I didn't forget how to knit...

It's been a long time since a knitting pattern grabbed me, but JennyPenny's Calaveritas mittens did the trick. A friend posted the pattern link on Facebook, and within 10 minutes, I had bought it and was printing it out. I dug through the stash for some Knit Picks Risata yarn, and an unknown stash white fingering, and was off to town.

I skipped the Latvian Braid (whose instructions come in a You Tube Video), but otherwise knitted the mittens to the pattern. They came out a little big, but that's okay because I intend to wear them with commercial gloves underneath. If I was to knit them again (not likely), I'd drop down to 3mm needles (I used 3.25).

I love everything about the design, but I especially (and I do mean ESPECIALLY) love the skeleton thumbs.

If you have knitted mittens from a chart, and understand how chart decreases are indicated, and if this is not your first stranded pattern, then this should not be difficult (lots of float-anchoring, but that's just the way it goes when you have long streaks of a single color in a stranded design).

I give away most of what I make, but these are mine, mine, mine!

Wordless Rainbow

Rainbows

It's lovely to be working on something so colorful on these dark, damp, and dreary days. I bought two 2oz rainbow batts from Kim Haibeck at Yarnsanity (if you're on Facebook- here's her page) at NCFF.

Beautiful, no?

Kim prepped the batt perfectly!

I spun and Navajo plied the first batt at NCFF. I'm not very good at 3-plying but I wanted to preserve the color progression. The batt produced about 81 yds of worsted weight loveliness.

I finished spinning the other batt, and then cast on the first mitten: size 5 needles, 48 sts for the ribbing (30 rnds), then down to 42 sts for the hand.

Worsted weight mittens knit up very quickly. I love love love how this one came out. The little pink ball is the leftover yarn- so 81 yards is just enough to knit a mitten (which I knew, though by the end, I was starting to worry anyway). I got the thumb to match without an abrupt color change because I pulled off a 3 yard and 30" length and wound it into a butterfly when I put the thumb stitches on pins. Then I continued on with the hand. Luckily, there was still enough of that color to knit the hand without an abrupt change either. I can't believe that I've knit well over 100 pairs of mittens without ever figuring out how to do that... smacks self on the head with a rolled up newspaper...

I am so very tickled with how well these mittens are matching up. Some of the credit goes to always spinning the same default yarn (whether I'm 3-plying or not), but most of it goes to Kim, who truly did make identical batts. We'll see how well they match at the fingers, but when it comes down to it, I don't care. These are beauties no matter what (and the thumb will be green, which is all that matters anyway).

Wordless mittens and the beginning of a top-down hat...

Wordless Wednesday, with two links...

Flickertail Fibers on Facebook, Flickertail Fibers on Etsy

After while, crocodile...

Sit down...

Are you sat?

I've been knitting...

I know, whoda thunk? But I have proof.

 The Kristie Lee socks, colorway named after my friend Kris, who dyed the sock blank when she was here in October.

 The Jane Liz socks, colorway named after another friend, who wasn't in New Jersey when I dyed the yarn in my workshop.

 The Katie Mittens. Katie also wasn't in New Jersey. I love how the colors progress.

There was just enough of the Katie yarn left to do accent stripes in another pair of mittens.

But even more shocking than knitting, I've been doing some crocheting!

A friend posted this pic on my Facebook page, #1 because she knows adorable when she sees it, and #2, she thought I might be interested in making them.

My good friend Google provided the pattern link, which I posted on Facebook. I really wasn't interested in making those specific booties, but other friends were.

Though I wasn't interested in making those booties, because, you know, I don't crochet very much, the stitch intrigued me. And it kept intrigueing me, until I gave in yesterday and swatched...

 The written stitch pattern that I found wasn't very good- it left out steps and was, in general, confusing, so I'm not going to link to it (or name the author). I was able to figure it out pretty well on my own, and there are You Tube videos for the stitch. My Crocodile Scales aren't staggered, but still, they came out well.

