All Thumbs

My mittens are finished and blocked. Amazing how the blocking really smooths them out and makes the fabric flat and cohesive. I wasn't really liking how the cuffs were relating (or not) to the design on the hand. So rather than doing little teeny checks on the thumbs, which was my plan, I decided to repeat the grey and white stripes instead. I think it makes the whole design more unified. I really like these guys now.

I'm not sure why one mitten is so much taller than the other. The one on the right I knit first. Maybe I'm easing up on the tension?


See how my braids are going in two different directions? Pretty cool, huh. Just don't ask me how I did it.

Almost There. . .

It's not easy to take a photograph with only one hand. This is the best I could do. I'm almost ready to begin my decreases. Lizbeth Upitis recommends beginning the decreases when you're at the first (top) joint of the middle finger. She says from this point figure an additional length equivalent to about half the width of your mitten. So a 4" wide mitten will have about 2" of decrease length. That seems like a lot to me.

(And yes, I know my cuff is totally out of control. I don't know what I was thinking. My only defense is that I knit the cuffs while sitting at gate 25 of Terminal A of the Philadelphia airport. It was my only solace, so I just kept knitting. And knitting. And knitting.)

I might begin my decreases earlier than that. Like do one more 4-row pattern repeat and then start. I don't want to end up with mittens so long I can't really wear them. You know, like having claw hands or something.

The thumb hole is an entirely other issue. Looks like I'll have a lot of stitches to pick up. This is all a learning process, right?? Stay tuned.

What is that you say? I have to do another one after this?

Knitting and Purling in P.R.

So before I get to my mitten progress, a few gratuitous shots from our vacation in Puerto Rico. I got most of my knitting done on the front end of the vacation, when we stayed for three days at a little eco-resort in the middle of the rain forest, "El Junque." No tv. No radio. Heavenly. Here, a couple of snaps taken from our balcony:


We hiked a lot in the forest, traversing boulders, a raging river, and jungly pathways. Here's some giant bamboo, maybe where size 15 needles come from?

And lots of really, really good coffee fueled our trip. Interestingly, the coffee was very different in each area. I preferred the stuff up north, a bit mellower than the dark acidic blend in the south. They take their coffee very seriously. Below is a set-up in a diner in San Juan where they frown on you having more than one cup. (And there are no free refills.) I had three that morning, it was so good. I didn't care about the waiter's scowls or the extra couple of bucks on our tab.


So on to the knitting. After futzing around for about a week with various (way too complicated) designs, I settled on a checkerboard-tiled pattern along the lines of what I'd originally wanted. It's pretty simple. Just four colors with brown being the main repeat. The checks are 4 x 4 on the outside, 2 x 2 on the palm, and will be 1 x 1 on the thumb.

(Back)

(Palm)

I'm not too thrilled with the cuff and am thinking when I'm finished with the bodies of both mittens I may cut them off and rework them from the wrist down. We'll see. I had to MacGyver my thumb hole with a little piece of floss, since I didn't have the right kind of yarn to thread through there to hold the stitches.

A Commercial Break

I just wanted to take a moment to point out the new link to Techknitting. It's an impressive site -- the woman has an entire universe of knitting knowledge in her head and does an amazing job conveying it to the rest of the world in a smart and funny way. You can search the blog and, important for us, it contains three lengthy posts on two- and three-color knitting. I know Angela was asking about three-color knitting at the S&B yesterday.

And there are these doo-hickey's, for people who want some serious knitting hardware:

"Strickfingerhut" it's called and apparently it means "knitting thimble." Lots of people recommend these for three-color knitting. They're cheap, less than four bucks, so if someone wants to go in on an order with me, I'm game to try.

Kristin -- I'm completely blown away by your watercolor sampler. I knew you'd come up with an exquisite pattern. I thought it was a quilt at first. Hopefully you'll get your yarn soon and be able to turn your Latvian dreams into reality. Oh, and the braids are pretty simple to do.

Plotting. . .

I've been monkeying around with the graph paper. Since I have 8.5 rows to the inch rather than 9, I was having a difficult time using the recommended customized knitting graph paper. So I've added a link to another site which has a cornucopia of customizable graph papers (including circular graph elements -- who knew??).

