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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 »

Stockholm Scarf

July 21, 2011

I’ve been doing all this Christmas knitting for next year, but I couldn’t help myself when I purchased some Madelintosh yarn. I just had to start this project for me. I’ve had Julie’s Stockholm Scarf in my Ravely queue for a while now and I thought the Madelintosh was perfect for it.

This pattern was fun to knit – there’s just enough variety of stitches to keep you interested yet you can still watch a movie while you knit. There’s lot of yarn overs and pssos, which create a lofty, super nice scarf. And the Madelintosh is such a gorgeous, soft yarn it was a pleasure to work with.

This is really a cowl, which is long enough to double nicely around your neck. I made mine about 15″ wide and used almost all of the Madelintosh.

Now if we can just get rid of this heat wave we’ve been having!

Pattern: Stockholm Scarf
Needles: US # 10, 40″ circular Addi Turbos
Yarn: Madelintosh dk in Moorland
Ravelry Page

Posted in finished objects, knitting, scarves | 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.