A quick fix

Even thought I try not to, I constantly come back to not being satisfied with only working on my WIP’s. I’ve made some good progress on the striped scarf, the back of the red cardigan is soon finsihed, but I needed something quick. A quick knit. A quick RESULT. I’ve had some light blue Debbie Bliss Merino Aran in my stash since… oh, I don’t know, forever? It just so happened that now is a good time to do something with that. I have 150 grams in my stash.

So, what to knit? Well, I like to think that someone, mostly me, should have a real use for the things I create. So what do I need that doesn’t require more that 150 grams of Merino Aran? Recently, I’ve walked to and from work. It’s a 45 minutes walk one way. Since the weather has been really cold for the last couple of weeks I can’t go outside without mittens. No problems there, I have a lot of different mittens, mostly hand-knitted by me. However, after walking for about 10-15 minutes my hands get really warm and I often take the mittens off. Which leaves my wrists cold. Aha! Ergo – I need fingerless mittens! Warm wrists – cool fingers!

Fingerless mittens in blue

The pattern was easy to choose, it’s by Ann Budd from the book Holiday Knits. I’ve actually had my eye on this pattern for a long time, but never thought I’d have a use for fingerless mitts.

When I first started knitted I wanted to learn something new from each project. I don’t always do that anymore, but I find it very satisfying that with a simple project like this I’m actually doing three things for the first time: short rows in garter stitch, three needle bind-off and a (to me) new way of knitted cast on. Just like that!

I’ve finished the first mitt, and the second one is underway.

Wurst – mittens with sausages

Finally some photos! Winter really isn’t a good season if you prefer to shoot your knits by daylight. Anyway, here they are! The mittens with sausages!

Wurst mittens by Spillyjane

Pattern: Wurst (ravelry link)
Design: spillyjane
Yarn: 100 % wool, Harris Tweed Textlies Shetland 4-ply
Yarn source: Bought it from my friend Tove
Needles: 2,25 mm dpns
Started: November 2 2011
Finished: January 13 11 2012
Modifications: Added thumb wedge, made a different cuff, turned them into gloves without fingertips and made flaps for hand and thumb

Instead of making regular mittens, I made these with flaps

This is what they look like when you remove the flap.

There’s even a thumb flap.

For more comfortable wear, I added a thumb wedge. I started this project in 2011 and thought it was worth a mention.

These mittens were a gift to my husband. He wears them all the time and appreciates the flaps a lot since he’s not normally fond of mittens but prefer gloves. This way he can have both.

Faeroe Island Mittens

These mittens were finished almost a year ago but haven’t blogged about them since. I knitted them for one of my nephews, Hampus, and I didn’t want to share them until I’d had the opportunity to to take some pictures with him wearing them! Unfortunately, I don’t see my nephews very often, mainly because they are teenagers and have better things to do than hang out with their aunt. But we keep in touch on Facebook. My only New Year’s resolution this year is that I will spend more time with my nephews, I hope they’re ok with that!

Anyway, I knitted a pair of grey and red mittens for Hampus and he said they were cool, so I hope he wears them when it’s cold out. Then again, he’s a teenager, which means that he probably doesn’t. But that’s ok with me, I made them because I wanted to give him something special and I think he appreciates that.

Mittens for Hampus

Pattern: Faeroe Island Mittens from Folk Mittens
Design: Marcia Lewandowski
Yarn: Visjö from Östergötlands ullspinneri
Colourways: “Ljusgrå” – grey, “Nypon” – red
Yarn source: Anntorps väv
Needles: 2.75 mm and 3 mm dpns
Modifications: None
Started: Januari 31 2011
Finished: February 20 2011

Detail

Keeping warm

Finished mittens

Keep knitting!

Finally!

Wurst mittens are finally finished! Pictures to come.

Second mitt is quicker

For some reason knitting the second mitt is a lot quicker. Probably because I already know what to do with it. I made a lot of modifications to the original pattern, and figuring these out and making notes on them obviously slowed my knitting progress on the first mitt.

Progress on second mitt

I’ve even begun the flap that will cover the fingers. Another reason why this is going fairly quickly is that I’ve spent a good portion of the post-New Year holiday knitting. Knitting and listening to old episodes of Cast On. I never get tired of Brenda, she’s so smart and witty and and funny! The production of the podcast is really fantastic. If you haven’t discovered her podcast yet – I strongly urge you to check it out! And listen to the them in the correct order – that makes it even more enjoyable. I’m so glad that she’s still doing it after over six years of podcasting. I have some favourite episodes and themes, I’ll probably get back to you on that later.

Another way to make my knitting run smoothly is to have a snoring cat on my lap. And belive me – he snores loudly!

Laban asleep – and snoring – on my lap
I really hope to finish these mittens this week so I can get back to some of my other projects. And perhaps start a new one.

We’re Half Way There

I still have a lot of UFO’s but not so many WIP’s. It used to be the other way around. I’m not claiming that this is an improvement, I know that some people love to have a whole bunch of WIP’s on the go. I used to be one of them, but I’m not anymore. I’m perfectly happy to be working on two (or three at the most) projects at the same time. The one project that has been occupying the majority of my knitting time are these mittens:

wurst mitten by spillyjane

I recently completed the first one and I’m really, really happy with how it turned out. However, I’m very sorry to say that it’s been mind numbingly boring to knit! It looks great, but the colourwork pattern is very counter-intuitive and has a lot, and I mean a lot, of long floats that need binding. And I dislike that. So very much.

This picture is only an excuse to show more of Vincent, the little sweetheart!

Just knitting this one mitt has taken me almost two months. Two months! For a bleeding mitt! Well, I really need to finish the pair, because they are for Stefan, and he does not have a pair of mittens right now without holes in them (I’ll get back to the mending issue in a later post). So I’m really trudging along with this project. I’ve done about 25% of the second mitten and I’m only working on this project right now just so that I can finish the bloody thing! Even though I’m casting long gazes on my other WIP’s and longing for picking them up… Sometimes knitting is a chore. Not often, but sometimes.