Milet mittens

These gorgeous mittens and kit were a Christmas present to myself. I LOVE how these turned out. As with most of my mittens, I lined these with cashmere from a thrifted sweater. They are perfect for the 10-25F degree days we've been having this winter. It's been comparatively mild so far this winter.

Mittens

This sweet pair of mittens is off to a fourth grade friend. I have made a couple pairs for her mom over the years and she always takes them during our cold winter months to warm her hands. So her mom asked if I would make a pair just for her.

These are slightly different - they don't have the rolled cuff - but they are buttery soft with purple lambswool on the palms and polar fleece linings. I used the ribbed edges of the sweaters for all the pieces so they were already nicely finished at the lower edges.

I used upcycled silver buttons from the original thrifted vest to keep the two layers together. They add a nice surprise and fancy touch I think.

Owl Mittens

A fun WIP that I will get back to someday this winter...

Night Creatures

For my birthday my girls gave me some yarn to make these fantastic Night Creatures mittens.  I was inspired by one of the color combinations I saw in ravelry and went for it with a great red accent.

The pattern calls for a knit lining, but I've had pretty good luck with upcycled mittens and decided to make a quick cashmere lining instead.

I made a quick trace of the mittens, machine sewed them to fit my hand, pinked the edges and then hand sewed them in place. 

Upcycled Mittens

Early this summer a bag full of lovely sweaters showed up on my doorstep.  They were amazing sweaters - but, they had some challenges and couldn't be worn any longer.  Two had gone through the wash/dry and the third had stains and a couple holes.  But I knew that my friend had left them with me to give them a second chance.




















To get me in the groove for making Halloween costumes (ahem...dusting off that sewing machine) I put together this pair to gift back to her.  I found a brown cashmere sweater at the thrift store for a cozy lining and the exterior of the mittens is from her three sweaters.  The cables were too delicious to not make the centerpiece of the mittens.

As always, I relied on the fabulous pattern by Five Green Acres, but improvised the cuff using the intact sleeves from a thrifted sweater.

I dropped them off to her last week and by all accounts she loves them.  I usually finish off these mittens with a button on the cuff, but I left he exterior and lining separate to make sure the fit was good for her first.

I have just enough left over to make another pair for someone else - the gift-giving holidays are coming up!

Handmade Holidays

I took a break from knitting again - I had started on a pair of socks that I thought might be a gift for the holidays but my wrist really started to act up and I was having trouble doing yoga and pilates so I thought I would pull back from knitting for awhile.

Instead I turned to some mittens from up cycled sweaters, a new quilt block pattern and some lingering cross stitch patterns to help craft up the holidays.

The mittens went to some special people that have been helping me out with a volunteer project over the past year.  I even used some felted handknit sock legs for the cuffs - they were dropped off by a sad neighbor that had felted her own socks and didn't want to look at them anymore.  I told her I had been there myself and gladly took them from her.  I am really happy that I was able to put them to good use in two new pair of mittens!  Each pair of mittens is lined with cashmere - a lovely addition that I discovered really makes the mittens enjoyable to wear.  I mean fleece liners are nice, but cashmere?  Wow.  I also got around to making cashmere liners for my tree mittens and have been wearing them most days this winter.  They are perfect.

I made these three coordinating tree wall quilts for myself, my Mom and my Mother-in-law for Christmas.  I was inspired by the patchwork forest tree tutorial by Diary of a Quilter and once I started making the blocks I couldn't stop!  I wound up with over 100 blocks after one weekend of sewing and from there it was just a matter of organizing the blocks into sets that were well coordinated.  I kept the one of the far right (next photo).

Each has a nice hanging pocket on the back and all were quilted with straight lines.















I also have never framed any of my small cross stitch patterns from over the years.  This Santa had been sitting in a box for a couple years and it was time to take it out and get it up on the wall.  I went to a big box store to get some custom mats cut that would fit off-the-shelf frames.  I then mounted the linen fabric on all natural cotton quilt batting (a recommendation from a local framing shop) and placed it in the frame for the wall.  Success!

I did the same with the Winterwoods ABC's from Alicia Paulson which finally got it's proper place in our hallway.

Next up for framing are the Peace on Earth cross stitch, our family pixel portrait and a recent color pencil drawing by my 7yo which she made during a recent trip to our local art museum.

And next up?  After gazing at my Winterwoods ABC's I logged back onto Alicia's blog/website to see what else she might have available...and the ornament kits are amazing.  Can I say that again?  They are a-maz-ing.  I just ordered Snow Day and can't wait to dive into making them after the craziness of the holidays subsides.

