Norwegian Christmas Rose Mittens

When I was ready to take these pictures, we were just
getting our first snowfall. Can you see the snowflake?

Someone I know recently moved from the area. I knew I would have to knit her a farewell gift.

I wanted it to be cashmere - more luxury than she would normally permit herself and yet not fussy. (I know the labels always say to dry clean but cashmere is surprisingly resilient. The dry cleaning chemicals are actually bad for the fibers and will leave them "crunchy" while an easy soak at home will generally do the job.)

I also had in mind that it should be something that took skill - colourwork or intricate lace. I didn't want a "quick" project to be dashed off the needles without a thought. Not having ever seen her wear something around her neck, I settled on mittens. I figure everyone needs something for their hands in cold weather.

I couldn't find exactly what I wanted so I used parts of two patterns and made up the rest.

The flower design on the back of the mitten was taken from the Drop's Design Christmas Rose pattern. I had to adjust it to fit the gauge I got.

The design on the palm of the mitten was taken from Jessica Tromp's Norwegian Mittens. From the same pattern, I used the wrist design.

I added the Latvian braid before and after the wrist section. You'll notice I mirrored the flower design and braid from the left mitt to the right mitt because why wouldn't you.

The stripes along the side of the mitts are kept continuous through the decreases at the top. I worked the final decrease so that the pale blue stripe at the center carries continuously from the one side to the other.

I kept the striped thumb of the first pattern and made the stripe carry across the top in the same way.

Here is the inside of the mitts, for those of you who can't resist looking at the "wrong side".

Probably the biggest change I made from the patterns is the garter rib cuff. I wanted the look of a corrugated rib, which is a rib where the knits are in one colour and the purls are in a second colour. The problem with it is that even though it's technically a "ribbing" stitch, it doesn't have any stretch to it.

So instead, I cast on 15 stitches and worked them in a garter stripe (alternating two rows of each colour), attaching the end to the beginning when it was long enough. Then I picked up stitches along the edge and knit the mittens up from there.

The double layer of cashmere is warm and cosy without being too thick. Now I'm thinking I need a pair for myself. :)

Project Stats
Started: 26 Nov '17
Finished: 3 Dec '17
Patterns: Drop's Design Christmas Rose and Jessica Tromp's Norwegian Mittens
Materials: 35 g darker blue and 61 g light blue, both raveled from sweaters. I used four strands held together.

These Socks were Made for Traveling

So if you haven't heard from other sources, I should tell you that we just got back from a big trip to Alberta, to the Jasper and Banff National Parks. We went to celebrate our 12-1/2 wedding anniversary. (It's a Dutch thing.) (Yes, it's real.) It was fabulous.

But this is a knitting blog, so I will show you the anniversary socks I started for Troy. Note that I started them on our anniversary trip. Just as celebratory but without the pressure of having to finish them for a particular date! (Tricky, aren't I?)

I've showed you the yarn I bought for Troy's socks before:

I bought it on my road trip to Grand Rapids (Jenison) in December. It's got some alpaca in it, which will hopefully make it "soft" enough for Troy to wear. (He's really not sure he'll be able to wear wool socks. I'm making them anyway, just in case he loves them. That puts me at risk of having to make more, but I'll chance it.)

The wool is sort of a mustard brown, which usually isn't a pleasant colour, but it's a heather with lots of yellow, blue, and red bits in it like heathers are wont to have. Troy is a sucker for heathers. (That's with a small "h.") Yes, by now I know his weaknesses! I didn't realize it at the time, but I have since learned that in the Netherlands, 12-1/2 is the copper anniversary, and I think this wool could be construed to be sort of copper-y in colour. Nice coincidence!

I shopped around for a pattern and even printed one that I brought with me, but after talking to Troy, I decided to do a "plain" ribbed pair. At the first airport wait, I cast on the short row toe and got going:

(All those bags sticking out of my carry on are different projects I brought with me. I didn't work on many of them, but you never know!)

