Badmittens

A few months ago a man named Jack contacted the Indianapolis Knitting Guild looking for someone to knit him some mittens.

Well usually people who want something knitted run away when you tell them how much it costs, but the email he sent mentioned that they used to have a sheep farm and he had yarn from his sheep.  It seemed like there was a better than average chance that he'd know what he was asking, so I met with him.

He brought me a couple pairs of these mittens that he and his wife had had knit from their wool 25(?) years ago. 

They were awesome.  Double thick, soft, and warm.  And you could definitely tell that they had been loved for 25 years.



So Jack gave me some of his really lovely yarn (millspun Finn blend), and we agreed on some terms and I sent about remaking his mittens.  He wanted to surprise his wife for Mother's Day and I finished them in the nick of time. 



If you'd like your own pair of double thick mittens, here's how I made them:

Yarn: about Aran weight.  I don't know the yardage used, however the finished mittens weighed 6.5 oz.

Gauge: 4.5 stitches per inch

Needles: I used size 8 DPNs but you could use magic loop or 2 circs.  Use needle size to get gauge.

Note: Since when these are finished the inside is entirely enclosed, you will want to weave in all ends as you go.  

Cast on 4 stitches.  Slide stitches to other end of needle (as you do with i-cord).

Round 1: KFB of every stitch, and split stitches onto 3 needles (2, 2, and 4) if using DPNs.

Round 2: KFB every stitch (16 sts)

Round 3: *K2, m1, repeat from * (24 sts)

Round 4 and remaining even rows: Knit every stitch

Round 5: *K3, m1, repeat from * (32 sts)


For larger mittens work an optional round 7: *K4, m1, repeat from * (40 sts)

Continue knitting every round until mitten measures 5 inches from tip (or desired length.  Take this opportunity to weave in the yarn from the fingertips. 

Thumb: Knit 7 stitches and place onto waste yarn.  Knit rest of round.  Cast on 7 stitches over thumb hole.  Continue knitting every round for an inch or 2 and then go back to work afterthought thumb.

Either use another set of needles or put main mitten stitches on waste yarn and use the same needles to knit the first thumb. Put thumb stitches on needles, and with new working yarn pick up and knit 11 more stitches around thumb hole.  (18sts)
*SSK, k5, k2tog, repeat from * (14 sts).


Knit every round until thumb measures about 2 inches or as long as desired.  K1, k2tog, k2, k2tog, repeat from * (8sts)
K2tog every stitch (4 sts).  Break yarn and pull through remaining stitches.

Weave in both ends from thumb before continuing on with mitten body. 

Knit every round on remaining stitches until mitten measures 18 inches.

Work second thumb hole in same manner as first (place 7 stitches on waste yarn and then cast on 7 stitches in the next round.  Knit even for an inch or 2, then work second thumb as first one.

Continue working down fingertips 3.5 inches from second thumb (or same length as palm on other side). Weave in ends from second thumb. 

If you worked the larger size start with *k3, k2tog, repeat from * for 1 round, and then knit 1 round. (32 sts)

Decrease round 1: *K2, k2tog, repeat from * (24 sts)

Round 2: Knit

Round 3: *K1, k2tog, repeat from * (16 sts)

Round 4: K2tog every stitch around. (8 sts)


Break yarn and run through remaining stitches.  Pull tight. 

It's kind of strange to weave in the last end from the outside, but you can kind of run it through a few places to make sure it won't unravel.

Push 1 hand inside the other hand.  Voila!  A double knit mitten.

Complete second mitten as first one.



This pattern is completely not tech edited or test knit, I just thought I'd share my notes.  If anyone finds a mistake please let me know!

These could really be modified quite easily to be worked with almost any yarn.  Keep working the increases until the hand is the size that you want, and adjust the number of thumb stitches accordingly.  When it's time to start the second hand, measure the distance from the thumb to the end of the increases on the first hand, and knit the same distance from the second thumb before starting the decreases.

I know it's free but this pattern is still Copyright Mandie Harrington.  You may knit as many pair as you'd like and sell the finished product if you can find someone willing to pay you for them, but please don't sell or give away copies of the pattern.

Stringtopia and other things

At the very last minute I ended up going to Stringtopia.  I haven't blogged it yet, mostly because I didn't bring my camera (it's a DSLR and I didn't want to have to worry about where it was all the time).  But also because I just didn't have the words for it.

