don't do this! First of all, it stretches and enlarges the stitches at the edge of the dpns nearest the finger you're knitting but more importantly you won't save time. Thread a needle and put the stitches being held on it and tie a loose knot. No more yarn catching on the stray needles or poking yourself while knitting.

11. There is no particular type of thumb I prefer for women's gloves but for men's gloves I always make gloves where the thumb sticks straight out from the side of the glove - called the Basic Thumb Gusset in the current IK article. Nancy Bush calls them Side Thumb Shaping.

12. I highly recommend an excellent and long article called Gloves Galore by Nancy Bush from the Fall 1996 issue of Interweave Knits. There is even a sidebar on knitting gloves from the finger tips down. There are several patterns for gloves and mittens including some really neat Sjomann Man's Gloves - colorwork and small needles.


One last item on gloves - I said previously that I finally managed to find glove needles in sizes lower than 0 (for Sanquhar gloves for instance) at Knitter's Underground. I ordered a pair of "specialty glove needles" in size 0 but I didn't read the description well enough. What I received were 8" long Inox needles. For some reason I thought since they called them glove needles they were 4 or 5 inches long. As far as I can tell there are no online sources for glove needles in small sizes - 0 or less. Please let me know if you find any!

Here is my collection of knitting books. On the left on the second photo is my collection of Spin-Off issues. Usually I just cut out projects that interest me from magazines and file them.



I'm generally a small project, small needle, colorwork knitter. I finish about 30-40 projects per year. I currently subscribe to three knitting magazines and two knitting newsletters. In the last year of these 5 magazines and newsletters I've found only four projects that I want to do. I often worry there are just are not enough knitting projects currently being published to keep me knitting. I'm working through my stash of old knitting patterns more and more to try to find future projects. I've been buying more and more patterns off the web individually and I am going to start collecting vintage patterns which may help.



What is the one knitting book that really turned you on to knitting? For me it was Homespun Handknit. My knitting friend Nancy and I made most of the projects in there between us. My real first pair of socks was the colorwork Holiday Socks (of course they were way too big) from that book. I look through it now and it has both easy and complex lace and colorwork projects, big and small needles, and techniques galore - double knitting, twined knitting, fingertip down gloves, bohus knitting. Some of the projects look a bit dated now but I always recommend this book as a great book for beginning knitters who want quick projects to help them learn new techniques.



On the knitting front the first Peruvian Patterned Glove is almost finished and they DEFINITELY are gaudy. They are fun to knit though. You could easily make these gloves without the gauntlets although I suspect they'd still be gaudy in the chosen colors. The directions for the fingers are kind of weird - you actually knit the ring finger first. I've written up a few glove knitting tips and I'll put them on the blog tomorrow.



Does anyone know what is going on with Brown Sheep Nature Spun yarn? Patternworks stopped listing it in fingering weight in their catalog last year after about 10 years of carrying it - although they do list 15 Super Bulky yarns on their web site. sigh Herrschners is selling off their entire line of Nature Spun in all weights (I should know - I keep buying it when it goes on sale on Thursdays). I would really be upset if this yarn was discontinued. There is no other inexpensive wool yarn in many colors and three weights.

I've found another error in the Vogue Knitting Mitten & Gloves Peruvian Patterned Glove. On row 22 of the Back of the Hand chart the bird's wings are not symmetrical on both sides. Also, I think it looks a lot better if you do both sides of the thumb gore (on the outside of the stitch markers) in the main color rather than in pattern. I hope to finish the first glove by the end of the week. I think the gauntlets on this pattern are quite long, almost down to my elbow but whatever. The colors are fun.



I finished another Spontaneous Scarf in reds and purples. I made it thinner to be given as a gift for a young girl but it is pretty scratchy due to some of the handspun mohair I used. Oh well maybe I can donate it to charity instead.



I am totally in love with the Austrian Mittens & Hat set on the cover of the current Winter 2003/2004 issue of Cast On. I think they're a little large for the model but that is easily remedied.



