More thoughts about mitts

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I am wearing the mitts I made because my hands are cold. They actually help. But it's my fingertips that really get cold. It got me to thinking maybe I could make myself a pair of warm ones with the flip tops. But for right now my fingertips are warming up. But these are mostly nylon and acrylic. Warm wool would be better. 

But I want the mitts to be hard wearing. I have a nice pair of 100 percent alpaca mittens. They are a bit big due to the nature of alpaca-it has no memory. I bought them for $20 at the wisconsin sheep and wool festival 2 years ago. They are double knit. The top layer developed holes from wearing them driving the car! The friction of the steering wheel on the mittens. I have mended them but they look bad due to the gray alpaca I used. These mittens are amazing when you shovel snow. Warmest things I have. 

I have never been a big fan of bulky weight yarn. But I think I am going to rethink that. The thought of having a thick warm throw as I knit or watch tv is suddenly appealing. Thick mitts or thick socks. I better stop before I cast something on.

Mitts are done!

I finished the mitts. I'm not real happy with the second mitt. I tried a new bind off that is stretchy. It is and i really like it. It was easy to. The thumb does not match. I kept doing seed stitch instead of 1x1 rib. The good thing is I learned something new. I will use this new bind off in almost all my projects.

I want to knit all the things!

As you know I started Hannah's stocking. I didn't get far before I was drawn away by another project. Hand warmers. I made a pair last year and gave them to Hannah who will probably never wear them. I may take them back and give them to Grace and see if she will wear them. Somehow I talked myself into knitting a pair for me quick.

So far they are quick. I just finished one in 3 days and need to sew it up so I can wear it. As soon as I finish the second one I will be a good girl and go back to the stocking. I will post a picture when they are done.

I was looking on Ravelry at all the newly posted patterns as I do everyday. There are that many!  I saw one for boot toppers. I've seen these before but they "sell" them as decorations for the tops of your boots. But this pattern showed them in a practical way. More like leg warmers and they can keep the snow out of your boot legs and if snow does get in it will not make your legs wet. You need to use wool though. Acrylic will soak up the snow and your pants will still be wet. I have this strong desire to knit warm things for winter. It's like a nesting urge. I have a pair of thick socks waiting to be knit. Then came these hand warmers and now these boot toppers. Winter is supposed to be extra cold and snowy this year. I want warm knitted things!!!!! Stupid stocking. Sigh....

It's done!

I finished it on Sunday night. It is not as long as I want it compared to Sam's. I want them all to be the same lenght.  Easy to do. The pattern says to decrease until there are 8 sttiches on each needle. Then I just knit round and round till it is the lenght I want. Then cinch closed. It looks like a stocking! Even though it's far from perfect, can you see how big the heel is? Yuck! I can see fuzzys from the black yarn I used for the lifelines. Lesson learned on that. I hope to remove the fuzzys as I rip it out after Christmas. I am excited that it's done. Now I can start on Hannah's stocking. Her color is more of a teal. I started the white fuzzy top today and will buy the other skein I need on Tuesday, my day off. Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pointy sock

Ok, a quick updade on Grace's christmas stocking. How did I not see this sooner? Anyway I was very close to being done only 5 more rounds to go. Then I stopped and looked at it. Why didn't I take a picture? The toe had turned into a point. One side had turned into a 90 degree angle where all the decreases were! It looked stupid.the pattern called for two needles but I thought I could do it with one. Maybe, but I also noticed that I hadn't done the increases right. I was only doing one total when I should have been doing 2 on each side. Why am I such a bad knitter?
So I ripped it back to when I started the decreasing for the toe and used 2 needles (I had 48 stitches total) and put one needle in half the stitches and the other needle in the other half. I used different stitch markers that will not fall out as easy. I also noticed that doing this section will go fast because I will be decreasing 4 stitches each round, 2 per needle. So that made me feel better about ripping back. I really really want to start Hannah's stocking. I was afraid something like this was going to happen.
I also decided that when I am done with this I will hang it up for Christmas but then will take it back, rip it out back to the heel and re-knit the second half till I am happy with it. The heel is much to big. I said I would make them stockings and I want them "hung by the chimney with care".

