I can’t in all conscience claim that knitting your own things saves money. Even with the cheapest nastiest baby-melt you’d be struggling to make a jumper for less than you’d pay for a new one in Primark. And let’s not dwell on the economics of sock yarns. But when it comes to gift-giving, knitting makes your money go further with the addition of your time and skill and lurv *. Some things I have given to people recently ….
Made for my sister, with some very gorgeous squishy yarn that lovely Kate dyed to the perfect greyey-brown for me.
Green Fluorescent Jellyfish pattern: Juvenile Sea Nettle by Hansi Singh yarn: Rowan Pure Wook DK in Cloud and Cedar; Bernat Glow-in-the-Dark Green Glow
Made for my dear friend and unofficial chemistry tutor, because last year’s Nobel Prize for Chemistry was awarded for work on green fluorescent protein, originally extracted from jellyfish (and yes, someone has made green fluorescent sheep so all-natural glow-in-the-dark yarn should be on the market soon).
Tasteful House-Warming Gift pattern: Toilet Paper Roll and Kitschy Doily by Denise Plourde
*At least I fondly imagine this is so (and ignore any nagging thoughts in those wee small hours that my nearest and dearest dread unwrapping the next ’soft’ present I give them).
But now I have recalculated my tension issues, checked my workings with maths guru at knit-night, and restarted my decimal. Meanwhile, while I was fell out with my decimal I finished my Owlings instead. pattern: Owlings by Kerrie James (available as a free ravelry download)
yarn: Artesano Ltd Inca Cloud shade 053 Damson
needles: 3.25 mm
pattern: make large mittens in thick black yarn; embroider approximation of Unknown Pleasures album cover in thinner white yarn (please note, purely ceremonial, I wouldn’t recommend putting your fingers in the fire with them on)
And why would anyone make such things? To wear to the Half Man Half Biscuit gig on Friday, of course. And I’m not the only one. See you there, RubbishKnitter!
Now that Christmas is over and most gifts distributed to their intended recipient I can at last show off the things I’ve been working on for months. I actually started knitting for Christmas back in the summer (that was my excuse for slacking off studying to knit - it wasn’t slacking off it was getting ready for Xmas).
As this is going to be long and picture heavy, I’m using the fold so click on ‘more’ if you want to wade through everything my friends and relashuns got for Christmas (apologies for some poor quality pictures due to grabbing last minute shots before wrapping)
I’ve now knitted a second pair of these, and written up the pattern as I’ve gone along. There are some minor changes from the originals, but the finished glove is pretty much the same. Click here to download the pattern pdf (updated 18 Dec 08, thanks to Luliriisi for pointing out errata). As usual, please note that some rights are reserved and in particular that no commercial use is permitted.
These long, fingerless gloves were originally created during our Lord of the Rings extended editions watch-a-thon, and are inspired by Arwen as I imagine her from the books. The beautiful silvery-blue yarn made me think of starlight and of the Evenstar of her people.
You will need 2 x 50g Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK in shade 008 (pattern uses approx 170 m of yarn) and a set of 3.25 mm dpns (or smaller/larger to adjust glove size). The finished glove fits my traditionally-built arms (wrist = 21 cm around) and the arm measures approx 12 cm to the wrist.
The thumb is made using Elizabeth Zimmerman’s ‘thumb trick’; if you need more information on this see Knitter’s Almanacor this photo-tutorial from A Kitten Knits.
I’m still new to pattern writing so please let me know if there are any errors or problems.
I made my first pair of flip-top mittens back in May but couldn’t post about them earlier. I mistakenly thought the recipient’s birthday was in August, but it actually wasn’t until October, so these have been sitting in the FO box for a while. They are for a trainee primary school teacher; I thought they’d be good for playground duty, so she can keep her fingers warm most of the time but still be able to pick things up and take down names. Pattern: based on Broad Street Mittens by Janis Cortese (from knitty.com)
Yarn: Zwerger Garn Opal 4-fach / 4-ply, colour Doctor Fish
Needles: 2.5 mm (3 mm for bottom half of flip-top) bamboo DPNs
And by coincidence, when I went button shopping Abakhan had these super-cute Doctor Fish that match perfectly
What I like about the Broad Street pattern is, it makes a really nice pair of convertible mittens. The I-Cord loop on the top is particularly cute. I made mittens in 4 ply sock yarn using 2.5 mm needles and ended up with a pair that are a little snug on my big-girl hands but fit the recipient perfectly.