In the first flight I got the toe done:

Next wait at the second airport, and I've started the 2x2 ribbing:

That's my Kindle in the background. A couple months ago I was proclaiming to anyone that would listen that they needed to make a reader that could switch from written text to audio book for knitters. (I can't read and knit and have a good time all at the same time.) Then I discovered Kindle's text-to-voice. It's not the most nuanced reading, but it helps a lot if you skim along the words while it's reading. I'm enjoying it.

On the next flight, I continued up the foot, working in near darkness. The lady next to me was trying to sleep. She was amazed I was allowed to take my knitting on the plane. I ignored her. I only had to turn the light on twice to pick up a dropped stitch.

This plane was equipped to receive satellite TV. I watched the Leaf's game with the off-duty pilot next to me. This picture happened to catch the Leaf's game-tying score. Very exciting. Unfortunately they lost in the shoot-out. The pilot beside me didn't say so, but he was probably happy because despite living in Calgary, he is a Habs fan. He is also a goalie so he winced audibly every time an "easy" goal was scored. He sympathized with the net minders on any team.

The next day, I knit a little more in the car as we were leaving Calgary.

Here's a better one to show what we were driving into:

Gorgeous, right?

Once we actually got into the mountains, I couldn't knit anymore. I was too busy craning my neck and looking through all the windows I could. I love these mountains.

In the evenings, however, I managed to do a little knitting. On Sunday, I made Troy try it on:

This was about the time I was going to start the gusset, and I wanted to check the length.

He happily (and with a little too much surprise in his voice) said, "They fit!" In his defence, the ribbing is a little deceptive because it pulls the sock in when it's not on the foot and makes it look much narrower than it is.

It occurred to me that ribbing is having your cake and eating it too. Because it pulls in, it will fit a narrower foot than the same number of stitches in stocking stitch. But because you move the yarn from front to back between the ribs, you actually use more yarn so there's more stretch and it will fit a bigger foot than the same number of stitches in stocking stitch would fit. Isn't that breaking some law of physics?

At the end of the week, I had him try it on again:

Here I was judging whether I could start the heel yet. Almost there! Troy said they felt very good. I made him do the happy toe dance. It is mandatory when trying on socks-in-progress. (Optional when wearing the completed sock, but sometimes you can't help yourself.)

On the way home, I worked on them in the Calgary airport. Here the heel is finished:

I did some shaping to the sole stitches and then knit up the heel flap, decreasing the gusset stitches on the way. To reinforced the back of the heel, I slipped every other stitch on every row. This pulls the stitches in, as I think you can see here:

Compare the top and bottom portions. The top part
pulls in because only every other stitch is knit. (The
alternating stitches are slipped with the yarn in back.)

On the back side, this results in the yarn making horizontal bars:

Now the slipped stitch portion is on the bottom of
the picture.

This is like an extra layer behind the stitches and helps to make the sock more durable. I think it also gives a little extra cushion there.

I got as far as about an inch done on the leg and haven't worked on it since getting home. (Vacation's over.) I also need to have Troy try it on again to make sure the leg isn't too narrow. Of course, I'll be doing the 2x2 ribbing all the way around so I do have a little leeway...

Ok, one mountain shot, just for fun:

This is in Jasper, taken from one of the main streets. Yup, that could be the view from your living room or office.

Boot Cuff Socks

I said I was close to done, and sure enough I was!

Friday evening and Saturday were spent at a retreat where I could do a lot of knitting. This project was still the right size and simplicity that I could do it with no problems.

I was glad when the speaker sat down beside me and introduced himself before we got started, and I had a chance to say that I hoped my knitting wouldn't offend him. No, no, he said. His wife is a knitter and he knows it helps her to be able to settle down and listen. He assumed it was the same for me. Very good!