The scales are heavy and time consuming, but oh so cute. I decided to work 3 rows of 6 scales for a mitten cuff, then I sewed the cuff together, and picked up 48 sts and finished knitting the mitten in my usual way.

I'm delighted. And after I finish the mate, I'm going to try some more scaley designs.

Oh the yarn- it's Decadent Fibers Cookie Dough in the Salsa colorway- wool and mohair. Totally yummy.

FOs

I finished the handspun hat and mittens:

 I'm extremely pleased with how well the mittens match each other, and how they match the striping on the hat. Eagle-eyed readers might notice that the thumb of the first mitten was a little... shall we say... pale... in this earlier picture.

When I finished the pair and saw that the other thumb had far more visible red flecks, I remedied the situation in a way that will not surprise those who have taken my Little Tips and Tricks Workshop: I dug out my trusty red Sharpie, and I colored the thumb a bit. No, I'm not kidding.

You wouldn't have known that if I hadn't told you, right? Well, not only do I believe in Full Disclosure, I'm not in the least ashamed. Sharpies have saved many a project, and it's a tip that I pass along happily in my classes.

This yarn was spun thick 'n thin on purpose, and that texture shows up beautifully in these pieces.

As I was snapping away, I remembered that I'd spun a previous bump of the same self-striping roving as sock yarn. I tucked the finished socks away in the Big Tub 'O Knitted Things and forgot about them. Luckily, they hadn't found a home yet so I was able to get a shot of all the pieces together. The colors are much more subtle in the socks, but you can still see the progression.

 Amazing the difference that yarn size makes.

It was a little panic-ful here toward the end. The above is all the yarn I had left- maybe 4 yards (with no more of this roving to spin). Happily, I knitted really really fast, and I finished the last mitten before the yarn ran out. That trick, unfortunately, isn't part of my workshop, since it doesn't always work...

Spindle Spun Mittens- Mock Cable Rib

I finished knitting a pair of mittens from the spindle spun and plied  Enchanted Forest yarn (Merino/Bamboo). I knew that they were going to be about as un-matching a pair as possible from the same yarn, but they turned out pretty anyway.

I did what I could to make sure that the darker yellow was prominent in both mittens, but beyond that, they are what they are- pretty mittens that do not look alike.

I did some playing with the ribbing though. One of the Interweave e-mail digests featured a no-cable-needle cable stitch that involved YOs and K2tog. I tried their version, and didn't like how it came out- the YO made a hole, and the whole effect was more lace than cable. So I experimented.

This is what I came up with. It looks cable-ish, there are no holes, and yet it's nicely elastic.

Here's the recipe:

Rnds 1-2:* K2, P2*, rep around
Rnd 3: *K 2 tog TBL, P 2*, rep around
Rnd 4: *Pick up and knit 1 st from the previous stitch, a row below the needle, K 1, P 2*, rep around
Rnds 5-7: *K 2, P2*, rep around.

Rep Rnds 3-7 until cuff is approx 1/4" less than desired length.
Rep Rnds 1-2


(I didn't try it, but I'll bet you could make the cable go the other direction by doing a regular K2tog on Rnd 3, and on Rnd 4, pick up the replacement stitch after the K1).

FO, and then some

I finished the August Sockalong Socks

I love how they came out- thick and warm and cushy

With just enough texture to highlight the color variations in the yarn, and to hide the thick 'n thin nature, plus it kept the knitting interesting, but not so much that I couldn't work on them in the car, or while watching Grandgirls splash in the pool.

And since I had more of the same yarn, and a big ball wound

I continued on with it. You can't tell from this picture, but these mittens have the same waffle texture as the socks. I used Size 8 needles for the mittens (as opposed to the size 5's on the socks), and only 36 sts, which made for a very quick knit.

I really do love how the colors came out (and I'm thrilled that the sock striping lined up sorta). Since there is still more yarn left, I'm working on a matching hat. All in the name of stashbusting, dontchaknow- make the yarn, use the yarn, fill up the Christmas Gift Tub (though the socks are mine, all mine).