Monthly Archives: November 2020

Mittens redux

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It’s that time of year again, when I show you some of the mitt and mitten patterns which have captured my attention this year. Casting on for a pair of mitts is fun, and more than that, it feels achievable. Big things are happening in the world this year, scary things; so in my sphere I like to have some little things happening, joyful things. A little piece of knitting, a cup of coffee, a technology-assisted talk with friends, warm hands. These things are good.

This is the 7th year I’ve been writing these mitten posts. I hope you find a pattern here to take your fancy. If not, scroll to the end to find links for each of my previous mitten posts. Note that pattern links are for Ravelry.

1. Nordwand by Birgit Grunwald

© Birgit Grunwald

I love the ingenuity of these. You start at the thumb and work your way out. This feels really clever and different, and makes me want to cast on right away. I think these would be a brilliant pattern for using up small scraps of wool.

2. Radiant Star Mitts by Ella Gordon

© Ella Gordon

These are beautiful mitts, which use traditional motifs and a “bright retro colour palette” inspired by jumpers from the 70s and 80s (from the pattern description). I love the pop of the orange and the turquoise paired with the charcoal black; they are very striking. Even more striking, due to the larger canvas, is the matching cowl which she designed for the Shetland Wool Week Annual 2020.

3. Ui Mittens by Ainur Berkimbayeva

© Ainur Berkimbayeva

I have a fondness for strong, simple geometric patterns in black and white. These mittens hit the right chord for me. The designer says: “ ‘Ui’ is a Kazakh word for ‘house’ and ‘home.’ The shapes and lines in these mittens reminded me of the cottage where I grew up.” If you like these, you should check out her newest mitten design, Herringbone Mittens for Purl Soho, which continue the Art Deco vibe.

4. Winglet Mitts by Sachiko Burgin

© Sachiko Burgin

I love this dainty and whimsical design. The pattern description says: “These quick to knit, lepidoptera inspired mitts feature an embossed motif of an affable moth (not of the wool eating kind, promise!).” Better to have some moths on your knitting than moths in your knitting, no? And a pretty pair of mitts to boot.

5. Bramble by Diana Walla

© Masahiro Shimazaki for amirisu

I have always loved the pairing of pink and green, or of orange and green, but here the use of pink and green and orange against this fantastic wash of a brilliant orange coat, is fabulous. The pattern was designed by Diana Walla for amirusu, Fall/Winter 2020, Issue 21. If you don’t want to buy the whole magazine just for one pattern, never fear, it contains some lovely patterns including this gorgeous pullover. This photo not only makes me want to knit the mitts, but also to go out and buy this coat!

6. Pihta by Eeva Kesäkuu

© Eeva Kesäkuu

I love these mittens by Finnish designer Eeva Kesäkuu. They are knit at a very tight gauge – 39st/10cm – so are sure to keep you warm and dry. I love the pinstripes, the dimensions, the fantastic gusset and thumb design, and the squared-off tops. Knitting them in red and white just adds to the appeal!

7. Dinkel by Simone Bechtold

© Sebastian Worm

Sometimes, simple is best. Dinkel means wheat and this lovely wheat pattern has a lot of impact despite being used so sparingly. The pattern description says: “Some yarns, especially rustic, breed-specific ones, have so much character and personality, you don‘t want to overpower them with a fancy pattern.” Don’t let the simple nature of the pattern fool you; these mitts have a fantastic thumb gusset!

8. Limn by Emily Greene

© Brooklyn Tweed/Jared Flood

I adore these mitts! Modelled in the photo above by a man, they are a perfect unisex design. I think they are sinuous and interesting and sexy; they have rhythm and movement and texture, all on a base of luscious garter stitch. What more could you want?

I hope you’ve found something here to enjoy. If it’s put you in the mood for mittens, take a look at my previous mitten posts:

Merry Mittenmas! (2014)

A dozen great patterns for fingerless mitts (2015)

Mittens! (2015)

To gusset or not to gusset (2016)

It’s mitten time again! (2017)

A show of hands (2108)

Warm hands, warm heart (2019)

Have a lovely weekend, everyone!

