Posted on January 21, 2008 at 5:10 pm, by knitwit
in Category Blankets, Color work, Fun Stuff, Knitting, Log Cabin, Mittens/gloves
I've totally neglected my blog for far too long. It wasn't entirely my fault, it was down for awhile and it took some crafty work by Hubby to get it up and running again. It's still not perfect. For some reason when I upload a photo, it says there is no thumbnail available so I have to import a larger size into the post, but you can't click on it to make it bigger. I am still recovering from PTSD due to some really disastrous Christmas knitting and so I have had to back away from the needles for a while. I haven't completely stopped knitting, I've actually gone back to this blanket
(this you can enlarge, it was imported before the blog demons attacked)
which I started last May. I will finally finish it and then I can move on to another log cabin style baby blanket that I hope to finish before our little guy gets here.
So why didn't my Christmas knitting turn out? I blame it all on pregnancy brain! Every time I tried something it totally bombed. The only thing to survive was this meager little mitten/headband set:
My mother-in-law was the lucky recipient of the only handknitted item to be gifted this year. The mittens are from Elizabeth Zimmermann's book Knitting Around, but I created my own cuff pattern. For the headband, I just used a basic Norwegian star pattern and plugged in the right numbers to make it fit. Kind of a fly-by-the-seat project which, consequently, is why no one else got anything, because as I tried to wing my way through more headbands, they all came out waaaaay too big. I tried making fingerless mittens for the guys in my family and they also turned out too large. I don't know what happened to my sense of gauge from the first mittens I knitted…
and the next several, but something happened and it all turned to crap. Maybe it's all the relaxin hormones that come with pregnancy and make your joints loosen up that is screwing with my gauge.
Thus I am temporarily at least turning to projects where gauge is not an issue…like the unfinished giant log cabin blanket. Maybe I'll have better luck with that!
ETA: The giant log cabin blanket is done and in the washing machine as we speak! I'll try to get some pics of it tomorrow. I'm sure they will be dark and gloomy pics as it is about 10 degrees here and snowing (so no way am I going to try to take pics outside) but I'll see what I can do!
Posted on November 15, 2007 at 12:37 pm, by knitwit
in Category Color work, Knitting, Mittens/gloves, Zimmermania
I hate thinking about Christmas before Thanksgiving even arrives, but I am determined this year to get some hand knits into the gift stash before December 24th! Last year I was knitting frantically right up until midnight on the 24th and I will not do that this year!
One way I'm working to prevent the last minute Christmas knitting dash (and resulting repetitive stress injuries) is knitting small projects. No sweaters and Fair Isle vests for me this year. Don't know what I was thinking last year. Not that the gifts weren't warmly received and well loved, but I was a mess by Christmas. This year, it's all about the mittens…
This is Elizabeth Zimmermann's Norwegian Mitten pattern from Knitting Around. I used the spruce pattern for the back and just alternated colors for the palm. The colors in these pictures are so far from true, so here's an indoor shot that is not great but shows the color a little better.
(click on thumbnails to enlarge as usual)
The yarn I used, as so many others have also used for these mittens, is Knit Picks Telemark in the colors Poppy and Pesto (check out their site if you want to see what the colors really look like). I struggled with the pattern at first, and in fact knitted a 3rd (well, actually a 1st–these are the 2nd and 3rd mittens) mitten with a different palm pattern before deciding that I wanted something easier just to get thru the first pair and get the technique down (the first mitten was too small anyway so needed to be frogged regardless of what I thought of the pattern). I have also discovered that I am a very tight knitter in stranded knitting. Most people, it seems, who've knitted these mittens have managed the proper gauge of 6st/in using size 3 needles. I, on the otherhand, had to jump up to a size 5 and the right mitten is still snug! I think my gauge was more like 6 1/2sts to the inch rather than 6. The left and final mitten was a bit looser. I tried to concentrate on relaxing my gauge, but I do have a pair of sz 6 dpn's on order for the next pair, just in case.
Overall, it took me about 3 weeks of knitting off and on and about 15 hours to finish these. But that has not detered me from starting yet another pair:
I'm trying out the magic loop method with there. I'm not sure how I like it yet and may go back to dpns. We'll see. I've designed my own cuff for this one but will use an EZ pattern for the main back pattern. It will be interesting to see how much faster I can whip these puppies out compared to the first pair. Hopefully I won't end up hating mittens by the time this is all said and done!
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