Kitties done....

Just two pictures, as they tell it all...

Kitten Mittens

 

I have to admit that I can run into small obsessions….at the moment it seems to be Mitten making. Don’t know why, I used to make quite a lot of socks but somehow that got onto the back burner and I have not knit socks for over 2 years or so. But even though I know that big daughter will wear them, they do not call out for me (yet). Mittens do however, and really both of them are so similar, in a way, knitted on dpn's with slighty tighter gauge than for a sweater… Mittens do not have heels, but thumbs, so there it stops. But anyway I just finished the "Bird in Hand” mittens that do require that you read the graph for each and every round. A very nice baroque mitten, good and warm and with the sturdy wool good for a snow ball or two  (if the snow of last weekend was not the last one for this winter, right now it is unusually warm and very very grey and miserable….). 

But I am not done yet with Mittens, my last pair is coming along: Kitten Mittens, or Moggies . When I saw them, I knew I had to make them. The wool asked of in the pattern, Briggs & Little, is very hard to obtain here, but it being a rustic honest yarn, I guess that Jamieson’s DK would be a pretty good match. And it is…. so onwards it goes… I think I will make the children’s version too, for small daughter, but then with a ginger instead of a white cat….

Learning young...

 

M’s birthday was earlier this week and what she really wanted was fabric and things to sew. Now I have a very trusty old (almost 50 years now) Husqvarna sewing machine. It still works and is basically an extreme good machine (it needs a service though), but one thing it isn’t, is child friendly. So they can not operate it, and it is so heavy that even I find it a task to get it out and running.

Last week we were at IKEA to buy storage things and then we saw this little sewing machine, that just seemed right for M. The price was right too, so now M has her own sewing machine. She has been going at it every night since her birthday and is very very happy. She will get a fat bundle of fabric for Christmas (until now it has been bits and pieces of fabric I had left over) and we will do some easy quilting but this is hopefully a good present for a 9 year old very interested in making things….(she also made an electronic die at school so her scope is wide….)

Utter concentration:

In time for...

 

SNOW…….

Yes today we had the first snow of the season and strangely enough it was a bit unexpected. This week we had quite an exciting week as we had a huge storm and for the second time this year I had to send people away from work as public transport was closing. This tim sit was students and I do hope that they came home safe as things were quite on the scary side. Now a couple elf days later, the wind is finally more normal and this morning there was snow… Now I know it will be probably gone by Monday, but for this moment I actually enjoy it…snow…crispy cold morning and new mittens :-)

 

 

These mittens are comfy mittens, knit from Blue Sky Alpacas alpaca sport weight, maybe not the sturdiest yarn to knit mittens from, but as I am not that likely to engage in a snowball fight it is perfectly fine. They are so soft and so warm, and so , well elegant..

The pattern is from Blue Sky Alpacas too. Not very well visible in the photos, is the Latvian Loop edge these mittens have. It was a bit fiddly and I didn’t get the directions, until I just did as written down, and presto, a frilly edge on the mittens…neat.

More Latvian things on my next project, Bird in Hand mittens, with Latvian braids… also fiddly, but also very nice. Bit sturdier wool this time Plymouth Yarn Galway worsted, an honest wool, knitted with 3 mm to get sturdy mittens suitable for people who might end up in snow-fights...

 

Not so bad

 

I finished the Lace cardigan yesterday, I had that colour difference hanging over it, but as the sleeves don’t show a difference and the button bands neither, it actually is not noticeable unless you know…. So I am happy right now. 

 Other notes, I did make a lot of changes to the pattern, mainly make it longer, forgo the ribbing at the bottom and for the sleeves I just did my own thing and didn’t even check the pattern… I was careful not too knit the sleeves too long but stick to a bracelet length as I find that quite a comfortable sleeve length. The button bands I did in 2k, 2p and I used lots of buttons too…There is some gentle shaping for the waist, but not that much, just a little bit. The original pattern used smaller needles for waist shaping, I did some decreasing and increasing instead.

I think this is quite an elegant pattern, the boldness of this colour sets it of (I think) and for the grey days of December that might just be right...

I would have liked the sleeves a bit less baggy, but on the other hand, it is comfy. The yarn is nice and soft, hope it holds up like other Madelinetosh yarns do….