Warm hands, warm hearts

This holiday I made a(nother) batch of mittens. 

My paternal Grandmother passed away about 5 years ago, and after her passing I was able to have a few pieces of her wardrobe.  I wasn't sure what I would do with any of the clothing items.  I had taken bits and pieces to incorporate into my youngest daughters' baby quilts, but other than than I wasn't sure.  I did know, however, that in time I would figure it out.

About six weeks ago when Hurricane Sandy hit I started to go through my fleece collection.  My intent was to send materials out east to a friend that was working furiously to help with hand sewn items to keep folks warm after losing their homes.  I realized that I didn't have much of a fleece collection to speak of - and thus ordered her some fleece for her efforts - but I did find a fleece jacket that belonged to my Grandmother tucked inside the pile.  And I started on a project to keep some hands warm closer to home.

The jacket was enough to make mitten backs and I put together my other left overs and upcycled fleeces to make the palm pieces and linings.  

In the end I made 7 pairs of mittens - a pair for each of my Aunts, and one pair for my Mom.  She took the leftover scraps and made holiday ornaments for each of my Uncles' families.

I wrapped up each pair of mittens with a note about the origin of the fleece, and a hope that the mittens would warm both their hearts and hands on a winters' night.

May your own holiday season be filled with love and warmth, memory and hope.

WIP's and Local Yarns

 

Three of my current WIP's: a vest, mittens and shawl. 

 

The vest is the 18 mos. sized Milo - one of my truly favorite baby/toddler knits.  There are so many ways to customize it - I went back and forth on whether to include a stranded color pattern (elephants! flowers! polka dots!) but in the end decided on a simple cable.  I hope to have this one off the needles, on on daughter #4, by tonight.

 

The mittens are a work of art - Wintergreen by Kate Gilbert.  I am making a few modifications to the pattern, however.  Adding a thumb gusset on the side and I'm not twisting the leaf stitches.  I don't think it matters much with such contrasting colors (and makes the knitting go just a hair faster).  They are a labor of love and probably won't be complete for some time.  They are a concentration project - one that I need space and quiet to work on.  It is the second mitten pattern of Kate's that I've knit and I am pleased, yet again, with the intricate design details (first project here).

 

Last is another Simple Yet Effective Shawl, knit up with my own hand dyed yarn.  I have to confess that I had this shawl in mind when I dyed the yarn so I am excited to see it knit up.  I am happy with the colors/striping and hope that it will find just the right recipient this holiday season.

 

Note: the colors in the photo are not very true - it has been gray and rainy these past few days.  Perfect for knitting, but sucky for indoor photography.  That vest, while pink, is more a peachy-pink.  And the base color for those mittens is actually a deep purple.  The shawl colors you can see better in this post about yarn dying.

 

And speaking of WIP's, I just cast-on for a hat last night and owing to the bulky weight of the yarn, am already half-way done.  I am in love with it and will find it hard to part with.  But I know a lucky girl that will get this for a holiday gift (pictured next to it is the yarn to make a matching one for her sister!).  This is a superwash wool, hand-dyed by Liz Avery at The Sow's Ear. 

 

 

Lastly, I am REALLY, REALLY excited because this morning I placed an order for truly local yarn: Finewool Yarn by Five Green Acres.  Mary Jo stewarded this wool from pasture to skein, and has lived the entire process from shearing to cleaning to dying to spinning.  Her First Harvest: Backyard skeins have amazing colorways such as Sugar Maple, Blue Jay and the like.   Check out the yarn for yourself - it has an amazing story.  And Mary Jo?  She's an amazing woman. 

FO: (Modified) Mitered Mittens

 

I knit up these mittens quickly during the last days of July.  The pattern, a tried and true Elizabeth Zimmerman from The Knitters Almanac, suggests knitting them in May, when the winter is a fading memory and it's getting too warm to have piles of wool on your lap.  It's good advice.  Before you realize it you have something special to tuck away for when the cold winds blow again.

The pattern itself is simply a paragraph, describing the basics (number of sts. to cast on, approx. length to top of mittens, etc.).  No frills, no row-by-row instructions; your only guide being a leap faith that if you just follow her advice the mittens will turn out well.

I modified the thumb gussets using Kathryn Ivy's instructions and love the way they turned out.

The wool for these mittens is one of the skeins I hand painted in late June.  I am pretty excited to see the skein knit up, and even more excited that there wasn't any weird pooling!  I also think these would be great looking in a yarn with really long color repeats.

