Fishy Wishies?

Complete nonsense. But fun nonsense, don't you think? :)

Bear-y Mittens

I'm still fascinated by wool embroidery. There's so little info available that I've been blazing my own trail, and that has been frustrating by times. And sometimes, really fun. Here are the newest mittens:

I embroidered the right hand mitten first, and I think it's clear that I learned a lot. The left hand mitten is already much better. Especially the lettering, don't you think?

So, if you're planning on trying this yourself, here's the scoop (according to me)...... Unlike appliqué, start with the foreground first. Start in the middle and work OUT. Don't work in from both sides. The dryer sheet stitching guide is too apt to slip and slide, and you'll find you don't have as much space as you need. I think that's what happened to the 'C' in 'MUCH'.

Oh, and these aren't twined or double knit. They're just regular worsted weight stocking stitch mittens, with a cardboard blocker inserted to keep the embroidery needle from poking in the palm of the mitten, and to give the mitten stability.

Most importantly.....don't take it all too seriously. It's just for fun.....and warmth.

Adventures in wool embroidery

The first ones are double knit with worsted weight wool. 

The second pair was knit in twined knitting with worsted weight wool. 

Twined knitting makes a nice, dense surface for embroidery.

Very warm mittens! Just in time for spring!! :)

Chipman's Block Mittens

These will fit a child. I'm sending them off to Afghanistan. 

Afghans for Afghans will see they get delivered to children in need.... 

this time, probably in a displaced person's camp.

I must say, as a Canadian,

it irks me that they insist on branding the group as "American".

I did write to the lady in charge, because there are lots of Canadians taking part, too.

In the end, I decided the important thing was that children who are cold, are getting warm woollies. 

If anyone knows of any other worthy charities, I'd love to hear about them.

More colour

Still on my quest to understand stranded knitting (aka double knitting). Here are mittens in 4 colours. As usual, I've gone way over the top. Went from 2 colours (which is manageable) to 4 (which I found hard). I like them though.

They'll be going to Afghans for Afghans. They fit my hands.....small hands....so they're probably better classified as teen-sized.

They passed the mandatory inspection.

Adventures in colour

This winter's been a long one. Grey skies. Grey mood. Grey everything. Recently, I looked up from the grey shawl I was knitting, and wondered ... "Why grey? This interminable winter needs some colour!"

I've long wanted to explore stranded knitting, otherwise known as Fair Isle or what my friend Karen calls 'double knitting'. She's a Maritimer and ought to know. One of the things that has always put me off double knitting is 'floats' ... those annoying stretches of yarn on the back side of a project. They always seemed to me to be great places to catch a finger or a toe. Most patterns say a float of up to 7 stitches is OK, but to me, it's just trouble with a capital T. Karen told me her mother had taught her to 'knit in' the carried yarn so you have no floats at all. If we'd been in the same room, she would have shown me easily the way women have taught other women for generations ... side-by-side. Unfortunately, we've never actually met, let alone sat 'knee to knee'. She found me a YouTube video though, and after watching it MANY times, and practicing for several days, I think I've finally got it. It's a pleasure to hold those yarns and manage them fluidly. A great skill to have finally learned. And as the song says, all "with a little help from my friend(s)."

So, for my first project I chose a pair of mittens. I had clipped the pattern from a Canadian Living magazine in 1987. (Yes, my 'must try' list is that long.) It's supposed to be a houndstooth pattern, but it pre-dates charts, and the line by line instructions are obviously wrong. One of the lines of the pattern stitch is incomplete. I charted what I could, and ended up with this:

Not exactly houndstooth. Not even close. However, I like it. Kind of a zig-zag vertical stripe which has no name (as far as I know). You can see how dense the fabric is, and that there are no floats on the inside of the mitten.

I used worsted weight yarn, 40 stitches. 3.25mm needles for the k1,p1 ribbing. 2 1/4inch ribbed cuff. Changed to 4.5mm needles for the body of the mitten. These mittens fit a small lady's hand (mine, coincidently).