Wasted time

Well I finished the "wrap" in the paco-vicuna yarn. Lets just say it was a waste of time. I ended up knitting a big square. I knew early on it would end like this but I hoped somehow it would magically grow. I am ripping it out. I decided to make socks out of the yarn. I thought about mitten liners but fear they wouldn't hold up. I found a sock pattern that uses bulky weight yarn. My only concern is I'm afraid wearing them on hardwood floors will be like walking on ice-very slippery. I do want socks badly but these will have to wait until I finish the stocking at least.

I am making more progress slowly on the black shawl. I can't believe how slowly it's going. Every other row it grows by 2 stitches. I'm regretting the stocking because I'm not crazy about how it's looking and I have a self imposed deadline to finish it by the end of the month so I can start Hannah's.

I figure if I finish Hannah's stocking by end of November I have 23 days to knit that hat for Sam/Joel. I decided that they will share the hat. They have the same head size. Neither wear hats unless bitterly cold outside so why make two when one will do?

I am frustrated by that pattern but I am looking forward to knitting those socks. Let's hope for a really cold winter so I can wear them a lot.

Swimming in soft squishyness!

It's been awhile but I do have an update. Nothing is finished yet but I'm getting close on one. Grace's stocking is past the heel and onto the foot working toward the toe. I kind of regret using 2 strands together. I should have just used 1 strand and gone down a couple of needle sizes. The stocking is thick. It might support a bowling ball! Plus the heel is to big. I'm using size 9 needles.

The other project is a black shawl. I am half done. I'm anxious to finish it before winter. I am happy with how it looks. It's so easy I don't even need the pattern anymore. I can pick it up at any time and know what to do.

I got the itch to cast on something new. I really want something for winter. I was going to make a throw for my lap but 200 yards just isn't much. I decided on the picture below. The pattern uses slightly more than 200 yards and it calls for bulky yarn.The yarn i'm using is called Paco-Vicuna which is a mix between an Alpaca and a Vicuna. Oh my is this yard soft and squishy!!!!! I love knitting with it and wish I had more. It's an easy pattern but it doesn't look like the pattern picture. I am basically ending up with garter stitch. I don't really mind but it's frustrating. I just want to knit on this for hours! If I knit hard I can have two warm things for winter. This picture shows about 1/4 done. The pattern has you do a 10 row repeat for a total of 17 repeats. This is 5 repeats in. I am aiming for 17 but we will see what I get. Sorry the second picture is so big. I couldn't shrink it. But you can see the difference between mine and the original. Where are those vertical lines in mine???

 

One more thing I want to mention. There is this yarn store in Washington State on an island somewhere called Churchmouse Yarns and Teas. They have some pretty good patterns. There is this one:

I really like it. It would make a nice spring/fall wrap. If you remember I started a poncho last year. I'm thinking of ripping it out in favor of this pattern. After thinking about it I had the idea to change the turtle neck of the poncho. My idea is to pick out the cast on and unravel it down. I'm thinking of turning it into a mock turtleneck. It's just to bulky and big for a turtleneck. I can't mess with it yet because I stole the needles for the Paco-Vicuna wrap I'm making. I also don't know if it fits well around my shoulders or not. I may still rip it out and use worsted acrylic instead for better drape. Maybe this yarn will be my lap blanket.

The the yarn for the picture above would cost around twenty bucks. Based on yardage alone I would need 6 skeins. There is some pretty acrylic at Joanns I think would look good in this. I really want wool for warmth but I can't afford it right now. I can afford the acrylic with coupons and slow buying. I also could make this one of my goals for buying yarn at Maryland. The pattern is $10 though. I had another thought. I really want more of the Paco-Vicuna yarn. The show I got it at is in Feb. Maryland Sheep and Wool is in May. Ugh! I may have to wait till the year after (2015) to get more Paco-Vicuna yarn. She comes all the way from Colorado for this show in Pittsburgh.

I woke up early this morning and my mind went to knitting. I realized how I am going to make Sam a new hat. I have this black yarn that I ripped a shawl out of and it is part acrylic and part wool. I don't remember the numbers. But I know I have enough yarn and that it's softer than the yarn I originally used and I will not do a double knit hat because it's bulky, but instead I will drop down a needle size or two and make it more dense to make up for it. I hope to have it done for Christmas again this year. But I won't think about it till I get the Paco-Vicuna wrap and Grace's stocking done. Making 1 hat will not take that long.

I think that's it for now.