12.30.06

Long Skinny Mittens for Joe

Posted in mittens and gloves at 3:53 am by pauline

Joe was headed for the Urbana Conference in St Louis and his big Chewbacca hands were going to be cold so I made him some mittens. His hands, while really long, are also very narrow, making him the perfect candidate for some handmade mittens!

My new LL Bean Boat & Tote bag carried the project nicely. The finished mittens are 11″ long and 8 ” around the knuckles.

Pattern:

Materials: One Ball of Lion Brand Jiffy Yarn

Gauge: 15 stitches to 4″

Needles: US Size 10.5 circular or Double Pointed Needles
Cuff:

Cast on 22 stitches.

K1 P1 for 1×1 ribbing in the round for 12 rows.

Round 13: knit increasing 1 stitch after every 3 or 4 stitches until there are a total of 28 stitches. Keep knitting until the round is complete.

Round 14: K1, place marker, increase 1, place marker, knit to end of round.

Round 15-16: Knit all the way around

Round 17: Knit to marker, slip marker, increase 1. Knit to 2nd marker, increase 1, slip marker and knit to the end of the round.

Repeat rounds 15-17 until there are 11 stitches between the markers.

Next Round: Knit 1, remove marker, place next 11 stitches on a piece of waste yarn, remove marker. Cast 2 stitches onto the right needle, and knit the remaing 27 stitches to the end of the round. (30 stitches total)

Continue knitting the 30 stitches until the mitten is within 1.5″ of the fingertips, approximately 9.5″ from the bottom of the cuff.

In the next 5 rounds, decrease 4 stitches every round until there are 10 stitches left. Weave the ends together with a Kitchener stitch.

Now the only thing left is the thumb. Transfer the stitches from the waste yarn back to the needles, pickup an additional 2 stitches from the bottom of the cast on stitches. (13 stitches total) Attach yarn, leaving a 4″ tail and knit in the round until it covers the thumb. Cut yarn leaving a 4″ tail and weave it through all the stitches. Draw the yarn tight to close the opening, and pull the yarn to the inside of the mitten.

Weave in all loose ends. Use the yarn at base of the thumb to sew up the holes between the thumb and the hand.

12.02.06

Knitting To Keep Warm

Posted in sweaters at 11:57 pm by pauline

Back in April, I started a sweater, Hunny, for Ron and but soon put it away to make time for spring and summer knitting. But when it started getting chilly again, I started working on it ( rather under it) to keep warm.

Today , I finished the knitting! Ends are all woven in. I will now block it. It took 7 balls of Paton’s Classic Merino. Evergreen Mix. It’s my first adult sweater. I started it without a pattern. By the time I got up to the armholes I pretty much followed the shaping for the “Saddle Seam Pullover” size 48″ in Interweave Knits Spring 2006.

The little pile of yarn at the bottom of the last picture is all that is left over.

Ron says it is pretty warm.