skein

NaKniMitMo

It's January, which means NaKniMitMo, a month of knitting mittens! 

I can't believe that it's the 10th and I've really not done much knitting at all.  Just one and a bit mittens, so far.  OK, I don't do much during the week, but I've had three whole days to knit,   

These are the Myrten mittens, which have been I didn't get around to knitting last January.  I keep going wrong, yet the pattern is very easy, just follwing a simple chart with two colours!

And of course I have only  indoor photos.  

One down

and a bit of the second mitten

My weekend plans are to finish these mittens, start another pair, and possilby take some photos of my Noo Humbug scarf, weather permitting.  

Socks, mystery shawl, mystery scarf

I've  not been blogging much, as i feel like I haven't been knitting much, but I do have a little bit of knitting progress.

Socks for a Christmas present. Really dragged my knitting hands with these.  No pattern or stripes to keep me motivated.  I spent THREE evenings reknitting the toe. And it still looks scrappy. I have looser stitches near the sides, on the toe.  Next time I shall do magic looping from the centre of the toe, my stitches at the ends of the needles are tidier in plain stocking stitch than with toe decreases one stitch in. Not my bestest knitting!

 

And two mysteries.

First up is the Better Together  Mystery shawl.  This is the first of four Mystery KALs throughout the year. All using two colours.  

 

It's garter stitch, with a few slipped stitches and some travelling stitches.  I found it quite difficult to just knit the travelling stitch, I think I usually knit these with a purl background and they're twisted!  It's bottom up and I ran out of burgundy with two stripes to go!  I found a nearly identical shade, just a little bit darker. I'm pleased that I didn't go for a strong contrast in the last two stripes!  Spot the difference!

Next up is Boo Humbug!, a mystery scarf kal,  I've rediscovered my love of knitting with beads, these are nice and big, and my first attempt with triangular beads.  As I bought three differenet colours, I thnk I'l have to knit some other beaded knits soon!

 I'm on the final clue, this was taken just before finishing for penultimate clue.  

 You can't really see the beads, but they are there, sparkling!

There is also lace

Now I'm not really a scarf knitting person, but I've really enjoyed this KAL. I couldn't quit keep up with the vast number of ravelry forum posts though :)

Currently I'm casting off, picot style, the first edge.  LOVE the ruffled edge. I'm thinking that I may not block it out into points as I like the ruffle so much. 

This will be my last post for the next week, so have a lovely Christmas, Hope everyone has lovely knitterly presents from Santa and lots of knitting time!

Felted clogs

More felted clogs, my third pair in recent months.

these are knitted in Cascade 220, using up the pink,  a reveral of thes ones.  

The girls can fight over who gets which ones!

Erica hat

This was the Mystery KAL on the Woolly Wormhead ravelry group.  I bought the correct yarn :) a nice break form stash diving. 

The hat came in two styles, a peaked brim or a slouchy beret style with ribbing. I chose the latter.  Very simple textured pattern, made with reverse stocking stitch and travelling k1tb stitches.  We haen't had a great day to show off the pattern, it's been quite overcast and I have to rely on Mr C to try to take the photo.

 

 

Wurm Hat

Knitting has been happening, but blogging and updating ravelry has not!

This is the Wurm hat.  It was meant to be for one of my nieces, but I think I may run out of time for Christmas knitting, and I may have to keep this one...

Such a quuick knit!  I used Manos Silk Blend. lovely for headwear.

Instead of the rather abrupt way of decreasing at the top I started decreasing a few pattern repeats earlier, just on the frist or second round of the knit sections. making a more tapered decreasing. 

Great for pulling right down on cold days!

 

A few finished things Felted Clogs and a toddler Lush Cardigan

Althoguh I haven't done much knitting I seem to have stuff finished and stuff on the needles, and I've just not got time to blog...

Anyway two more finished things, fro Christmas

Lush Cardigan for a 2 year old.  The photos are rubbish, and the colour is more of a baby teal than as deep as this. 

And a close up of the yoke, You start this cardigan with the lace yoke knitted sideways, then stitches are picked up for the body and sleeves.  I didn't particularly enjoy knitting the yoke, Sometimes a lace pattern just doesn't flow!

More felted clogs!  One more pair to knit. They're fast, but a bit tedious, especially the sewing up!

I'm not going to felt them - I'll just wrap them up with felting instructions. 

 

Felted clogs, felted

Chris has felted his new clogs!  We were a bit wroried about them shrinking - they looked HUGE next to his old ones, as you can see

They had a few rounds int he washing machine, hot water, lots of soap, a few tennis balls and a towl for agitation, and, success!

He's very pleased..

Santenay Mitts

Pattern: Santenay Mitts

Start/finish: 16-18th October (but I had a day off work and knitted all day!)

Yarn: Yarn Yard's SSS3

There are beads, just not showing up well in the photos)

Mods:

1) The pattern has you thread on beads for the edging, but tehn you use a crcochet hook to add beads. yes, it means the beads sit firmly at the base of the stitch, but it's a lot slower (espcecially as I've lost my two smallest hooks!) and the beads sit more snuggly against the st st background. So I went back and restarted, threaded all of the beads on before beinning. The beads were a bit more obvious when they were slipped at th front. 

2) when you knit the thumb, instead of CO using backwards loop for the sts in between thumb and forefinger, the pattern has you CO the 3sts provsionally.  I did this with eth first mitt, and thought it a bit fiddly (though have to admit it is neater!), sof hr the second one I just did a backwards loop CO.  

3) added four more rows of fribbing at the top, and a few on the thumb.

Love the edging, It looks great, and is easy to do! 

Felted clogs and dad's ribbed hat

A few FOs.

Dad's hat, knitted last month.  It's Cascade 220 (and he chose this colour!).  Modelled by MrC, who has a much larger head than my dad.  He asked for this hat, in this colour, as the last one fits him very well. 

The second FO is a pair of Felted Clogs for MrC.

His last ones were worn out at the heel.

Felted Clogs is a great stashbuster and a quick knit.  I used leftover Cascade220 and a bit of Classic Elite Tapestry which has been in my stash for years.  I did a bit of juggling to try to get them to match,,,

Anyhow, here they are, unfelted, looking HUGE.  I jsut hope they felt dowN!

I'm seriously considering whipping up another two pairs as Christmas gifts.  Of course, I'd given them unfelted and look at their faces!  Non knitters... 

Mr C's new pink socks

I bought some new self striping sock yarn and Mr C chose this colour.   He likes orange. he likes yellow, but he's never shown a preference for bright pink before.  I had him look in daylight and he still wanted them.

 

I've put them in the Christmas/brightday bag, so he gets a nice surprise in a few months!