I have another FO for you today, not entirely on purpose. Yes, it’s another Christmas gift, but this one was not intended to be of the stealth variety. This gift is for my now 89 year old Grandfather who isn’t exactly frequenting the blog. I may have talked about this here before, but we have a family joke that Grandpa’s shoulders go up in the fall and don’t come down until spring. Translation: he gets cold. So things warm and wooly are good. I decided that these would work out well for him since he would still be able to go outside and light his pipe (not that I approve of smoking but I’m not going to be the one to tell him to quit at his age!) and hopefully not set himself on fire!

Grandpa’s Christmas Gloves

Pattern: Urban Necessity Gloves by Colleen Michele Meagher
Yarn: Cascade 220, a little more than one skein
Needles: Size 6 Knitpicks harmony
Knit: 12/12-12/18/2008

This is an absolutely fantastic pattern. Clearly written, very simple and just the right bits of everything. Also, nicely customizable. I knit each finger to what I thought would be a good length for maximum warmth yet retaining flexibility. I decided to knit the mitten tops plain because we all know how our boys like things plain. I also probably did a bit of extra length on the cuffs with that maximum warmth idea in mind.

One little ingenious bit in this pattern is that you are instructed to cable the first and last stitch of each finger the first time around. This helps close up that inevitable little gap between each finger. Brilliant!! Reading that was definitely one of those “Why didn’t I think of that?!?” moments.

My only very tiny complaint with the pattern is that the decreases for the mitten cap are a bit wonky in my opinion. I think it’s easy enough to work out something better but it just kind of makes me wonder if I’m missing something. The rest of the pattern is so good!

I made the largest size and it took just over one skein of yarn. I think if I had shortened the fingers a small bit and perhaps not cut my tails so long I could have made it with one skein. Guess what? I get to find out! Because I was working on these when I was visiting my parents last weekend and HWJF AND my Dad requested their own pairs! Good thing I enjoyed knitting these! To keep it interesting I can see doing some sort of intarsia or fair isle motif on the mitten caps and/or the back of each hand. Then again, there’s that whole boys like things plain thing again… Unfortunately I won’t be seeing Grandpa before Christmas but these will be just as good in January I think!

Have a great weekend! And if you’re in the northeast enjoy the “weather”.

I tend to be a pretty monogamous knitter these days. I get focused on a project and I just can’t stop working on it. That is, unless my fickle brain decides it doesn’t like something about the project or it gets bored. Mostly though, I only have one or two things on the needles at once. If I have too many WIPs, I start to panic. Anyone with me?

But then I realize that I have travel knitting coming up and that the Boatneck Bluebell will be done and what am I going to knit all week?!?!?

That’s real panic people.

So I started the hat on Monday.

Can I just say the little braid is a pain to knit? The two yarns twisting around each other was almost enough to make me tear my hair out. What you see here is probably about 2 hours worth of knitting. Seriously. I’m knitting this with some handspun and a yarn called Pace that I picked up in Pittsburgh at last year’s conference (just realized that. Pretty appropo to be knitting with last year’s conference souvenirs at this year’s conference!). HWJF picked the colors. I do not approve of the black, but I’m sure as heck not ripping it out!

To soothe my frazzled nerves from that project I started this one.

It’s Annemor #8 from Selbuvoter. Once I figured out what size needle I was using (things got a bit jumbled in the move and my needle organization failed me a bit) things seem to be going along well. I think these will match my new coat nicely. And I’m excited about doing gloves for the first time. Fingers! Woo!

You’ve got questions, I’ve got answers

Some bloggers get a lot of questions from their readers. Me? Notsomuch. So I’m taking my life in my hands opening up the floor for y’all! Ask me something! Anything! Something you’ve always been wondering? Ask! And I’ll answer it right here next week. Just remember, it’s my blog so if I decide it isn’t appropriate for posting in cyberspace (like if it’s crazy personal or something), I may decide not to post here. Just sayin’.

Have a great weekend everyone!

*goes to watch e-mail with baited breath…*

P.S. Whomever found my blog by searching “socks for fat feet patterns”…. Sorry! We only have big feet here!

P.P.S. I must have been extra good lately. Just sayin’.

What’s an FFO? A Finally Finished Object! And that’s what these definitely are:

Anatolian Mittens

Pattern: Anatolian Mittens from Folk Mittens

Yarn: Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride Worsted

Needles: size 2 addis

Knit: 10/16-12/13/2007

Mods: I felted them!

The picture above shows you the mittens pre-felting. I really loved how they looked when they were finished, but they were just too darn big. If the thumb placement had been higher up on the body of the mitten I probably could have gotten away with it, but where it is I could fold the whole top of the mitten over and into my palm! That’s what I get for not swatching.

I even went down a needle size from what was recommended! I think Lamb’s Pride’s idea of “worsted” and the rest of the world might be something different! Knitting the thumbs was really hard on my hands. So much so that I only did one an evening until they were done. It seemed like it was kind of silly not to just finish them, but I know better than to push my hands too far.

I didn’t really want to loose all that great patterning, but they weren’t usable this way, so into the machine they went.

I’d say they didn’t come out half bad. You can see that one felted slightly smaller than the other. Also, where my float tension was a little uneven it twisted things a bit, but not too shabby under the circumstances. It made the fabric thick and squishy which is kind of nice and the wind doesn’t get through nearly as much as it did before.

The thumbs worked out ok too. I was a little bit afraid that they might felt to the mitten.

I wore them to work yesterday and they are still a little bit on the big side. They may go through another felting cycle in the near future, but for now I’m considering them done. If nothing else, they should be even warmer than they are now if I felt them again!