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Wonderland Fingerless Mitts

August 2, 2011

Another Christmas FO! I’m knocking these out and have about 6 more to go, I think. It’s funny to be sitting around in 90 degree heat, knitting things up for winter. These are another pair of fingerless mittens designed by Jenn Wisbeck. I knitted two of her designs now, and I love both of them.

For this pair, I stuck with using Berocco Ultra Alpaca Light. The pattern called for a fingering weight yarn, but when I looked at the gauge, I knew I couldn’t get it with a fingering weight yarn – the mittens would be too small. I know a get a gauge of about 7 stitches to an inch in two stranded colorwork when I use a DK weight yarn on #2 needles, so that’s what I used. And my gauge was right on. I love these mittens so much, it will be hard to give them up!

Pattern: Wonderland
Needles: US#2 circular, using Magic Loop
Yarn: Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light, in Winter White and Rose Spice
Ravelry Page

Posted in finished objects, gifts, knitting, magic loop, mittens | 4 Comments »

Treescape Fingerless Mittens

July 26, 2011

We’ve been traveling a lot lately and I’ve taken full advantage of the plane and car time to knit. I started these fingerless mittens for one of my nieces on the plane out to Portland, Oregon and I worked on them every time we were in the car out there and driving up to Seattle. I absolutely love these mittens and it may be very hard to part with them!

The pattern is Jenn Wisbeck’s “Treescape” Mittens and for the life of me, I cannot figure out why there isn’t anyone on Ravelry who has knit them! What’s up with that? They are so adorable and fun to knit. The only problem in my knitting them was that, although the pattern photos of the mittens show a light background and dark motif color, and that’s what I knitted, the actual pattern chart is a dark background and light motif. This was confusing and I constantly had to tink back if I wasn’t paying close attention. I always had to remember that the white squares were the dark color. Anyone have a solution for that? I wish I could have copied the chart someway and reversed the lights and darks.

I knit them up with Berocco Ultra Alpaca Light, one of my favorite yarns. It’s so soft and warm, with the alpaca added to the wool. I used a #2 circular needle, using my favorite Magic Loop method. I know my niece will love them when I give them to her at Christmas.

Pattern: Treescape
Needles: #2, circular needle, Addi Lace
Yarn: Berocco Ultra Alpaca Light in Star Sapphire & Winter White
Ravelry Page

Posted in finished objects, gifts, holiday stuff, knitting, magic loop, mittens | 7 Comments »

Radio Frequency Hat

June 21, 2011

My son, Nick, modeling the hat

More Christmas knitting FOs! This one is a hat for one of my nephews. I really love this hat. It’s Mandy Power’s pattern, “Radio Frequency Hat”. I thought it was masculine enough for a guy. It’s supposed to have a pom pom on top but I can’t decide if my nephew would like that or if that’s too “girly”. Hmmm . . .

I knitted this up in Berocco Ultra Alpaca Light, a DK weight yarn. I love this stuff. So warm and soft. The hat pattern did not include a lining, but after I knitted the hat and blocked it, the edge of the hat curled so badly I couldn’t believe it. Even though it had a braided edge, it curled just like pure stockinette. So I was thinking about adding a lining anyway, because it adds so much to the hat and when I did, it solved the curling problem. I just picked up stitches all around and knitted the lining, making the decreases just by eyeballing it.

I just picked up stitches all around to do the lining

I knitted this hat with a long circular needle, using a Magic Loop type method, instead of a short needle. I really don’t like doing that with a hat and having the knitting so tight on the needles and then having to switch to dpns to do the decreases. If you do a hat using Magic Loop, you can actually try the hat on and see better how the size is going.

Pattern: Radio Frequency Hat
Yarn: Berocco Ultra Alpaca Light in Black and Moonshadow
Needles: Circular US#5, 40″
Ravelry Page

Posted in finished objects, gifts, guy stuff, hats, knitting, magic loop | 6 Comments »

Pink Flocked Mittens

June 2, 2011

I’m continuing on with my Christmas knitting, and I’m not slowing down for summer! I’ve just finished these lovely things – lined mittens for one of my sisters-in-law. These are Adrian Bizilia’s “Flocked Mittens” and they are a lot of fun to knit.

I lined them with super thick Brushed Suri in a cotton candy pink color – they make the mitten so warm. I knitted these using Magic Loop and because the pattern calls for a worsted weight, they knit up fairly quickly. A welcome change after knitting with so much fingering weight yarn for a while there.

The pattern calls for a braided edge, which I love, but in the pattern it was done in one color. I changed it to two colors, which I think is more striking. If you do that, be sure to make the previous row a k1 MC, k1 CC instead of just one color, so the first row of the braided edge is correct.

They also have a picot edge which is a nice detail.