knitting history

I love knitting geekery. Especially anything to do with history. This article details a bit of history on Latvian mittens.

I've admired Latvian mittens for a while now, I've been meaning to work up the courage to knit at least one pair for myself... the colour & pattern work on these are amazing - if only I can get past all the fair isle that needs to be done! But they do look fantastic nonetheless.

One day... hopefully this winter!

2nd friday, 2nd project done

My goal to make 52 projects (ammended from goal: 52 pairs of mittens) in 52 weeks is in week two - with my second pair of mittens. Got the mirror beads on this pair too, which was fun. :) I love coming up with a kitchy design to decorate otherwise what may be boring mittens.

pair of mittens #1 finished, 51 pairs to go

Finished my first pair of the year: knit with Patons Classic Wool in leaf green, embroidered with some jade heather Patons Classic Wool & I added some boho type mirror beads that I bought off of etsy. These are a rather well modified version of a pattern I have, that should fit women's hands.

Happy New Year 2011!

I've got a new goal for 2011: 52 projects completed within 52 weeks. Mainly to destash all the yarn that I have. I'm hoping to use up as much yarn out of my own stash to do this without having to buy any new stuff for a while.



I love knitting mittens, so I think that most of these projects might wind up being mittens. My favourite go-to pattern has been the #18 mitten pattern from Knit Simple Fall 2007, & I've a feeling this pattern is going to be used to death. It's a chart break down of 9 different sizes of mittens: dk, worsted & bulky for each men's, women's and kids.

I'm currently working on my first pair, which I hope to eventually gift to my MIL later this year for xmas, made from Paton's Classic Wool (my favourite yarn). Pictures will soon follow.

Baby Items

Well, I didn't use some of the yarn that I said I would to knit these baby items, but I was able to make them anyway. I used a yarn called Robin Aran 400, of which I have a 334 gram skein left. I obtained 2 skeins of it when my MIL came back from Ireland, and I used up all of it to knit DH's aran sweater, but I fell a bit short and was able to find a skein from someone's stash on ravelry. But, I have quite a bit of it left. So, baby items it was.

The soaker pattern is a free ravelry download (I made the small version); the hat is from Stitch & Bitch by Debbie Stoller; and the mittens are available free online (liked via ravelry).

no more need for mittens?

If this article about fat people not needing mittens is true... I've been overweight my entire life, and yet my hands and feet are always cold? I've bought mittens every winter, and since I began knitting, I've always made myself mittens, because my hands are always cold! (Even in the summer!) So what's up with this article?!? Is the decrease in mitten sales really linked to obesity, or is it that maybe more people are just knitting their own?

Two birds, one stone

I've been using this pattern for basic kid's mittens to knit these 10 pairs, for afghans for Afghans, during the last 6 weeks or so. Exhausting, but fun. :) Managed to get a good handle on how to whip up a basic mitten, and I think I can now brave my own design. And, the other bonus, was I was able to destash much of the partial skeins of yarn I had laying around my house!

I think I'll have these mailed by the end of the week, since I need to the post office anyway to mail a couple thank-you cards.

mittens for charity

I'm currently using this pattern for children's mitts to knit 10 pairs for charity, using the wool I have in my stash.

I bought, a while back, some variegated Patons Classic Wool Merino in different colours, most of which I've barely touched, and currently have no use for. I also received some 100% wool in different brands in the mail, from just random exchanges via ravelry.com, which have since just been sitting in my living room. All of this is being converted into kid's mitts.

Pictures will come soon. I currently have 6 pairs finished, and have started a 7th pair - the ribbing of which was done during tonight's bitch n stitch meeting when I went out.

Why ten pairs? No idea. Why not?

I was thinking of donating them for afghans for afghans - but I'd have to wait until they campaign for children's mittens again, and who knows when that'll be. They may get donated to a different charity in the meantime.

I've been on a knitting-for-charity kick lately. Maybe 2009 will be the year that I'll manage to get a crapload of knitted and crocheted donations out? 2007 I managed to donate nearly 80 items to the Dulaan project alone - or rather over the 2006/2007 winter season. Tons went out.

Ah, who knows. In any case, they'll be made and ready to donate for some kids that need warmer hands. Maybe it'll do some good?

WIP mittens & a chocolatey care package from France!

These are my mitts-in-progress, that I'm knitting for my pal for the mitten swap 3 - I hope she likes them! I've done all this today, I should be finished them soon. The pattern's been adjusted from knitsimple magazine's Fall 2007 issue. Hopefully my swappee will enjoy them!

Speaking of swapping packages... I've received a deeeelightful care package from my parents in France! You've guessed it - A BOX FULL OF CHOCOLATE! woo hoo!
Also included in this package (although not pictured) is a wrapped gift for my brother's birthday and a wrapped gift for my husband's and my 4th wedding anniversary, which both occur this month.

But I'm quite eager about this scrumptious chocolate, to be honest! (My diet is going right out the window, but I dare not complain!) I do think it's funny, though, that my parents expect me to share this enormous box of goodies....

Oh, and my bonus treat over the weekend is that I've finally infiltrated ravelry! woo hoo! I'm in! I'll be spending the week checking it out... all I've had time to do so far is update my flickr.com account. But it looks rather interesting. I do advise that if you haven't yet signed up for ravelry, despite the waiting list being long, please do so!

WIP mittens, kleenex, bathrooms... just Friday nonsense, is what it is!

Today's blog post theme is 'post for the sake of posting' - so bear with me.

First and foremost, I wanted to brag a bit of my minor contribution to the world of interior decorating. This little shelve-bamboo-Ikea-picture-of-water-dripping thing is set up in my bathroom. The ceramic duck is something that my mother ceramicked (yes, I know that's grammatically incorect, so what!) ages ago and I found in the garage. The apple scented Lysol room spray is there for... well... you know...
I was a bit inspired by watching From The Ground Up, and the fact that we're in the midst of renovating the kitchen, to touch up other areas in the house too. Adding this shelf to the bathroom not only makes the room esthetically nicer, but it's a handy extra shelf for things like the spray and toilet paper and such.

Secondly, I found these Kleenex boxes a while ago whilst grocery shopping:

I just thought they were kinda campy because the print on them is different strands of yarn, and as it happens, in two of my favourite colours (green and blue). So there. These get filed under my "knitter's kitch" file.

Thirdly, this is what creating-a-pattern-for-mittens-from-scratch-&-scraps looks like:

Back just before I left working for Lewiscraft (over 2 years ago) I stocked up on some different kinds of Shetland Chunky in these five colours as pictured. The full skeins were in my stock for a while, and one day I got around to knitting 5 different cabled toques, using a Stitch n Bitch pattern. I had partial skeins - and being the pack rat that I am, I didn't want to throw these out, that being a waste of yarn in my book.

So, the goal this weekend is to create a pattern for mittens that look rather ecclectic. Hopefully a post of how the finished product looks like will appear during next week's posts!