October Mittens

I recently fell for a KnitPicks sale. You know how it is - they send you the pattern for free, and before you know it, you're buying the kit. Well, I bought the kit. It's for the Woodland Winter Mittens, a set of six patterns of colorwork mitts, one for each month October through March.

Jumping right in, I made the October mittens in the large size, and once blocked, discovered they were far too big. No trouble! My mom would love them - and so to her for her birthday they went, and as predicted, she fell absolutely in love.

I used the colors called for in the stormy colorway, as seen on the project page.

Ravelry Project Page

Insulate!

My brother-in-law is a huge Doctor Who fan, and so when I found this pattern, there was no question that it would be his gift. I ended up adapting the pattern quite a bit to make it fit.

• I increased the amount of stitches in the top quite a bit
• I increased sooner on the thumb and made one extra row
• I went longer before switching to the brown/yellow lines

Overall, he loves them. When he opened the box, it was covered with an image of a Dalek yelling "INSULATE!" which, for you Doctor Who fans, was just the icing on the cake.

Ravelry Project

Belated Thrummed Mittens

Last year, I promised my mom a pair of mittens for her birthday.  For a woman with poor circulation who lives in one of the coldest and windiest regions in the US, I thought I would make some windproof, fuzzy mittens!

I decided on the thrummed/stuffed/fluffy mittens pattern from Joan Janes on Ravelry and they came out wonderfully!  Essentially, the concept is that you use a basic yarn as a background, and then use ripped roving yarn to make "thrums," with the fluffy ripped ends sticking straight into the mitten.  When you wear it, the ends felt together to the sides and all you feel is a beautiful wind-proof fluffy warm barrier.

I made a pair of these mittens for my mother...and they wouldn't even go over the heel of her hand.

So, determined to rip them out and start over despite the fact that I had just become homeless, I returned to the drawing board, only to decide within the next week that I was needed to graduate early, which meant I had to start on the wedding knits! (here, here, here, and here)

So now, as we're approaching her birthday again, I decided what better than to send these mittens over with her gift for this year?

The muppet slaughtering.

I wanted to re-use the yarn from the original pair, but instead I slaughtered a muppet (phrase coined by Randall).  Yep, undoing them was a horrific experiment in un-felting, poorly-pulling, and exploding all over the living room.  It was okay, though, because when I made the original pair, I ended up slicing little cuts on the insides of my knuckles from ripping all the roving yarn (cutting them doesn't give the same effect), so I knew at the very least I needed those thrums!

And here we are, finally, with a pair of mittens that will hopefully fit my mother!

Ravelry Pattern | Ravelry Project

Smitten!

I saw this pattern on Ravelry and I had to make it for my fiance for Valentine's Day!  Here's the original pattern photo:

His gift preferences are specific.  He likes things that are functional and things that show that the person actually cares.  Stock gifts are not his thing.  It's a good thing that I know how to knit, because that makes it even better -- I invest time, he feels loved, I have fun, and we look obnoxiously adorable walking around with our hands in a Smitten!

Well, this was quite a feat to make.  It called for super-bulky yarn and two sets of DPNs -- sizes 13 and 15.  I don't have any of those and I'm broke!

So I made it work.  I used two strands of royal blue worsted yarn and one strand of a blue/white self-striping worsted yarn and held them all together.  I had a pair of size 13 circular needles, but they were too big for most of the project and too small to make a magic loop.  I also had one size 15 regular knitting needle (I lost it's pair) with a rather stubborn end piece.  I basically did the whole thing in my size 13 circular needles and used my size 15 singular needle for a few odds and ends here and there to make it work.

In the end, I'm pretty proud of it!  And we went for a wonderful walk today :)

Ravelry Pattern | Ravelry Project

Baby Mitts!

A friend of mine at college is having twins!  We hosted a baby shower for her on the campus and I decided to make her some baby mitts!

Originally, the idea was to make a matching mitt, hat, and bootie set for each little baby, but since the shower was right at the edge of finals, I didn't even have time to finish the mitts!

However, they were finished a few days ago, and have become project two to be completed!

Here's the pattern I used: http://sunnyknits.livejournal.com/6797.html
The blog is in Russian, but there's an English version of the pattern in a link to the right of the picture.

I definitely enjoyed these mitts.  They're so adorable and fluffy!  If I were to do it again, I would make the k-cords thinner, though, because they keep bunching up in the mitts.

I also ended up having to use two different types of yarn to get colors that were neutral (she doesn't know the genders yet), so the cords were of course slightly different than their corresponding mitts, which may have contributed to the problem.

And there's project two!

Ravelry Pattern | Ravelry Project