Mittenfest

More 'Fetching' fingerless mitts

2007-01-27T16:32:00.000-08:00

Fetching is such a fun, fast knit! These are my second & third pairs. I did some in the Fall when the weather was reasonable for such a thing and my friend requested some in green. This is the long awaited result. I used Needful Yarns "Joy" - super decadent!

I'm sure it wouldn't be too difficult to turn this pattern into a proper mitt...and with our current weather (finally cold!) I think it will be a good idea.

Convertible Mitts

2007-01-14T12:39:00.000-08:00

Well-loved and already coffee stained.

See more here.

Snowdrift minnens!

2007-01-14T06:45:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone. I joined a while back but just completed my first qualifying project: Snowdrift Mittens (note: if you want the pattern and have trouble downlpoading it from the site, just e-mail me at annypurls {at} hotmail {dot} com and I'll try to hook you up ;0)

I knit them from 3 balls of Peruvian Pure Alpaca from Elann - 2 teal and 1 celery. I did come a tiny bit short of the teal for the second thumb as you can see from the photo but that's because I didn't have full balls to start with since I knit these with leftover stash.

They were my first seriously stranded fair isle project and while they looked a little wonky at first, once I pressed them with a damp cloth, they straightened out nicely. I'll surely knit these again someday.

Okay one last photo, I swear ;0)

Happy knitting!

Bite me!

2007-01-11T05:28:00.000-08:00

Here are the Later Gator mitts that I made for my friend for Christmas; I had to wait until I gifted them before I could post photos. They cracked me up so much - I had several impromptu puppet shows while sewing them together. When she unwrapped them, the first thing that she did was to make biting motions, biting the air, the cats, whatever was in her way. I loved it!

I've got several more pairs, waiting for their rightful owners to come over and claim them (probably this weekend) - once they're given, I'll post some photos :)

Hello!

2007-01-04T22:00:00.000-08:00

I'm so excited to be part of this KAL! It seems that there are people here both close to me physically and quite far away.

I've been a sock knitter for awhile now but only recently ventured into hand coverings. Funny...since my grandma always made mitts. I can't remember her making anything else. My mom always knit too, but mostly on straight needles. I remember being somewhat in awe of grandma's many needles and memorized mitt pattern.

My first foray into hands...Knitty's Fetching in variegated alpaca yarn. It looks nice (and feels great!) but I really think I would prefer this pattern with a solid colour yarn next time. The turquoise ones below look amazing!

More mittens!

2006-12-20T20:21:00.000-08:00

I've been slogging away at the Mitten Project, trying to get a few more pairs done. Toss in the Holiday knitting and it's mittens-a-popping around here
here are some for my neighbourhood kids

and some for me and mine

My thumbs look short on the green, cabled cuff ones but they actually fit quite well. I've named them "Kermit" and I've even made up a hat to match!

The stripey one look short (and they are, on my hands - but I have abnormal, monkey hands... on a normal, human hand I'm sure that they look great!)

The patterns are ones that I've made up after knittng hundreds (ok, tens) of pairs over the years... simple is always best.

Aren't mittens the best!?!

Quickie

2006-12-06T15:14:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post. This is work in progress for a friend of a friend. I haven't even wowen in ends yet, but they should be completely finished tomorrow (if I find pink yarn somewhere. I had tons of pink yarn, I'm sure). After that, I have 5 more pairs of these to knit. And embelish. Oh. I can do that, they are such a quick knit:) If only I didn't drop pasta machine on my hand yesterday.

And you girls, how are you doing? Post the progress photos and links to your favorite patterns:)

Back to the drawing board

2006-11-27T15:15:00.000-08:00

I tried DPN's and I liked them. I finished whole cuff from cuff-down Knucks. And i loved it. Then came gusset. My knitting was pretty tight because I didn't have proper size of knitting needles, and i was working with 2 threads. Increases were simply impossible. i frogged it, and then I realized I shouldn't have. Because, I finished with a huge mess and everything was tangled... oh well. I'll make me some proper DPN's tomorrow.

MMMMMMMMMMittens!

2006-11-23T15:30:00.000-08:00

Howdy from the Highlands (well, the Canadian version of the H.L.)
I 've finally finished my pro-fem pink cabled mitts for my DIL, Val

and a pair for me, too. Now those are some bright pink & orange mitts, huh? Think mangos and flamingos, folks!

It's far too gray outside not to wear color like this

Here's to much more health, knitting and laughter!

