Scandinavian Gauntlet Mittens

For winter I have a red and black reversible down jacket that I haven't gotten as much use out of as I might wish, because of a problem I didn't foresee when I bought it. The sleeves don't have any inner cuffs to keep cold air out!

Obviously this situation called for some corrective action, so I've just designed a mitten with a flaring cuff or a gauntlet. Now I when I wear the jacket, I can put the mitten cuffs over my sweater sleeves inside the jacket sleeves, and they should do the job.

The mitten starts out with a 2-color cast-on, then has 2 rounds of a 2-color twined purl edging. The rest of the gauntlet is in one color.

When I was looking for mitten ideas, I found a mitten shape in Knitting in the Nordic Tradition by Vibeke Lind, where supposedly the gauntlet had been done in one color on the same size needle as used for the colorwork in the hand and it pulled in sufficiently to work. That was the theory at least.

In practice however, I found that I had to decrease about 1/8 of the stitches, and go down to a smaller needle to make K1, K1tbl/P2 ribbing for 1” at the wrist. Then I went back to the original needle size for the colorwork starting with the fewer stitches.

Whenever I design something, it seems I have to try making at least some part of it in a couple different ways, which was the case for the thumb gore. I finally settled on having a “seamline” in the main color along the sides of the gore because it looked so much better than trying to do a gore in the same pattern as the hand. I also decided that doing the thumb in just Salt & Pepper looked better.

Usually when I finish off the mitten tip, I like to decrease equally all the way around, staggering the decreases, but decided that this one looked neater if the decreases were paired along the sides and the tip was kitchenered. I liked the colorwork and wanted to maintain the pattern as much as possible.

I'm rather happy with how the mitten turned out! So happy in fact that it's going to be class at Spirit Work Knitting & Designs. For information go to the Spirit Work website, click on "Classes & Events", then click on my classes. The information should be up shortly. The class will run on alternate Wednesday evenings, from October 14 through November 18, 2009, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

Hope to see you there!

TDSS Aran: Cables flowing into ribbing

I've been working on my Top-Down Saddle-Shoulder Aran cardigan. As I was heading my way on down the sleeve towards the cuff, I was wondering what I was going to do when I got there. I've always admired sweaters where the cable patterns flow into the ribbing, and I wanted to somehow make it happen. Would I have to put the stitches on hold and come back to it later when I had figured it out?

Fortunately I was inspired just when I needed to be while spending an afternoon in the fresh air and sun a week ago with a pair of knitting friends, and all of the sleeve tapering decreases were done.

The 14-stitch wide Aran Braid going down the center of the sleeve didn't have enough elasticity widthwise to continue downwards in to ribbing, but if I made it narrower - only 6 stitches wide - it should be stretchier than the 14-st braid. So I tried that, changing the 4 sts on either side of it to 2 purls and a 2-st cable crossing every 4 rows. Normally I'd expect to have to decrease stitches below a cable, but it seems to work OK without doing so since I went down 1.0 mm in needle size and have the purl sts in there. The 2-st Snakey or Wavy cables continue down as do the 4-st Rope cables, and the Rice Stitch filler becomes knit 2/purl 2 rib. I'm rather happy with how it turned out.

Currently I'm working on the other sleeve, and am planning an evening of DVD watching and knitting. I want to hurry up and get it done so I can move on to my next project which is the Aran Diamond Vest.

This too is another class sample, but I'm eager to work on it now that I have the yarn for it. For years I have wanted wheat/light tan heather vest because it would go with so many fall clothes. Twice I've had problems with the yarn I've used for just plain stockinette vests.

One time I used some single-ply 100% wool wheat tweed on a cone that still had the spinning oil in it. The yarn bloomed when the vest was washed and blocked but unexpectedly lost some length. From that experience I learned that I should have skeined the yarn off the cone and washed it first.

Another time I used some wool that smelled and felt oily in the balls. After washing and blocking it still felt funny unfortunately. Since I had had a successful attempt at removing the oiliness from another yarn, this was a big disappointment. But, hey live and learn, right?

TDSS Aran Cardigan in Progress

Here is a photo of the Top-Down Saddle-Shoulder Aran in progress. As you can see I am knitting the sleeve flat rather than in the round. The orange markers on the back show the correct depth of the armhole. Instead of measuring from the center of the saddle, I had measured from the picked-up edge for the armhole depth so the back ended up being 1 1/2” too long! When I return to working the back, I will have to rip back to those markers because I have to pick up along the edge of the body part of the sleeve to make the back the desired width. Live and learn, right? :)

The other orange markers on the sleeve are where the body part of it ends, then where the first decreases are. (I like to count rows so that I can make corresponding parts match.) The green marker in the center of the sleeve is for the measuring the sleeve length.

Here are photos of the solid-color Earflap Cap.