The mittens fit well, snug with enough give to be comfortable.  I think I could even squeeze in an upcycled cashmere sweater lining.  Sounds divine, no?

FO: Socks and Oven Mitt



pomatomus socks (free knitty.com pattern by cookie a.)

The kids are finally back at school this week.  And I have to admit that this year I wasn't ready for them to go.  I miss them already.  They were in school up to the 23rd, so the holidays were quickly, and furiously upon us.  There was constant celebrating, eating, travelling, and present-opening for a week straight.  Then the new year. 

Then the quiet.  The reading.  The game-playing.  The sleeping in!  The lazy breakfasts.  The laughter.  The hugs and kisses.  The park visits and walks in the woods.  [The WI weather has been creepily mild, more like Thanksgiving than mid-winter.] 

And suddenly we became a family again.  I was Mom - not the morning John McEnroe-ish referee throwing backpacks, sack lunches and gym shoes across the living room.  My daughters were my sweet babies - not whining procrastinators who sprang from the earth to spill my coffee and draw on the checkbook.  My husband was my partner - not the blur moving out the door to catch the bus, nor an e-mail address I send mid-day planning e-mails to.

And I miss us - us as a family.  I am glad that we are going into this new year together - all of us holding these fantastic memories, collectively.  I hope that they can sustain us through the chaos that will unfold as these first weeks back descend.

My first two knitting projects of the new year are off the needles however.  I put the finishing touches on my pair of pomatomus socks.  And I am so happy with how they turned out.  The look like chain mail - like silver pillars of strength on my feet.

And my very own oven mitt (pattern here) came off the needles and was felted on New Year's Eve.  It took about 2 days to dry completely, so I didn't actually use it until after the new year.  I love this mitt, however.  It is very thick and works great with my style of baking and cooking.  I rarely go above 450 degrees F, and this mitt has worked great so far.  I did felt it quite a bit.  You'll see from the photo that it is considerably smaller than the standard mitts sold at stores, but I like that it is more fitted to my hand.  There's no bulk to get in the way.



out of the frying pan (oven mitt pattern by amy e. anderson)

Dispatch from the Workshop, Part 5 (Hand Sewing)

Dragon Gloves, 2011

And our Dispatch(es) from the Workshop(s) series comes to a close with a final hand sewing project. 

I have been encouraging the girls to give each other gifts each year and with my help we had another successful sister-to-sister giving season (the baby didn't give anything this year).  One girl picked out dog ornaments, another picked out Scooby Doo paint-it-yourself magnet craft kits.  And my last daughter wanted to make something for her sisters.  [As an aside, each gift the girls picked out cost $1 or less - whether it was b/c the items were on clearance, or were made with materials I had at home already.] 

We have lots and lots of old issues of Family Fun Magazine floating around the house.  They are perfect to flip through on a rainy afternoon to find a new game or activity to pass the time.  And it was in the pages of that magazine that she found the idea for Dragon Gloves.  I picked up the gloves at the store, and she picked out the felt colors from my stash.  I did the making (tracing, cutting and sewing) when she was in bed one night the week before Christmas.  I had visions of us sitting down together to sew them, but with school in session right until the Friday before the holiday it didn't work out that way.  But her project did get finished and she was so proud to give the gloves to her sisters.

If you are interested in your own pair of dragon gloves (for yourself, or the kids in your life) you can find the pattern here.  It's a great project to match up, and still wear, those single gloves floating around the bottom of the mitten basket!

Dispatch from the workshop, Part 1 (Sewing)

Matchy-matchy mittens

Did I say something about matching mother-daughter mittens awhile back?  Well that thought, originally written in jest, wouldn't leave me alone.  I had dreams about them.  So I dove in head first and made four pair.  One for me, and one for each of my older girls. The baby is still too little to get a pair of mittens, but I have extra materials to make her a pair in a couple years.  And my husband, as the father to four girls, can certainly appreciate a rainbow, but passed on having a pair of rainbow mittens for himself.  Understandable.

The fabric for these is entirely upcycled clothing - a striped, cotton sweater for the mitten back, turquoise polar fleece for the palm, and black polar fleece for the lining.  Two fabrics came from sweaters at the thrift store, and the third from my closet (no, not the sweater thankfully - I could never pull something that bold off!)  They are not windproof, or waterproof, so will only work for winter car trips and early fall weather, but damn they turned out cute.

They came together in two days - cutting on one day and sewing/assembly on the other.  Easy peasy.  I plan to slip these under the tree for the girls to find Christmas morning.