Life has been really hard the past few months and I have had a hard time talking about it.  Rob is still not working a regular job.  He's been subbing for someone who is out on extended medical leave, for we don't know how long, without benefits and the agency takes a huge chunk of his income.  And I got a virus which turned in to pneumonia and camped out in my lungs for several months.  And the girls have been particularly challenging and hard to be around.  (We just figured out why, and that's the most I'm going to post about that on the internet, but you can probably figure it out.  Both of them.)  And some other stuff I won't bore you with, but there was/is a lot of it.

Plus I just had a 40th birthday which was hard.  And it may have been really the other stuff that was hard but I was channeling it all into birthday feelings, which is probably more accurate. 

So less than a week before Stringtopia while I was moping about it Sarah said I should try to go.  I really thought it was all sold out and I couldn't afford it anyway, but it turned out it wasn't, and then Janet said I could share her room because she's awesome like that (and also maybe because I made her socks- it's definitely good karma, anyway).

So just like that, I was going.  It was awesome and overwhelming, and I cried over lunch (but not really over lunch) and completely embarrassed myself.  I must have some kind of breakdown at all major fiber events, apparently. I met and ate meals with Sandi Wiseheart (yes That Sandi Wiseheart) which was so cool, and she turns out to be just as charming and awesome as she is online, and didn't freak out too much when I started to cry over lunch, and made let me wear her crown because it was my birthday. 

I won some pretty sweet door prizes, including this gorgeous merino silk bamboo from Miss Babbs
Also a cool pocket knife/scissors thing from Abby's husband, which I don't have a picture of, but it's cool.

And I bought one tiny Abby Batt
 
Which is YUMMY and totally my color.

I had really wanted to take Abby's class, but that class was sold out a long time ago, so instead I got to be in Jacey's class, which was totally just what I needed.
Jacey Boggs is a rather brilliant spinner and all around awesome.  I have never really been very interested in spinning "art" yarns, but she has maybe convinced me that textured yarns are pretty cool.

(Pictures of Jacey and Jacey's yarn stolen with permission from Melissa's blog.  She has many more good pictures of Stringtopia here and here.)
Here's what I ended up with at the end of class
Kind of a hot mess with a few good coils in it.  It's hard, harder than I thought it would be to get my hands to do all those new things at once.  But I went home and practiced all week and got this
 
Which is actually pretty good.

 
 
























I am pretty pleased with myself.  Coils!  I made them.

Playing catch up

Wow, so I haven't blogged in a while. I need to stop doing that.

Here's a few quick updates. Rob is still looking for a job. The contract that he was working for 2 months expired January 1st. They asked him to work an extra week twice, but that's done now. Living off of just my income is really stressful but I'm trying to make it work.

Everyone has the day off today so the family has gone sledding so I can get some dyeing done. I have 3 or 4 patterns in various stages of working, and a couple more that are just ideas in my head with no time to work on them.

Here's a few pictures of some stuff I got done in the last month



I finished this vest a while ago but I don't think I posted pictures on my blog. It's a heavily modified Wavy Textured Vest from SweaterBabe. I was really not very impressed with the pattern, it's written in a weird format that was a pain to knit, I added shaping and shortened it about 2 feet (it was a duster). But I do really love the finished project and wear it all the time. It's double stranded Cascade 220, 1 quatro, 1 grey, and I really like the effect of that, too.



These will have to represent all the Christmas knitting, because I was apparently too busy to take pictures of most of it before I gave it away. These were for my niece. There was also a really cool Doctor Who scarf in bookmark form (1/4 scale, fingering weight yarn), given with a Doctor Who book, and a cowl, and some other stuff. Oh and also this scarf from Creative Knitting: Accessorize in Style:



That very one, in fact, because I knit the sample for the magazine last spring and they gave it back to me. Awesome when you can manage to get paid to knit a Christmas gift.

I've also been accomplishing some spinning again after taking some time off.



Tiger Club from October. Thriller, BFL, spun into 2 ply sock yarn.


And this was from Spinnerette, some Punta top spun into fingering weight singles. I'm trying the singles sock experiment.







And last, some more Tiger Club, this one was Merino/bamboo/silk blend and was dreamy to spin. 2 ply laceweight will make something yummy eventually. Right now I'm just petting it.

After Thanksgiving SALE!

If you're staying home to avoid all the crazy, you can still get great deals.







EVERYTHING in the Sheepy Time Knits store will be on sale on Friday, starting at 6 am Eastern Standard Time. 10-50% off!

Yarn, Knits, Patterns, even LICENSES. We hardly ever put everything on sale so this is a great deal.

Patterns and licenses will still say their original prices on the page, but will show the discounted prices in your the ordering process.

Have fun shopping!