If You Give a Moose a Muffin

he'll want some jam to go with it...

And if you give a girl a hat, she'll (naturally) want some mittens to go with it! There may be no end to the demand of knitted girly items now, but I'm not complaining. Knitting for girls is so much fun! The endless possibilities of colors and designs... bring it on!

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:

Warm wrists

I was going to draw names for the winner already today, but I think I will give people one more week to get their names on the list. I know I have more readers than that! And mom, this would be a good time to learn how to leave comments! ;) Anybody who didn't comment on the last post, go ahead and leave your name down there, and you might get lucky and win some yarn.

This leads me to another subject -it's interesting to see these ups and downs in then (knitting) blog world. Ups and downs in posting and in commenting, how they vary with seasons and holidays. Lately I myself have been exploring other blogs, ones that I don't normally read. I have found a couple of amazing ones. One is this cupcake blog. Yes, cupcakes! I didn't know people blog about cupcakes, but then again, I've gotten weird looks and questions from other people, when I told them I have a knitting blog... I've been asked why anybody would want to read about knitting, and this particular person was not trying to be mean or anythig, they were just honestly wondering. The other new blog I found is this Japanese fiber artist's blog. Her English is not perfect, but her art is just unreal! Make sure you browse the archives!

The sweater that I had in the works (still do) a couple of posts ago was the Bell sleeve jacket (number 15) from the Holiday Vogue Knitting from last year. I finished the back and the front pieces, but then felt like I needed something that didn't require for me to read the chart or instructions constantly. But first I needed to free up one of my 2.5 mm circulars, so I had to finish the Pomatomus wrist warmers:


I really like the texture of this pattern, but it was such a pain to knit with all those twisted stitches (and this is just my opinion ;) that I don't think I'll use it again. Very pretty, but too much pain for the gain. Oh, well. The yarn in the background of the first picture is OnLine Supersocke in Sierra, and it's my next brainless project, plain stockinette stitch socks. I really like the color(s) of this yarn -it's "oxblood" with some moss green and some lighter color speckles. By the way, oxblood doesn't sound quite as poetic as "chartreuse", but I guess it makes sense. :) But better colors of that next time, and maybe a progress update on the sweater. (I really don't want to call it the oxblood sweater... I'll have to come up with a better nick name for it...)

Mission accomplished

Remember my mission from last week to knit a bunch of thumbs and get all of my unfinished mittens off the UFO list? Well, I stayed on task, and finished two out of three pairs:These have already been worn to school a few times, and I can see the wear already. The yarn is Novita Nalle -a yarn that I think has a lot of good qualities, but also problems, and something I probably wouldn't choose to buy any more. However, I have a ton of it in my stash, so it's slowly being turned into mittens and hats. Mainly for the kids, since they wear out (or loose) their stuff so fast anyway, that the quality of the yarn matters less in my mind.

The Latvian mittens also got thumbs. Here you can see how well the thumb is camouflaged against the palm:
I also finished something else:

Another pair of mittens for the 7-year-old. You know how kids need about 10 pairs over one winter, since they (the mittens) always get wet and lost and whatnot. So eight pairs to go... but that's ok, these are so fast to knit that I can crank out a mitten in an evening with little effort. The yarn is the same as in the other ones, Novita Nalle in variegated blues. I actually really like how it pools with this stitch count. And the dark blue swirls around the thumb - a very cool effect, I think.

I also felt that I needed a pair of nice gloves. The two pairs that I have now are both getting so worn that they don't look very attractive any more, so it's time to make new ones. One down, one to go:Here's a cuff detail:
And thumb increases:

I do prefer thumbs made like this, versus the traditional straight tube mitten and straight thumb, like in the Latvian mittens. This just fits so much better. My hands are very wide right under the thumb, and without increases mittens are often a little tight there.

The yarn I'm using for these gloves if Wildefoot by Brown Sheep, the same as for the Latvian mittens. I have to say that I enjoy knitting several projects with the same yarn, and knowing the yarn and the gauge really well. There's no surprises, and deciding on stitch count for example for these gloves involved much less guessing than if I'd just based it on a small gauge swatch.