As the title notes, this is the first of a few posts that I will dedicate to highlighting the ways we (my husband and I) made this a special handmade holiday for our family and friends.  Stay tuned - there's woodworking, knitting, drawing and sewing coming your way!

Now, where did I put those mitten clips?

Upcycled Mittens



check. this. out.



Last weekend my Mom took a fantastic mitten making class with the extremely talented and witty Mary Jo, from Five Green Acres.  She showed me her mittens-in-progress and I decided on the spot that I needed a pair of my own.

I have actually been coveting the pair that Mary Jo uses in her tutorial photo.  And over the past year I have casually shopped our thrift stores for a sweater that would make a similar pair.  About two months ago I spied a teeny-tiny 100% wool sweater in the children's section.  It used to be a women's medium, before someone accidentally ran it through the washing machine.  For 30 seconds I felt bad about buying something that a child could use to keep warm, but I know that my own kids protest at wearing felted wool, saying it is too stiff and scratchy.  With this in mind I snatched up that sweater, brought it home, (eventually) cut it up and paired it with some polar fleece from my stash = new mittens for me for this winter.

The sweater provided precious little yardage, so maybe I can make one more pair of adult-sized mittens.  Or definitely a kids pair for one of my littles.  Is it time for mother-daughter matchiness?  Maybe.  Or maybe I should head back to the thrift store in search of sweaters big enough to make matching pairs for the whole family!!  Yes!!  That's the ticket. 

The pattern and tutorial are straightforward and easy to follow, even for a beginning sewist.  The only tricky part is sewing the lining to the outer mitten, and like Mary Jo says, just take your time.  Seriously, once you have the materials on-hand (haha) it only takes 1 or 2 evenings of actual cutting and sewing to make a whole pile of mittens.  You also don't need to have felted wool to make these mittens - Mary Jo provides ideas for many different kinds of materials to use for making warm, soft, winter mittens.

What to make your own pair(s)?

Go Here!



Also if you are in the Madison, WI area check out Mary Jo's other classes too! 

WIP Thursday

I have three different projects on the needles at the moment. Two are for me and one is for my youngest daughter. They are keeping me busy and happy and each offers a different knitting experience. I like it like this.

Typically I am a end-product knitter. And one of these projects fits that bill. The other two are process pieces and I am enjoying learning about how I react to them - and when I turn to work on them, or not.

Here is a photo of the cardigan for daughter #3. This is the product piece, and I can't wait to see her wearing it. She is 3 years old, going on 5, and she takes every opportunity to show you as much. Physically she is taller than her sisters were at her age and thus I am making her a size 5 cardigan. It will be big, but she'll get a couple years of wear out of it.

I really enjoy connecting with her through this project. In the beginning I picked out three patterns I was interested in knitting, left them at her chair at breakfast time, and let her pick out the one she wanted. Then we turned to the magic of the internet and picked out some yarn (Knitpicks CotLin) that would suit the pattern. She got to pick the color - a striking red. I am about half-way done with the piece and hope to finish it off shortly. It needs 3/4-length sleeves and some finishing details. We've already begun calling it her big sister sweater.





This next project - arguably soon to be out of season - is very much a process piece. I am knitting up some mittens with silk (inspiration here). I've never done anything quite like this and love, love, love it. It is very organic, very raw and very rustic.

The silk comes in a hankie (or roughly 11-inch square) that is as thin as a cobweb. Termed mawatas, these hankies are made from the the cocoons of silkworms (DO NOT FOLLOW THIS LINK IF YOU ARE SQUEAMISH ABOUT BUGS/WORMS). The cocoons are degummed, flattened, layered and then dyed, if one desires. Mine were dyed by the very talented folks at Blue Moon Fiber Arts.

For this project I am using the silk as is, no spinning or processing. I simply stretch out the sticky hankie, split it in one place and ply the end of one to the end of another. Then start knitting. Voila!

The width of the 'yarn' is all over the place, but that is one of things that I love about the project. The variation adds so much character. But stretching each hankie as I needed it caused me to stop too frequently, so instead I stretch about 10 hankies at one sitting and then wind them onto a spent paper towel holder. This allows me to work the yarn much faster and with fewer interruptions.





This last piece has been going for some time now (see here), but has been temporarily abandoned while I work on the two above. This scarf will take forever to finish - it is knit from three balls of sock yarn. Each ball gives you roughly two small socks so this scarf is the equivalant of knitting 6 socks. But the beauty! The colors! The new-to-me stitch pattern! It will be a happy spring scarf if I gather the energy to finish it. It would also make for a stunning fall accessory don't you think?