Recently I did a Treasure Map where you cut out photos that appeal to you from various magazines and catalogs.







And here is DH's Treasure Map which seems to involve solitary outdoor activities and comfortable chairs.

Just an update - The Stranded issues have been traded but the other two items are still available for trade. Also, the two photos at the top of the blog are the Dale of Norway Lillehammer knee socks done in Nature Spun sport weight and a pair of mittens from the pattern brochure A Year of Mittens done in Classic Elite Tapestry.

Vinternatt Mittens

Here are the Vinternatt Mittens, front and back, from a kit by Nordic Fiber Arts done in Strikkegarn on size 4 dpns I believe. I was initially worried there wouldn't be enough contrast with the colors I chose but I now like how they turned out. I decided not to baste the hems for a picot edging (I'm thinking these mittens might work for a boy) and just let them roll instead. I did them in a size small and had an entire skein of the blue color left over.


STUFF TO TRADE

I'll trade any of the items below for some fingering or sport weight 100% wool yarn (no superwash) in any solid color such as Brown Sheep's Nature Spun.

1. 4 issues of Stranded - the newsletter devoted to knitting colorwork by Bonnie Franz. Each issue is devoted to a single country and includes around 5 patterns. The issues for trade are January 2003 - Norway, Spring 2003 - New Zealand, Summer 2003 - Egypt, and Autumn 2003 - Shetland issue which has a pattern for Sanquhar toddler gloves. I'll trade these four issues for four skeins of yarn.

2. Zoe Mellor's 50 Baby Bootees to Knit: Packed with Patterns for Litle Bootees and Snuggly Socks for Newborn to Nine Months - this is a hardcover/spiral bound book and I'll trade it for five skeins of yarn to cover shipping.

3. Four issues (issues 9, 10, 11, 12) of Dawn Brocco's Heels and Toes Gazette - Winter 2002 to Fall 2003. Patterns include Striped Fulled Slippers, Christmas Booties, Shetland Lace Socks, Bi-Directional socks, Beaded Faux Cable Anklets, Handspun Cabled Socks for Men, and some Noro Kureyon Harlequin Slippers. I'll trade these four issues for four skeins of yarn. Email me if you're interested.




I've been making another Spontaneous Scarf to spend more time on the floor with Snickerdoodle who isn't feeling well again. He does seem to do better though when I spend a lot of quality time with him.

Here are the colors that came with the Halloween sock kit - I just didn't think the gold was a good color for the pumpkins so I used some orange from the stash.



I can't decide if the Peruvian patterned gloves from the small VK mitten & glove book are going to be spectacular or really gaudy. I have chosen a friend to give them to though. I gave her some top-down gauntlet Anna Zilboorg mittens and she loved them so I figure she'll wear these. There is an error on row 20 of the gauntlet chart - just make the uncolored squares yellow to make the gloves match the photo. Oddly enough I think on the photograph of the glove the sections of blue have been colored over by a magic marker or something. I'm tremendously curious as to what the previous color was.



I purchased three Maureen Mason-Jamieson patterns for hats. Mare did her Shadow hats and Theresa is doing her shadow cardigan and Geane mentioned she took a class with her. I like the way she adds fun new techniques in her patterns. She has a web site HERE and has additional patterns for a shadow knit vest and shawl for sale.



I also ordered three books from Schoolhouse Press including the tiny Latvian mitten book without patterns called Cimdi Duraini. I think I'll be able to just knit from the photographs if something turns me on. I also ordered the Tongue River Farm Sock Collection (I really love A Time to Knit Stockings) and Ted Myatt's Christmas stocking book.



Check out Joanne's blog Keep Talking. She put up a photo tour of the Brown Sheep factory and it is kind of neat to see photos of the place that makes one of my favorite all-purpose lines of yarn - Nature Spun.



I have a few items (knitting books/patterns/newsletters) I'd like to trade for yarn. Tomorrow I'll put the info up on the blog and see if anyone is interested.