Preparing for Fall Classes

Currently I am working on samples for fall and winter classes at Spirit Work. The big one is a Top-Down Saddle-Shoulder Aran cardigan. Jeannine and I are again team-teaching an Aran sweater class. While I am making a cardigan for myself, she is making a pullover for her brother. We are also going to put them together differently. Mine will have sewn side seams, and hers will be done seamlessly in the round. Students will choose from two different styles and assembly methods, and make their choices of stitch patterns from menus for the different categories of cables and allover patterns. Jeannine and I will have swatched all of the patterns on the menus, and we are being careful to choose ones that have the same stitch count in every row/round and are rhythmic enough so that they are easy to learn after one repeat or so. The intent is that the knitter shouldn't need to keep checking a chart or written directions all the time so that a conversation can be carried on or TV can be watched! (Let's face it, if something is too involved, how much time can you spend on it?) And oh yes, the patterns will be both charted and written. Students will be getting enough information that they will need looseleafs for the handouts! :)

Other classes that I will be teaching are the Earflap Cap, which is a solid-color version of the colorwork Snowflake Helmet (the sample on the website needs to be updated, but the actual class sample is on display in the shop); the Chipman's Block Mitten; Boot Socks out of Cascade 220 Superwash, which works up beautifully for socks; Introduction to Designing: The Classic Vest (I do tend to make a lot of them!); and an Aran Diamond Vest, for those who might like to make an Aran but don't want to pick out patterns or commit to a sweater with sleeves.

All of my classes use my own designs and include complete handouts. The garment classes start with measuring the figure so that students can knit to fit. (While I may have gotten bigger around over the years, my shoulders have not grown broader, nor my arms longer, so knitting to fit is important to me.)

I will also be teaching a class on Heirloom Christmas Stockings, with 2 different colorwork designs. The stockings are made in Lamb's Pride Bulky so they knit up quickly. Students may make either design or may combine colorwork patterns from both into one stocking. At present only the Stars and Trees design is on display in the shop and on the shop's website, while the North Woods one with a pair of moose is being modified.

Snowflake Helmet

With August winding down, I'm ready to start thinking about what's coming up for Fall. After having the summer off, my knitting classes will be starting up again in September at Spirit Work on Titus Ave, where I teach.

Just recently I finished making the samples for the Snowflake Helmet class. The helmet coordinates with the Snowflake Mitten, a class I taught this past winter. I'm rather pleased with how the helmet turned out. Inspired by Elizabeth Zimmermann's Maltese Fisherman's Hat in Knitter's Almanac, I used similar shaping for the back and sides of the helmet to cover the neck and ears. The front of the helmet comes down to just above the eyebrows, and the upper part is shaped smoothly to the head - no silly nobs or tassles or pompons!

You will notice that there are two different versions of the colorwork pattern. When I made the black and red one, I decided that I preferred fewer panels (and "seamlines") because they seemed too busy for such dramatic colors, but the less contrasty one of 2 softer shades of grey-blue need the busy-ness of the 6 panels. Students may choose to make their helmets either way.

In addition to the Snowflake Helmet, I'm also teaching classes on Two-Color Mittens, Heirloom Christmas Stockings, Quick-Knit Christmas Stocking, Glad Hands Gloves using the pattern I sold to iKnitiative - style A07, and an Aran Vest.

A fellow teacher, Jeannine S, and I are jointly teaching a Design Your Own Cabled or Aran Sweater, which will run from September through May - plenty of time to make at least one sweater!

And now back to the needles!

Judging County Fair Entries

Sorry that it's been so long since I've blogged anything. It's very easy (for me) to procrastinate, thinking I'll have more time to do it or will have something more interesting to say later. Months go by, and nothing gets blogged! Shame on me!

This afternoon Jeannine S and I went to the Wayne County (NY)Fairgrounds to judge entries in Crochet, Knitting, and Handspinning. Sadly there were no Handspinning entries, but there were entries in Crochet and Knitting. There were quite a few Crochet doilies, so we spent a great deal of time on them. I have nothing but respect for anyone willing to work with thread! There were some lovely handknit lace shawls - I coveted all of them!

Deciding factors in which items got prizes were the workmanship, finishing and using all the same dyelot for the project. Tragically there was a vest which was knit out of 2 obviously different dyelots.

If you are considering entering one of your handknits in a competition, be careful of how you finish it. Careless finishing can make or break its presentation. Things to watch out for are:

1. Avoid slipping the edge stitch on sweater pieces which will be sewn together, unless it will be part of the design to have a row of faggoting (alternating holes!) going up the seamline. You had better have rows of faggoting in the main part of the project. Otherwise, the seams will detract from the overall effect.

2. When sewing a bound-off edge or knitting up along an edge (sometimes also called picking up and knitting), be sure to go through a whole stitch.

3. Be careful of entering a project that is incomplete. If you planned to make a sweater, but didn't get the sleeves done, some kind of an edging needs to be done around the armholes for it to transition successfully into a vest.

4. An unfelted stuffed toy, either knit or crochet, needs to have the stuffing in a case OR the toy should be lined with a coordinating fabric before being stuffed. Otherwise, polyester fiberfill will "beard," or work its way through the crochet or knit fabric.

5. Bags should be lined. Just a simple fabric pocket tacked down with needle and thread on the inside will do the trick.

6. Sewing embellishments onto a project is far superior to gluing them! What a thing to do to some little bit of crochet or tatting! You spent the time to make that little bit - have respect for it!

7. Be careful of how you block a finished project. For a doily do not iron the life out of it. You may press, but do not iron. By pressing I mean setting the iron down, then lifting it up and setting it down in another place. Do not drag the iron across the doily, nor use so much starch that the doily is as stiff as a board. Let people see those stitch patterns so that they can admire them!

Good luck!