Tag Archives: fingerless mitts

Jan9

Joy!

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Joy!

Hello all. I hope you’re enjoying a relaxing weekend doing the things you love.

It’s my turn for a weekend off and Mr Fixit and I have had a good day so far. Just errands around town and grabbing some awesome tea from our favourite place, but so much nicer than being at work!

My featured photo today (above) is the view from my kitchen early yesterday morning. It looked like the trees were on fire! And today when I opened my curtains, I had a treat. Two deer were standing on the vegetable garden, barely moving, looking watchful and alert (probably because of the dog in the neighbour’s yard). I quickly grabbed my phone. They hung around for some time, then bounded effortlessly over the fence and went on their way.

I am always honoured to have a visit from them. I hope they know that they are safe on my property.

Onto yarny pursuits, and I finished some fingerless mitts for Mr Fixit. I used the Cygnet Chunky again. They only took two evenings. Once I had finished the first one, he did say he would have liked longer cuffs like his old pair, but I’m afraid I’m a bad wifey and told him I don’t have much patience for things made in pairs any more and I just wanted them done fast!

I used the basic mitten pattern from Ann Budd’s book, The Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns.

Once those were done, I started a new crochet project. A co-worker is scheduled for major back surgery in February and I wanted to make her something. After a browse around Ravelry I decided on the Wishing Well Wrap (link to pattern on her blog here) (link to my project page on Ravelry here)

I’m using Lion Brand Mandala Baby in Echo Caves which is a tasteful combination of blues, greens and cream. It’ll probably take two cakes, though I have five in stash, so could make it bigger if I have time. It’s an easy two-row pattern. Perfectly good for working on while watching The Crown on Netflix!!

Anyone who loves books will appreciate this stack that I brought home from the library today. A few of them were ones I had requested – the rest were ones I found that caught my eye. Three novels, some knitting and other crafts, and a lot of quilt and applique books.

Twenty three to be exact (the maximum number we can borrow at once is 100, and yes, when the boys were small we did manage to hit that amount sometimes). What a warm fuzzy feeling, to be home on the couch on a winter’s afternoon, with yarn to hand, and a pile of books to enjoy, while it’s getting dark outside. Joy!!

Nov16

FOs: crochet handwarmers

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Hello friends, and a happy Monday to you.

I’ve been having a heck of a time getting a focused shot of these handwarmers/fingerless mitts. I am using an old iPad, but still, the camera should be working ok. Maybe the lens is scratched.

It’s been nice to run up three pairs of these mitts out of old stash, as I was so entrenched in Netflix that I had been feeling VERY unproductive. These are really easy. Just chain 26, work 25 sc across, and then every row after that is 25 sc into the back loop. Once 22 rows are done, I slipstitch the first and last rows together until 8 stitches are left, slipstitch across 5 stitches on one side so as to leave a thumbhole, and then join the last 3 together. That’s it!

The yarn is Loops & Threads Barcelona in Sea Glass and Lapis. Super soft and a bulky weight, I used a 6mm hook and they were done in no time.

I was off this weekend and we had a great time. A walk along the waterfront on Saturday followed by tea at our favourite place, and a potluck with a few friends on Sunday followed by another walk around the neighbourhood in the dark to try to feel a little less overstuffed and lazy!

The last snowfall has mostly melted and it’s not particularly cold yet. Single digits on the Celsius scale anyhow. The trees have mostly lost their leaves and yesterday, when we were eating lunch and looking out of our dining room window, the sun was shining on the lake in the distance (something we see more of when the walnut tree is sans leaves) and it was beautiful.

I feel like, with this being such a weird year, we should make more of an effort to make December special this year. I suggested it to the family but they couldn’t some up with any ideas. I like the idea of a RAK Advent Calendar (random acts of kindness). Guess I’m going to have to put some thought into this.

Jun9

The short version

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I have a friend who needs cheering up at the moment so after I finished the long armwarmers for myself I decided to knit some shorter ones for her. (I doubt she reads my blog.) These are all Scheepjes River Washed XL colours out of the pack of minis.

After the sweater and longer mitts were made, this is what I had left from the 50 x 15g mini skeins and 5 x 50g balls of Moonstone.

Rather than mix the Stone Washed and River Washed in such a small project, I went for the latter, and even though I didn’t think I liked this yarn as much as the Stone Washed I really like the look of these mitts.

Rather than start with 42 stitches and decrease down from forearm to wrist, I just started with 32 stitches, which is the number of stitches at the wrist in my pattern (posted a few days ago). Total length is about 7 inches, instead of 11.

Jun5

Elemental armwarmers

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ELEMENTAL  ARMWARMERS 

A new pattern based on an old design of mine (Elements armwarmers), these fingerless mitts have been re-knitted and updated almost ten years after I published the pattern. 