So, if you're having issues, I'd recommend using the "Asymmetric Graph Paper" link. I left all the defaults alone (including line width) and in my case, put 9 in the box for "smaller" lines for the horizontal grid spacing and 8.5 for the "smaller" lines for vertical. The inch line markers I wanted to be darker so I left them as is. Oh, and I designated black as my line color. Voila! (Or, as the musicians say, viola!)

Swatch 'til You Drop

First, a very happy 2008 to all the S&B blogistas out there. Here's a New Year's Buddha, from the Mummer's Parade, to get your year off to an auspicious start.


And speaking of auspicious starts, here's my swatch for the Latvian mittens. I wanted to use all my colors, which I did (except the white) to see how they would interrelate with one another. I, too, did my swatch on #2 needles which seems too big at first, given how thin the yarn is. But it somehow works out just right. I have 9 stitches to the inch and about 8 1/2 rows to the inch.

The yarn is very forgiving in the way it kind of sticks to itself. Quite a few times I lost a needle out of my stitches (I'm a bit rusty knitting with my left hand, so things have occasionally gotten a little Western) but the loops didn't go anywhere. Just stayed there, nice and round and loopy, waiting for me to stick my needle back in. Sweet.


Here's the inside, just to show that my tension is fairly even and loose. It's something I'm working very hard on. (Heh, she said hard on. . .)
Now on to devising the mitten pattern. Are we there yet? Is that permissible or are we waiting? I defer to the Alpha Knitter. . .

A Latvian Swatch

I know that some of you will think I jumped the gun. I may be the first with a swatch, but I was also the first to encounter and (I hope) solve a few problems. I cast on 30 stitches and I think it was not quite enough. Maybe 40 would be better. One good idea that I didn't even know I was having was when I decided the pattern to knit: Two stitches of each color in a checkerboard. It made counting stitches and finding gauge so easy! I really recommend it. And if you are gearing up to knit two colors at a time, it is a simple pattern to practice on.

I have about 9 stitches per inch. I used #2 dpns and I think I am happy with this gauge.

Another thing: it is impossible to find the center of these center-pull balls! So, I did myself a favor and rolled all the balls on my ball-winder. Now that I know my gauge, I can start to plan my pattern. I promise to stop here and wait for you all to catch up!

Early Christmas

Look what arrived on my mother's doorstep the other day:

Notice it's still in the original packaging? That's because it's technically a present from my mother to me and so I need to wait until Christmas to look at it. There's no way I'd be able to resist if I took off the plastic. Thank you Amazon, thank you Santa, and thank you Mom.

Latvian Mitten Splinter Group

There is a splinter group forming and will begin knitting Latvian mittens in January. So far we have Jennifer, Wendy, Angela, John, Val (in Providence), and Kristin (in Baton Rouge). Anyone else interested? Let me know.

Below is a link to a book:
http://www.amazon.com/Latvian-Mittens-Traditional-Designs-Techniques/dp/0942018141
I have an earlier edition of this book and I will gladly copy some of it for you.

Here is a fantastic link to gallery of mittens knitted for the NATO Summit:
http://www.rigasummit.lv/en/id/cats/nid/698/
scroll down the page to the links then click on the men's or women's mittens and then click on the individual mittens. They are really great! There are so many of them! You can really get some ideas.
As far as yarn goes, we have been looking at a few things. Keep in mind that if you are thinking of following this project with the Fair Isle Vest, you may want to use the same yarn. The mitten could be your gauge swatch :-) The yarn suggested for the vest is Harrisville Designs New England Shetland
http://www.harrisville.com/index.html
I have also seen the following yarns used for Fair Isle knitting:
http://www.schoolhousepress.com/Satakieli.htm
but the skeins are kind of big. I have samples of them.
Also, Jamieson's is used. Rosie's has a limited stock. I have the sample card and there are many colors.
http://jamiesonsshetland.co.uk/jamiesons/

So start your planning! Finish all your holiday knitting and we will have something fun to look forward to in the cold dreary month of January....