Herring bones

Herringbone mittens, that is! I had these old rose and dark chocolate Opal sock yarns that I knew I wanted to use for some nice colorwork mittens and maybe also a pair of socks. I went back and forth between different patterns, but I really liked the Herringbone mittens by the great Elliphantom, and these two colors would be perfect for that pattern, I thought.

The pattern is written for a heavier yarn, so I had to adjust for that. I added a stitch to each of the "bones", which in the original pattern are 4+4 stitches, for a total of 48 stitches plus two for the sides, so that equals 50. I went with 5+5, for a total of 60+2=62 around the palm. I also like two color ribbing better in colorwork, so I decided to use that, instead of a single color ribbing. And I wanted the thumb to match the rest of the mitten, so I change from straight vertical lines to herringbones on the thumb, too. You can see that in the thumb gusset, but it will of course be more obvious, when I actually finish the mittens.

Here you can also see the three needle bind-off in the tip, which worked perfectly and is much simpler than grafting. I'm not a big fan of pom-poms, so those will be left out, as well as the crocheted cord... I think it's probably starting to sound like I'm not even knitting the same pattern, as many changes that I've made, but Elli still did all the hard work writing the pattern, and what I'm doing are minor details. I always end up changing every pattern I use, some more than others, but that doesn't mean I didn't like the pattern. If I didn't like the pattern, I wouldn't be using it! So I guess what I'm trying to say is that despite all the changes, I still really like that pattern and would recommend it!

I also got some shots of the finished baby sweater, now with a button:

The button is polymer clay, sliced out of a cane I made already a while ago. So handy having all those canes made up! ;) I can just take a slice and bake it, and voila, I have a unique custom button or earrings or whatever!

I used a little crocheted chain for the button loop:

Cleaning up the bead stash

This weekend my husband asked me. if I could clean up my bead stash. He might have meant, whether I could move it somewhere else, or just get rid of it alltogehter, but I took it as "Honey, could you make some more jewelry?" ;) So I did. I mean, when would I not do what my darling hubby asks for?

I had a ton of polymer clay beads that I'd made a while ago, and a lot of already planned projects. I like to combine the beads with other materials, like glass, wood and semiprecious stone beads. This necklace only has a polymer clay focal bead, the rest of the beads are wood, ceramic and carnelian.

I also made earrings to match:


Here you can see the making of the Squiggly Necklace, with polymer clay squiggles altered with silver beads:

This bracelet is retro color polymer clay beads with some miscellaneous stone beads and some buno cord on a memory wire:



This isn't really craft related, but I just wanted to show you my tastiest accomplishment this weekend, a multigrain bread baked in a cloche baker that makes the absolute best crispy but not hard crust:



The only wool related activity this weekend was a felted space alien that we made with the kids:



I made absolutely no progress on the entrelac sweater -maybe I'm just a little too optimistic about the weather getting warmer. I better get on it and finish the thing, because if it really warms up, I'll never get it done...

Have a great week, and thanks for all the comments on the finished sweater a couple of weeks back! I know I'm really repeating myself, but I'll say it again: I'd love to reply to the comments, but Blogspot doesn't allow me to see the e-mail addresses. I don't know if it's a setting that I should change, or if that's just how it is with blogspot.

More sweaters

I continued to knit on the Henley sweater (perfect TV knitting, by the way, lots of stockinette), and got to where the lace pattern starts:

That was all good, until this showed up:

It's Berroco Foliage in color walnut. I just couldn't resist casting on! I already had a project in mind, or I actually ordered it specifically for this:

The free pattern is in Finnish, but Gedifra has also published it somewhere in English. I found it on Ravelry as "Entrelac sweater". Anyhow, I saw this pattern and just HAD TO try it. It has a very interesting construction, starting with the entrelac in the back, then you add stitches for the sleeves, make a neck opening like a buttohole, knit over the shoulders, cast off the sleeve stitches, and finish in the front at the bottom of the entrelac portion. After you sew the seems together, you add the ribbing, and are done.

Very cool, if it just turns out like the picture. ;) I'm at the point where you cast off the sleeve stitches:

I've also been working on a sweater for my friend's daughter. I'm using a one-piece raglan sleeve construction:

It's from the make-it-up-as-you-go collection again. After finishing the body, I took it off the needles to block it and check the measurements.

Everything was right on, so now it just needs the collar and sleeves and a couple of finishing touches, and is ready to wear. Hopefully finished and maybe even modeled pics next time!