I have used Scheepjes Stone Washed XL which is 70% cotton, 30% acrylic. I bought a box of 50 mini skeins, along with five 50g balls of the cream, and after I finished crocheting a sweater I had lots left over. The original mitts were made with a colour-changing yarn, so there were way fewer tails to weave in. Of course you can use whatever aran weight yarn you like. 

The weight of these when finished is 80 grams so you could just use one 100g skein of yarn. Or you can go nuts with colour, like I did!

What you’ll need:

100g aran weight yarn, either all one colour or a combination

5mm/US8 needles, either a long circular for magic loop or dpns

Sizing:

Designed to fit a 7.75” hand, measured around the palm above the thumb, a 6” wrist and 10.5” forearm. 

Finished dimensions 6.5” around hand, 7” at wrist, 9” at forearm. Total length 11”.

The first rendition of the pattern stretched out considerably around my hand, so I’ve remade it with less ease. Once you know your gauge, it’s a simple case of adjusting the numbers to fit your own arms.

Gauge:

13sts/3” (4.33sts/inch) and 7 rows/inch. 

No need to knit a gauge swatch – this project is small enough that you can start knitting and measure your stitch gauge after the first inch of stockinette/stocking stitch. Row gauge is not crucial as you are knitting to measurements. And you can try on as you go.

Abbreviations:

K knit

P purl

St/sts stitch/stitches

CO cast on

BO bind off

Rnd round

K2tog knit 2 together (decrease)

Dec decrease

Beg beginning

dpns double pointed needles

How to:

Cast on 42 stitches and either divide them between your dpns or set up your circular needle for magic loop. (Pro tip – make sure each needle starts with a knit stitch, not a purl stitch.) Join in the round. Work K1, P1 ribbing for 5 rounds. (42 sts)

Change to stockinette (knit all stitches) and work 7 rounds. (42 sts)

Next round: dec by K2tog in two places while working this round (I positioned my decs randomly, just trying to make sure they weren’t stacking above each other in subsequent rounds. If you’d rather do all decs at beg and end of round, then feel free to do so.) (40 sts)

**K 7 rounds, work dec round; repeat from ** four times. (32 sts)

K straight until your work measures 10”, or desired length to base of thumb, from cast on edge. 

Thumb:

(My original design made two identical mitts – this time I positioned the thumbholes differently so that the colour jogs were not running along the top of my hand – it’s your choice as to what you do here.)

Left mitt: BO 8 sts, K to end of round. (24 sts)

Right mitt: K to 8 sts from end of round, BO 8 sts (24 sts)

Next round: K around, use knitted cast on method to CO 6 or 7 sts over the gap created by the BO in the last round. (I did 6, it was pretty snug, again it depends on the fit you want.)

The thumbhole rounds may need some finagling on your needles. You may need to shift stitches around on your dpns/circs to make it easier to BO and CO these stitches. 

K 5 rounds, or more for more coverage. (The original design had ribbing at the hand – I ended up ripping and redoing three times because it looked messy and went with continuing the stockinette instead.)

Bind off. Weave in ends (or knot and trim if you’re lazy like me).

Notes on colour: I chose to work the initial ribbing in one colour, then do 3 row stripes of each colour, and then the thumbhole and last 5 rows in one colour. I couldn’t tell you what the names of these colours are as the labels came off when I made the sweater. And  my mitts are fraternal rather than identical twins!

Mar22

FO: Key Largo scarf

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FO: Key Largo scarf

So much fun colour in this week’s projects!

The Key Largo scarf is finished! It turned out about 70″ x 12″ and here it is in all its blocked rainbowy glory.

I used up almost all of one cake of Lion Brand Mandala so there were only two ends to weave in.  The start date was March 9th and the finish date was the 19th, so it didn’t take long. It helps that I worked on it monogamously (surprisingly for me). The pattern was easily memorisable,  and portable, which meant I could work on it anywhere.

What else have I done? Oh yes, the float experience went well. I mentioned last time that I was a little concerned about the green hair dye leaching out into the Epsom salts tank at the float place, but it was ok. And I had a very relaxing hour inside the pod, in the dark, with the music playing. So I would probably do that again.

Yesterday there was a mini challenge in the Party! International Crochet Month group on Ravelry. One of the mods suggested that we might like to make an item of clothing for our Inner Beasts using freeform crochet, and that the first person to post a photo of their beast wearing his/her new garment would win a tutorial on freeform crochet from Prudence Mapstone. Well, Prudence is the guru of freeform and I do like a challenge, so I quickly crocheted up a vest for Brian. I was sure someone would pip me at the post as it was ten hours since the challenge had been set, but I managed to be the first and therefore the winner! Yay! It was a perfect little project for an evening where I was feeling tired from work and not even feeling like picking up a hook.