What I don’t like about this pattern: normally I wouldn’t criticise a free pattern, I think it’s great that people share their ideas and designs and for free patterns, I can cope with doing a bit of filling in the gaps / interpretation / interpolation myself (and I know my own pattern attempts are far from perfect). But this is a Knitty pattern and it’s not of the standard of pattern writing I’ve come to expect from Knitty. Some of the instructions are incomplete, and the hand waving ‘reverse for other mitten’ is OK for an experienced knitter but not helpful for a beginner.
So maybe one day I will write up my own convertible mittens pattern …. including the new(?) way of adding the flip-top bit I used. I wanted to make the stitches from the back continue into the the top, instead of going back and picking them up later (with a view to being able to incorporate some patterning in later mitts) so tried making extra stitches. I’m pretty pleased with the result, almost seamless. Am not going to claim an unvention (yes I did read EZ on holiday) as I’m sure this has been done before.
I love buttons. When I was little, my mum bought all her buttons and ribbon and zips and such from a haberdashery stall on the market where the loose buttons were displayed in lots of little open boxes. I loved looking at them and playing with them, sorting them out if they were mixed up, while mum bought things and chatted to the stall lady.
Tubes of buttons just aren’t the same, but I still love shopping for buttons. Managed to get into Abakhan for this haul
so I could finally get my flip-top mittens finished Pattern: improvised
Yarn: Sirdar Town & Country 4 Ply Sock Yarn, shade 100 Harlequin
Needles: 2.5 mm bamboo dpns
And I have my socks for Bea finished too (post-blocking photo to follow) so the decks are clearing for the ravelympics. Only trouble is, I am wracked with indecision about which yarn to use for my scarf ….
when you have finished all the knitting but haven’t sewn the buttons on yet
I’ve rummaged thro’ the button jar but can’t find any suitable. So these flip-top mittens are waiting for me to find time to get into town and visit Abakhan before I can finish them off.
Knitting productivity is slowed down for the time being (hoping for a consequent increase in chemistry productivity) plus stash aquisition is slowed by Rob being (hopefully temporarily) a gentleman of leisure. But I have plans. Have signed up for 3 events in the Ravelympics (scarf stroke, sock put, wip wrestling) which will all be from stash. Yarn buying will happen tho, I have fallen in love with this spiral jacket from More Big Girl Knits and my sis is helping with the yarn bill for my birthday present.
Knitting and watching dvds, of course. I needed a project to knit during our Easter Weekend Lord of the Rings Extended Editions Marathon and Chrissie needed something to keep her hands warm while weaving in her new workshop, so I made these
These were inspired by Arwen (as I imagine her from the books, not as played by Liv Tyler1). The beautiful silvery-blue yarn made me think of starlight, and I needed Celtic-ish cables for an elven feel. I couldn’t find a pattern that was exactly what I wanted so I improvised this one with help from my venerable Harmony stitch directory. Not having made gloves before the placement of the thumbs wasn’t quite ideal but never mind, they fit and are warm and beautiful. I really like this yarn, so soft and silky, I think I may have to make a pair for myself. I might even write up the pattern eventually.
Pattern: improvised, main cable is Twisted & Crossed Cable from The Harmony Guide to Knitting Stitches (1983)
03/11/08: I have now published a free pattern for these gloves
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK shade 008
Needles: 3.25 mm Clover bamboo dpns
Now I have only one WiP on the needles (Jeanie), an almost unprecedented situation. I will cast on for the Latvian Socks soon, I am off to London this week and need a train-friendly project. I’m not sure about the tops of the Latvian Socks, there is no ribbing to keep them up. I have been thinking of either omiting the turn-over picot edging and ribbing instead, or of doing the turn over but hemming it later so that I can add some elastic underneath. The pattern has you knit the ends of the hem together as you work but I want to be able to get at the elastic again later if need be.
1. Peter Jackson made some fantastic casting decisions for the LOTR trilogy but also some not-so-fanastic choices, and Ms Tyler’s Arwen falls into the latter category IMO