Creative upcycling for your hand-knits: from skirt to pillow

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Exactly ten years ago (even before I started this blog) I joined many knitters in making a Lanesplitter skirt [Ravelry link]. The pattern was designed by Tina Whitmore and published in the free on-line magazine Knitty in their First Fall 2010 edition. It used Noro yarn, a self-striping yarn in cool and interesting combinations of shades with long colour changes. It was all the rage back then. Here is a photo of mine (from 2010):

The problem with this skirt (as with many knitted skirts) is that the waistband is bulky. I never felt comfortable with this big bunch of fabric at my waist (it has a knitted-on waistband, which is folded over, seamed, and has a strip of elastic running through it). As a result, I almost never wore this skirt. (One type of knitted skirt that avoids this problem can be seen with the Carnaby skirt that I knit for Emma – blogged here and here. No elastic, and no bunching! Alternatively, if you are knitting with a thinner yarn, then an elastic waist can sometimes work really well, as with this skirt which I also knitted for Emma.) I tried, over the years, to change the waistband on this skirt to make it more wearable but never found a good solution. I recently decided to completely re-conceptualise it:

Behold! A Lanesplitter pillow!

I love this idea, and it was fun to do. First, I ripped out the waistband and undid the side seam. This left me with a rectangle of fabric knitted on the bias, which I washed and blocked.

I wanted the finished pillow to be square, but when folded over, the pillow was 4 inches (10 cm) short of square. In other words, I wanted the length to be twice as long as the width, but it was four inches short of that. So, I picked up stitches along both short ends and knitted up a 4 inch band of seed stitch on each end. (These seed stitch bands overlap in the finished pillow, so they each needed to be 4 inches). On one side, I knitted button holes, and on the other, I sewed buttons.

Then I folded the fabric together, with the right sides facing, and slightly off-center, so that the button band would be about 1/3 the way down the pillow. I made sure that the two seed stitch bands were overlapping with the buttonhole band sandwiched between the button band and the back, as you can see here:

I pinned down the sides and sewed them together.

Here you can see the seam and the overlap at the button bands. When the buttons are undone, you can slip the pillow form inside. This means that you can also easily slip it out if you want to wash the pillow fabric.

I think the pillow turned out great, both front and back:

Since knitters like to know these things, the knitted tee I’m wearing was designed by Mary Annarella and I blogged about it in this post.

There are 3,722 Lanesplitter skirts listed on Ravelry today. I wonder how many of them are getting out and about? (It’s a terribly cute skirt, so I hope most of them are!) If, however, yours is stuck in a drawer somewhere, or you have another project that seems game for a refresh, you might want to try some creative upcycling.

Snippet

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I had a post planned for today to showcase a new project. However, the light has conspired against me – the entire weekend has been grey and wet and I can’t get any photos taken. So instead, we’ll just have a snippet of Doug’s vest:

It is a slow but steady project and the colours are working out really well. I will soon be at the underarm, where I will have to engage my brain again so that I can think about things like shaping and steeking. But for now, it is pretty mindless TV knitting. I think I’m getting pretty good at tensioning stranded knitting. This is before blocking:

I’ll leave you with a great quote. It is from an article in the Guardian some weeks ago, looking at the environmental impact of patio heaters, fire pits, and chimineas (all of which have sold out here in the UK as we plan for a Covid winter). They cite Rebecca Newsom, head of politics at Greenpeace, who says: “The ideal technology for keeping warm outdoors without heating the entire atmosphere is still a jumper.” Go knitting! Not only is it good for me, it’s good for the earth!

It’s a “6”

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I am sitting on the floor, staring at a piece of knitting.

Doug: “What’s up?”

Kelly: “I picked up a bunch of stitches along this edge about a year ago and worked some moss stitch. I want to go back to it now, but I don’t know what size needle I was using.”

Doug: “Isn’t there a needle in it?”

Kelly: “Apparently not. I must have needed the needle for something else and pulled it out. I didn’t take any notes.”

Doug: “Really? How could you not write it down?

Kelly: “Well, I didn’t. So now, I have two choices. I can rip out what I’ve done and start again, or I can guess at the needle size I used, knit an inch or so and then see if the gauge changes.”

Doug: “It’s a 6.”

Kelly: “What?”

Doug: “You used a size 6 needle.”

Kelly: “How do you know that?”

Doug: “Every time you can’t find a needle, it’s is size 6.”

Long silence.

Doug: “Besides, it looks like a 6.”

Kelly: “You are sitting way over there, looking at these tiny stitches, and it looks like I knitted them with a size 6 needle?”

Doug: “Yep.”

I pick up the stitches and knit for a bit and check my gauge.

Yep. It’s a 6.