I even found time for sewing this week and used some fleece remnants to make these cute armwarmers. They are so cosy and comfortable that I almost wish it was still winter…almost! I used a tutorial and downloadable pattern that I printed out. The only modification I made was to trim about an inch off the thumb, as I didn’t hem the ends so the thumbs turned out too long.

The photo on the website shows a curved seam between the hand the thumb, but I sewed it with a V-shaped seam, pivoting the needle at the base of the V. A little snip into the seam allowance meant it turned right side out just fine and I think my version looks great! This is the sort of pattern you could make lots of, as it is quick and fun.

We’ve had a very Spring-like week with temps into the double digits. In fact, on Tuesday, I went out on the back deck which faces south and took a thermometer with me and in the sun, on the deck chair next to me, it hit 36 degrees Celsius! Officially it was probably half that. So that’s two days when I have enjoyed the deck, with my new swimsuit on, getting some rays and making some vitamin D. IMG_8059

This was my spot this afternoon, where I planned the week’s meals. Shame about the shady bits, but it was certainly plenty warm enough to sit out for an hour.

Wednesday I took my car in to the Toyota dealership. There was a passenger side airbag recall, and the car was due for a maintenance check and oil change. Turns out (doesn’t it always) that there was more to do, like a new battery and removing a screw from one of the tires, so in the end they had the car for more than five hours. During that time, I walked the mall a couple of times, visited a few other shops, stopped briefly for some lunch, and later some crochet at a local park, but for at least four of those five hours I was walking. Phew! Didn’t need to go to the gym THAT day.

I’m expecting a busy weekend – work both days with extra sale deals to bring in the customers, so I will really appreciate the massage that I have booked for Monday. Enjoy your weekend!

Oct17

FO update

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The granny blanket that I showed you last time has grown quite a lot but I don’t have an up to date photo. It’s just more of the same! The rounds get longer and looooonger and one starts to crave some immediate gratification from a smaller project – or three.

Also, a blanket project gets more unwieldy as it  gets bigger, which means it’s less portable.

The yarn I used for the fingerless mitts in the picture above is Red Heart Unforgettable Waves. I picked some up on clearance a long time ago and it’s been sitting patiently in the stash ever since. The colourway is Bazaar. It’s thick and thin (very much so in some places) but even though the really thick bits can present a challenge I was a little disappointed that the second mitt didn’t have as many of the bumpy bits as the first.

I didn’t use a pattern. I just chained 28, double crocheted 13 rows, joined leaving a hole for the thumb, then single crocheted around the thumbhole, adding some decreases where I felt they were needed.

I used another skein of the same yarn to make these gift card holders too.

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These buttons were perfect for the little cosies, and I’ve had them in the stash since I picked them up on clearance at work.

The final Finished Object for this week is this slouchy beanie, which on Ravelry I have called the Blah hat! That link will take you to my Ravelry project page for more info on how I made it.

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It’s Blah because of the colour, which is a bland beige vintage acrylic that I didn’t mind wasting in case my experiment didn’t work out. This is knitted on my Bond knitting machine, which I’ve had packed away in my craft room for a long time. I decided to set it up and have a play. The one thing the Bond does well is acres of stockinette. The ribbing is slow going as you have to latch up the purl stitches by hand. And decreasing for the crown of a hat is not the same as hand knitting one, unless you want to spend ages manually moving stitches over to different needles, so I followed a tip on a You Tube video to decrease across one row and cinch it up. It actually worked out well! The ribbing is stretchy, the top closed up nicely, it fits me (I had no idea what size it would turn out) though it is not a colour I would wear.

I also used the Bond to knit up a small cast-on hem, just to try it out, and next I need to make a longer one. The weighted hem that comes with the machine is as long as the needle bed, which is fine if you’re using a lot of stitches but if you just want to make something small then a shorter cast-on hem and smaller weights are helpful.

I have the next couple of days off and hopefully will see the granny blanket grow from its current size (about 48″ square) to 60″ though if I have enough yarn to go bigger I’d really like it to be 72″. Can you imagine how long it could take to crochet one round that’s 24 feet long? No, I can’t either.

Oct22

FOs: Elephant lovey and Glamour Gloves

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Hello bloggy friends. Are you loving the fall weather, the colours, the coolness in the air, even rain? I am. What a balm to the soul after the heat and smoke of the summer.

I love sorting out my closet, thrifting a few things that I no longer wear, putting the summer clothes on the top shelf and bringing down the knits. The polar fleece PJs. The shawls. Aaah!

It’s getting dark around 6 now and there’s nothing I like better than putting on my PJs for the evening after a day at work. Pop out the contact lenses, get the bra off, and let it all relax, eh! Sorry, too much information?

