Busy Beaver

I've been a busy beaver for the last couple of weeks. I went through my stash and pulled all of the yarn that I'd bought for baby or child projects. I looked through my patterns and picked a few projects, some tried and tested and some new. Then I made up kits, I put a copy of the pattern in a freezer bag along with the required yarn. I'm away again next week, for around three months this time. Now I have a box of knit kits which I can dip into and just start knitting. This will hopefully speed up productivity as I won't loose time having to match yarn and pattern each time, and I also don't need to carry a box of books and magazines in addition to the box of yarn ;) I need to get some of these cardigans and jumpers done before the recipients grow up too much.

I've also been cranking out the knitting. Eric - the evil cardigan of doom - is almost done. It just needs buttons and edging. I've also started on kit #1. A ribbon tied hoodie in pink and um, pink. I've made this a couple of times but this time I'm trying to knit it without needing to do any seaming. The back and fronts are being knit in one piece, and I'm planning to pick up stitches and knit downwards for the sleeves. This will also give me some wiggle room if I need to alter the sleeves due to lack of yarn! I've also finished knitting my French Press Slippers, they 'just' need sewing together and felting. I've got another week off and hope that I'll get one or more finished and blogged before I have to pack the car and head off again.

1,2,3, hat

Pattern: Urchin by Ysolda Teague

Needles: 7mm

Yarn: Rowan Little Big Wool #512

During the last dump of snow we had a friend jokingly asked me to make her a hat like mine as her head was cold. I had downloaded the Urchin pattern a few weeks previously and hat a ton of the Little Big Wool so I thought why not?

With the chunky yarn it was a nice quick knit and the construction was interesting. I did have to start twice as the pattern was written in a slightly confusing way. It wasn't until I knit the pattern repeat for the second time that it clicked and I realised that I had somehow managed to skip several rows on the first repeat. As my hat (purchased several years ago in Castle Douglas during a very wet week) has a flower on it I thought that one would be in order for this hat too.

The flower and leaf are from a crocheted set I bought on etsy two years ago with the intention of using them on a little girls sweater/cardigan which I haven't got around to yet. The recipient was very pleased with the finished hat, declaring that she would keep it on in bed! What more can you ask for? An interesting, quick project knit from the stash.

Mittens

Pattern : Bella's Mittens

Needles: Bamboo DPN's

Yarn: Rowan Little Big Wool (pink - 501 , Green - 511 )

This was another pattern found by lurking on the people page at Ravelry looking at all the completed projects. As I read through the Twilight Series at top speed last spring and a number of my friends had both read the books and watched the first two movies, these seemed like ideal christmas gifts. I had a look at the pattern page on Ravelry to see what yarns other people had used and spotted a fair few pairs made up in Rowan Little Big Wool. I have used this yarn a few times for different projects; hats, scarves and even a jumper (beautifully warm but gigantic and unshapely so only used in the privacy of my dad's very cold home!) and it knits up nicely. I soon discovered that the yarn had been discontinued but spotted some on ebay. I picked up packs in four different colours. The left overs will be used up in a blanket I'm planning for myself with oddments of Rowan chunky yarn from the stash (Big Wool, Biggy Print and Little Big Wool).

I knit up three pairs of these before Christmas and a third just after. The pattern is free and available here. It is written very well and easy to follow. I used DPN's for these as I'm not a fan of the magic loop method that the pattern calls for. Only the first pair got blocked as I didn't have time with the others, it didn't seem to make much difference anyway.

Olympic Endeavour

Pattern: Deep in the Forest Mittens

Needle size: 2.5mm bamboo DPN's

Yarn: Sundara Sock in Beaded Turquoise and Cactus Flower

I cast on for this, my Knitting Olympic project on day 4 of the winter games in Vancouver. It took me a while to get into the swing of knitting with 2 colours, making sure that the yarn carried on the back was loose enough to keep the knitting flat but not too loose. The first mitten knit up slowly, it took from day 4 to day 15 to complete. This left me with 2 1/2 days to complete mitten 2. By now handling 2 colours was almost second nature and having met all of the different elements of the mitten already I could just crack on with the knitting, no stops for pattern interpretation required. I took the mittens to work and knit on all my breaks, even a couple of rows gained here could make all the difference. I stayed up late watching the Olympic coverage and knit, I got up early and knit before work. On Sunday I sat down in front of the fire and knit, and knit, and knit. I knit through the highlights of day 16, I knit through the Men's 50K Cross Country Ski, I knit through the Ice Hockey final. My fingers flew and by the time we reached the closing ceremony I was knitting my way up the thumb. And on through the closing ceremony I worked grafting the thumb, weaving ends sewing the seam on the cuff hem. By some miracle I had finished just as the speeches drew to a close. And so I sat in my new mittens and watched as the Olympic flame was extinguished. Somehow I had finished. Mitten 1 took 11 1/2 days to knit and somehow I had pulled off a miracle and knit mitten 2 in 2 1/2 days. Truly an Olympic endeavour!

For mitten 1 I followed the pattern for the braided cuff. This resulted in a braid pointing the opposite way to the image on the pattern. So for mitten 2 I reversed the pattern and ended up with mirror image braids, a small detail but 1 that pleases me no end.

This is the first pattern that I have knit with a cuff seam, and it was much easier than I expected. I have seen this mitten knit with a picot here rather than just a plain edge and I think I may try that if I knit something similar in the future.

All in all I'm pretty pleased with these mittens. This pattern was easy to follow, and apart from a discrepancy between the written instructions and chart over the starting point for the thumb gusset and the braid coming out reversed if knit as written, there were no problems. I think I may have got my tension sorted out quicker if I had knit a pattern like Eunny Jang's Endpaper Mitts where you aren't having to carry yarn over such large areas and where the pattern is regular and easy to memorise allowing you to keep a closer eye on the knitting with out constantly referring to the chart. Having said that I'm glad I chose the pattern I did and am very happy with end results. Now I have 4 years to pick out a project for next time.