Finished

2006-11-19T02:31:00.000-08:00

My mittens are finished. I must say I'm not very satisfied. I tried to make them like one mittens I saw, but I should've followed some pattern for my first mittens.
Cuff is too wide, it is done in moss stitch. I should've done it with smaller needles. They look very long and narrow, but they fit my hand perfectly. I would like them to look wider, though. And top is not squarish enough, and even if it was, it wouldn't look good on my hand... maybe if they were even longer, but then they would be... well, longer:)
Now I have to make ton of mittens for Christmas presents, and I'll make them using some pattern this time:)
Only problem is determining how big is one average male hand. Any ideas, girls?

Man Mitts Step One

2006-11-04T22:18:00.000-08:00

I thought that I'd do a series of posts to talk about how I knit a pair of mitts, using the pair I'm currently working on for my fiancé [TheBoy]. I don't tend to use a pattern for mitts, although my mitts are always constructed in the general manner of Marnie's Hooray for Me Gloves which are linked to the right.

I received the yarn that I ordered for TheBoy's mitt's this afternoon. He helped me wind it into a center-pull ball [he makes a great and patient swift!] and then I swatched. I started with a gauge of 9st/in on size 2 needles and it was TheBoy approved as a good fabric for his mitts. I measured his wrist and then I did a little math. He's got an 8" wrist so I multiple 8 inches by 9 stitches/inch for a total of 72. I then multiplied this by .90 [90%] and rounded down to the closest even number, for a total of 64 stitches. I used a stretchy cable cast on and joined to knit in the round. I like a good stretchy cuff so I worked the cuff in K2,P2 rib. I ended up knitting 2.25" because after 2" of cuff he asked for "just one-quarter inch more please."

The cuff done, I then determined the length of the gusset. I've found that a good rule of thumb [pun not intended] for my gussets is to increase two stitches every third row for the length of my gusset, so I knit halfway around, placed a marker, knit in the front and back of the next two stitches and placed a second marker. Then on every third row I increased by knitting in the front and back of the first stitch after the first marker and then the last stitch before the second stitch marker.

In order to determine how many rows I needed to knit, I took TheBoy's hand and measured from the bottom of the thumb joint to the lowest knuckle. On his hand, this measurement was 2 inches, so I knit two inches in the gusset pattern established in the previous paragraph.

Once that was done, I knit to the marker and then placed my gusset stitches on a piece of waste yarn. I took it to TheBoy's hand and he tried it on again to determine how many stitches I needed to pick up in order to make it fit around his hand. You'll need to pick up at least two, since you've got two of your original stitches are now on the thumb gusset waste yarn. In the case of TheBoy, he has big knuckles, so I decided to pick up four. Then, I measured the gap between the top of the mitt and bottom knuckle of his fingers to determine how much I needed to knit before breaking off for the fingers.

Part two will cover adding on the fingers. Feel free to ask questions if anything I've said seems unclear!

Fetching

2006-11-04T10:58:00.000-08:00

I just loved "Fetching" from Knitty, when I first saw it I knew i want it. This is my second pair, I finished first a while ago, but I didn't like thumb, so I added gusseted thumb for this pair. They are made in really pretty yarn, 45% wool, 10% cashmere and 45% PAC, and I still have enough of it for panta or hairband:). Since my gauge was bit off, I left out one cabled rib, and now they fit perfect:) I also didn't do picot bind off, it looks too sloppy to me. This pair is bit shorter, I wasn't sure when to start thumb, but I like them anyway. They will probably be a present for my co-worker, since she likes this color and wristwarmers:) I hope she will like them:)
I'm struggling with my mittens, they look very long and narrow... and i don't have long narrow hands.. we will see what will come out of them:)

Mittens Here, Mittens There

2006-11-03T11:40:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to share my absolute favorite mitt pattern ever. Marnie MacLean's Hooray for Me Gloves are straightforward and have a great fit. I've knit them as is, and then adapted her basic pattern for mitts with a mitten cap and full them. And it's easy to alter them for a different gauge as well.

Marnie offers several other free mitt patterns and although I haven't knit any of these I can't imagine that they're anything less stellar than the ones I have knit:

Nearly Gloves

Executive Funk

Del Mar

Hi, folks!

2006-11-03T01:20:00.000-08:00

Since everybody is knitting mittens or gloves for Christmas presents, or for themselves, I thought we really need knitalong blog:) for joining, e-mail me at crna.ofca+blog(at)gmail.com, or leave me PM on craftster, username crnaofca.
I think this knitalong could last whole winter, and by the end of it, I hope we will have tons of great patterns here, as well as lots of finished mittens and gloves.
That's all, TTFN :)