Another two small projects were finished this week. My boss asked me to make this little lovey for a diaper bag-type display at work. We have a talented arty girl on staff who’s great at making stuff look appealing, so to add to this bag of goodies I crocheted up this quick project out of a DMC Top This kit.

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It’s just a granny square with the elephant head in the centre, made with the yarn that’s actually intended to be a hat.

I also finished these Glamour Gloves.  (Apologies for the nighttime shot.)

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These are cute, easy and quick to make. They are just tubes, no thumbhole or anything. I made them with Stylecraft Special Aran in Lipstick as they were for a coworker who just sewed herself a beautiful red coat. She loved them, as did the two ladies who received the Warm Willies mitts and blue hat in my last post. I also gave the Bernat Pop cowl to my boss, so that means that every staff member (plus a couple who have left now) have received a small crocheted gift from me in the last couple of years. Perhaps 22 people.

But oh, the angst last night, while I tried to come up with just the right project to make next. I feel like knitting something, perhaps with another cake of Lion Brand Mandala, but could I find any inspiration?? Nope.

As I’ve just binge-watched three seasons of Game of Thrones, I thought I’d do a Ravelry search to see if that sparked something. Not really. And if it had, which House would I pick? Stark? Targaryen? Or would I just go with, “Winter is Coming.” But really, Winter is Here in Season 7. I’ll say no more than that for fear of spoilers.

Wishing you all a happy crafty week. Take care.

 

 

 

 

 

Oct18

FOs: Warm Willies and another hat

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Did that heading get your attention? 😉 The Warm Willies to which I am referring is actually a crochet pattern for fingerless mitts. Here’s a Ravelry link, because the pattern is a free Ravelry download. I love that I can look back five years ago and see my project page for the first pair I made of these mitts. This time I made the small size, and left off the button tab on the back of the hand.

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I also got the stitch pattern correct and it looks sort of like a seed stitch. Nice!

I left these in a co-worker’s basket when I was at work on Monday. She will find them when she gets back from her holiday and hopefully like them.

Monday night I was sans project and my friend came over for tea and yarny pursuits. So I quickly grabbed some old James C Brett Marble Chunky and a 6mm hook and started on a hat. I finished it today. It’s based on my Crochet Adjustable Hat pattern (recipe, really), with the crown increased to about 6.75 inches for a finished circumference of 22 inches and a depth of 8 inches. The good thing about the button tab is that the brim can be tightened by rebuttoning the tab further over.

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It’s nice to use some of the buttons I bought when they were discontinued at work.

We had a crazy strong windstorm yesterday. I was driving all over the place yesterday – first to buy some fabric to make a top, then to a class on the other side of the lake, then back to this side of the lake and further yet to a sewing class at my friend’s house, then the gym for an orientation and fitness assessment with Tai Chi Man, followed by a yoga class. There was dust and leaves and garbage cans flying all over the place and even some construction fencing was down and lying in the road in one place. I’m sure a number of trees probably came down but I haven’t checked local news sites. (We did have a couple of mini power outages.)

As for the sewing, it’s exciting, because my friend is helping me to make a top out of a rayon/spandex knit, and I am getting a lot of tips on how to sew with knits and finding out the joys of a serger. Oooh! I shall have to show you when it’s done. I spent two hours at her place yesterday and we made great progress. I go back next week for another two hours, in which I expect to finish that top and start another project.

It’s almost time to start dinner. Happy Hooking on Hump Day, folks, and talk to you again soon.

 

May26

Tunisian mitts

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These mitts grew out of my experiment with Tunisian purl stitch. I made two rectangles and sewed them into mitts, leaving thumb holes.

Comparing the two, there was a definite improvement in tension and evenness in the second one. Tps is a little trickier than Tss or Tks, with extra movements involved to bring the yarn forward, across the front of the stitch, and back again to wrap. The result is a little like garter stitch on both sides. And no curling. Here’s a link to a video that really helped me get going on this. If I’d only had the book to refer to, it would have been a lot more difficult.

I think I’m going to try Extended Simple Stitch next as it’s used in a chevron ripple later in the book. This is fun!

 

 

 

May11

FO: fingerless mitts

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The Less-Than-Colorful, Not-so-Stripey Fingerless Mitts are done. These are so quick and easy to make, especially when you don’t change colours every round. Also, with one colour, you only have four ends to weave in per mitt.

My first pair, made with all the colour changes, look like this…

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Same pattern but look very different, eh!

The blue mitts are for a friend with small hands, so I used a 3.75mm hook instead of a 4mm and the gauge is slightly tighter. Hopefully they will fit. They are a surprise gift so I couldn’t take any measurements.

Thanks to two of my sons, I think my new laptop is all set up to their standards! So far, I’m happy with it.