Whew

In a crazy fury of knitting I finished these mittens late last week. I was simultaneously working under deadline on edits with my advisor on a book we co-wrote over the past year. Apparently when my adrenaline kicks in, and caffeine from the insane amount of coffee I was drinking to get it all done, my knitting benefits.


These mittens are from a lovely pattern and I highly recommend it for experienced knitters. I did have a very difficult time achieving gauge and proper sizing however. It was likely due to my inexperience with two-color stranded knitting, but I wanted to give a word of caution. Be sure to check out ravelry for lots and lots of feedback on other peoples experiences with these mittens.


I made two, well actually three, modifications to the pattern. The first which isn't really a modification, but is a departure from the pattern, is that I used worsted weight yarn. I had a terrible time getting stranded knitting to look right with fingering weight wool so I went with a heavier weight instead. The second modification was to cut 8 rows from the pattern for each thumb. The mittens are already on the big side, and will need to be felted a tad, but if I had stuck true to pattern the thumbs would have reached almost to the top of the mittens. The last modification was that I added a picot edge. The pattern called for a purl row edge and I thought this was a tad more decorative. I also have to say how much I love the braided cuff detailing and will be using that again on another pair of mittens in the future.


You can find the rest of the details (needle size, yarn, etc.) on my project page on ravelry. For my history with these mittens you can scroll here.



As of tonight I have two sock projects on the needles and I have cast on for the first of two hooded wallaby sweaters. I'm definitely back in the swing of knitting again!

America's Knitting

I'm so excited to share that I was asked to participate in Wisconsin month on America's Knitting. You can check out my mittens here, as well as other gorgeous knitted projects from my fellow Wisconsinites.

The website itself is chock full of great information on knitting all across the United States and the site is dedicated in support of local yarn shops. Mary puts it quite simply, "Yarn shops are important." This is so true.

Speaking for myself, as a mostly self-taught knitter-learner, the yarn shop is the place I go for just about everything. Supplies/notions and yarn, sure. But for me they are also like a museum, research lab, library, resource center, socio-emotional center and teaching institution all rolled into one.

Mary's site is an invaluable tool for travelling knitters - she has current listings for many, many, many stores across the country all sorted by city and state, and she even gives you a map! I know that I'll be visiting to learn about the nearest LYS the next time I'm planning to attend a conference away from home. She also does in-depth coverage of specific stores on the spotlight page.

Mary wrote such kind words about my work and creative effort - it's more than enough to get me back to my needles, double-time.

Deep in the Forest Mittens: The saga continues

Remember this post? Well, here is my progress. I decided to forgo the thumb for the moment and just cast on for the second mitten. They are so lovely and I'm excited to see them develop. I can finally see the forest for the trees. You, however, can find the pattern for these mittens here.

What worked? I found my magic combination: size 1 needles, with worsted weight yarn (Cascade 220 for these). For whatever reason, I needed something more substantial to do stranded color work properly. Fingering weight just wasn't cutting it for me. Luckily they are not coming out too big - a worry with thicker yarn and hence more sts/inch - and with a wee bit of felting in the sink they should fit well enough. I didn't wind up modifying the pattern at all, with the exception of the cuff. I added a picot edge, which I fell in love with here. Although the mittens are not lined, the underside of the cuff is a lovely heather purple.

I hope to finish them before fall comes. Funny to be saying that when it's only May (hence spring in my neck of the woods), but the pattern does require a lot of attention to detail and that is hard to come by in our household. Especially during the summer months when we want to be outside and digging in the dirt, not inside reading a knitting chart. On that note, I've been busy outside. In addition to our usual vegetable and herb gardens, we added blueberries, strawberries, raspberries and cranberries to our yard this spring! Combined with the established apple tree, sour cherry tree and rhubarb we've got quite an operation going.

Two FO's

I have a couple of FO's (finished objects) to share! First, let me present my new mittens:

And here are my new socks:















I have been doing a lot of writing lately, and not too much knitting. I have gotten the green light from my advisor to set a proposal defense date (pending one last revision) so I will be pretty focused on school for the next few weeks. It feels great to be making some progress on my dissertation! I know that I will have to set the knitting aside for a bit - or rather not spend quite so many evenings knitting as I would like - to jump this next hurdle, but I'm on my way. Yeah!

Details for both projects are on ravelry. The mittens are Bird in Hand by Kate Gilbert, and the socks are Spring Forward by Linda Welch.