Mittens for December and some socks too

It snowed here in Kansas last week and the kids were low on mittens. Since I haven't knitted them before I'd thought I'd give it try.

Specs:
I used the House Mittens pattern from Charmed Knits.
US/3.75mm - 32" cable needle for magic loop
Harisville New England ww wool



These are for my son and he loves them which just tickles me. He keeps saying how excited he is to have them and how he wants to show them off. It's quite an easy pattern and I'm working on another pair for dear daughter. I want to make more to have on hand when the next snow comes.

About a week ago I finished off these socks. The main first for these is the color toes and heel and the fancier stitch pattern.

Specs:
Twist sock pattern from Hello Yarn
cuff down/heel flap
ww cascade 220 heathers in purple and green from my stash
US4/3.5mm 32" cable needles for magic loop



These are for me and they keep my feet toasty! The only thing I wish I had done differently is make the entire toe part out of green. I like this pattern it's easy to get the rhythm of it. I'm sure to make more. I still have some sweater yarn and other worsted yarn.

Tonight I skeined up some singles from my first forays into spinning. So in January I plan to dye these then knit up a hat or maybe some fingerless gloves.

Finally something to share for November

I'm finally caught up with most of the posts. Everyone is doing some amazing stuff. I went missing in action around September when I got my Ravelry invite. What an amazing place. I started focusing on my many crochet wips that my knitting took a back seat.

After I finished up my crochet stuff I finally finished my very first knit project, a Harry Potter Scarf.



I made it for dh. I think he looks very brave in his Gryffindor Scarf don't you! I used the free pattern on atypically knits and did the Prizoners of Azikaban style. I used Plymouth Encore yarn.

Then I finally tackled those dang short rowed heel socks. This has a bunch of first for me: first pair of socks on magic loop, first short rowed heel and first toe up sock. It's my own pattern too. In the sense that I did a gauge swatch a figured out what I needed in gauge taking into account some negative then cast on and knit.



Other specs:
US 1/ 2.25mm 32" circs - I used two circ. needles with one sock on each using magic loop
Most of the ball of Sockotta

Thanks for looking.

A Pair of Fair Isle Socks

done for October.







This was a huge learning process for me and while both socks fit they aren't exactly the same size. I learned a lot about "floats" and the importance of making them loose enough. Socks, mittens or any small-ish project is prefect for an introduction to Fair Isle knitting for anyone wanting to give it a try.

I will wear these as they are extremely warm (knit with Peace Fleece wool) and since long pants will cover any of the slight imperfections, well, no one will ever know but me :-D

A Dual KAL: Something old, Something new...

I'm not sure how much this is going to count for the month of October for this KAL but, I gathered up these materials

along with a pattern and set to work on the 7th of October for something really new to me. I had no idea just how new this was going to be until I started knitting and sweating. I was doing stranded knitting or Fair Isle (I'm pretty sure this is Fair Isle) and knitting from a chart - two new things!

The knitting, no matter how hard I tried to loosen it up, was super, super tight. I was doubtful that it was going to fit anyone I knew, much less myself. But as you can see above, I was able to get it on - past my foot and up my leg where it belongs. Getting it off took a good three minutes, mainly due to the fear of losing stitches off the ends of the needles. But I was in the home stretch at this point and had the foot and toes to go, so really, it was a cakewalk from here on out.

On the 10th of October, I had this to show for my efforts:

Truthfully, it looks better on my sock blocker than it does on my foot. I feel good about the fact that I have conquered Fair Isle (if that is in fact what this is) and that I was able to knit from a chart. I am also proud that I have what I think is a pretty good looking stocking. I don't know if this meets the guidelines of either this KAL or Socktoberfest as it isn't a pair, and I'm not 100% sure whether I'll cast on for its mate soon, but I would like to believe I will as it is nagging at me...that unfinished pair...that unfinished pair of sockS - that unfinished sock needs a mate!

It's just a matter of when, but if I do finish the second sock, I'll be sure to post it ;0)

This sock most likely won't be worn, but I may hang it on my mantel at Christmas, because I look at it more as something decorative than everyday wear.

Hello from Jess in Australia!

Hello, how are you all?

My name's Jess, and I'm hailing you from the Wintry Southernmost Australian state of Tasmania, with a mug of hot chocolate in my hand and a warm dog asleep on my toes :-)
Well, this is my first KAL, and it's fun :-)
What to knit, hmmm.... I have already changed my plans several times, which is why something like a KAL is so good for me - it will force me to actually stick with something ;-)

Basically, over the next few months I'd like to do four new things:
~ Knit a pair of socks for my nearly-2-year-old son Liam (I've never knitted socks before!)
~ Repair and complete a Celtic cabled vest for Liam, which is the first pattern I've made up... I need to undo the cast on row and knit downwards to make it longer, which I've never done!
~ Make a jumper for Liam using wool I dyed myself.
~ Knit and Felt a pair of pixie or medieval boots. I got this idea from a free pattern online, Old World Booties, by the Sanguine Gryphon. They would be for (you guessed it) Liam.

...Perhaps at some point a "new" thing I can do is to knit something for myself! But it's more fun to make things for other people, and it uses a lot less wool and time to knit for children than for grown-ups! Where I live it's quite cold in the winter (which is now), and Liam keeps growing out of his old warm clothes :-)

To get myself started, I've taken some pictures of my projects...

These are the socks I began for this KAL, while I was eagerly awaiting my invitation :-) They're based on the Opal Kids Socks, but I'm knitting them on two needles. I'm happy with the shape so far, the colours turned out a bit more overwhelming than I thought, but Liam will like them I'm sure! I'm using Cleckheaton Merino Bambino in their latest multi colour-way.







This is the Celtic vest I have yet to complete, I love it but it's tricky because I made the pattern up (except the central motif, which is traditional) and I'm trying to get the collar cables to tie in with the central panel. I'll add a border on the bottom and link those cables to the central panel too!
I'll have to undo the cast on row and work another repeat of the main body, as Liam has grown since I started this vest! Then it just may fit him for a little longer... I'll have to concentrate hard on the right cable crossings when I'm working "backwards" (downwards?), I've never tried it but I hope it'll work!
A few firsts for this vest then :-)



Here's the jumper I started with the wool I hand-painted. The colours are a bit darker than you can see here, with little dashes of purple to warm it up. I'm knitting it on circular needles. Originally I started it in the round, but the colours were pooling strangely so I switched to knitting the front and back separately. The wool I dyed was white Patons Jet (30% alpaca, 70% wool), my favourite wool for keeping Liam warm! That's what the Celtic Cable vest is made from as well.

And these are my first attempts at felting - 3 mini-swatches to see how much the wool would shrink. The two white squares are Jet, and the centre is Cleckheaton Tapestry. I just wanted to make small swatches to measure how much the finished boots will shrink. The Jet reduced by a whole third, and became very stiff and strong - perhaps too stiff? The tapestry yarn didn't felt very well at all, though it's a pretty colour ;-) The 2nd picture shows the swatches after 3 cycles of hand-felting. I think I'll make the boots from Jet and then dye them a rich summery green afterwards. Or is it better to dye the wool first? The two white swatches were on different sized needles - one the recommended size and one 3 sizes smaller, but it made no difference to the end result. I wonder how I could get a thinner finished felt? By using needle sizes larger? I'll have to keep swatching ;-)

Thanks to everyone for sharing your projects, I'm really enjoying this :-)
Kind regards,
Jess