By the end of the session on Saturday afternoon, I had the full length of the body knit and had prepared for the tubular cast off by knitting two rounds of "double knitting" (knitting the knit stitches of the 1x1 ribbing as the front layer and knitting the purl stitches as the back layer), and then literally separating the layers and putting them onto separate needles:

So you can see each "side" of the sock has two sets of stitches now. The next step is to Kitchener them together so they make a continuous tube. Here,

I am about half way around. The stitches on the right side of the picture have been "cast off" and I'm still making my way around to the stitches on the left. although the method does take more time, it is just so slick and perfectly functional that I'm going to have to consider how I can work it into everything I knit that needs a stretchy bind off.

Here is the final product:

The left 2 inches or so is that 1x1 cuff and the rest is 2x2 ribbing. There is a very smooth transition from the 2x2 to the 1x1 ribbing because I rearranged the knit stitches with twists (2-stitch cables) instead of just starting K1 P1 across a new round. After switching to smaller needles, I K1, left twist, P1 for one round. That set up all the stitches in a 1x1 rib for me.

I think you can see it here:

On the left, the knitting is stretched out so you can see the stitches better. In pair #1, the knit [red] and purl [green] stitches just continue as they were. In pair #2, the left twist reverses the order of the knit and purl stitches, with the knit stitch on top. Project Stats
Started: 13 Feb '11
Finished: 5 Mar '11
Pattern: personal design
Materials: Sandy's Crazy Quilt 2-ply, 124 grams, $31.50
(I do this by letting the knit stitch off the left needle and leaving it to the front, slipping the next stitch to the right needle, picking up the knit stitch with the left needle and slipping the purl stitch from the right needle back to the left needle. Now purl 1 and knit 1. I should also note that since my 2x2 ribbing starts with a K2, I started this round with the knit stitch of pair #1, not the purl.)

On the right, for comparison, the knitting is relaxed and you can hardly see the shift from 2x2 ribbing to 1x1 ribbing.

I had the foresight to weigh the ball before I got started and it weighed 124 grams. After the first sock, I had 64 grams left. Should be plenty for the next one right? (After all, that means I used 60 for the first one, and had more than 60 left for the second one.)

At some point during the retreat I noticed that it was going to be very, very close. This is how much I had left when I was done:

Phew!! I had a plan if I ran out by a little, but I was very glad to have enough!

I wore the boot socks out today and was very happy with them.

Here's a little peek of how long they are and how they fit into my boots:

If tomorrow's cold enough (as if it won't be) then I'll wear them as leg warmers and see how I like them like that.

How's the Tunic Looking?

Why thanks for asking.

I think it's going well. I am above the sleeve increases and  puttering along.

My deadline knitting (previous post) is slowing progress a little, but I still work on this when I don't have the attention span to pay attention to what I'm doing.

The shape of the sweater looks a little odd because the sleeve shaping takes place so early. The sleeves are ridiculously deep and that makes the body look shorter than it is. It'll all work out; trust me.

I only have about 2.5" done on the sleeves and have 4.5" more to do before I can introduce the second colour and all the fun begins.

One detail I really like about this design is the bottom edge. It doesn't dive straight into the 3x3 rib, but first does 5 rows of 1x1 ribbing:

This gives a very smooth line across the bottom. If you started the 3x3 ribbing right away, the bottom edge would buckle and curl, but the 1x1 rib tames it nicely. It makes the garment lie better and from further away you don't really notice the shift in the ribbing. Bravo!

I picked up some Blue Sky alpaca. (Blue Sky being merely the yarn brand; it doesn't define the alpaca in any way.) It is so dreamy and soft. Quite a contrast to the scratchy "serviceable" grey wool.

I found a new group on Ravelry by the way...it's for people who like scratchy wool. I couldn't believe there were more people like me!

And for the record, I'm not talking about itchy wool--I don't like that sensation either. But there's a lot of good...what shall we say?..."rough" wool out there, and I like it!

Back to the main topic, I'll be interested in how these very different wools interact.

One thing's sure, though, I'll be glad the cowl neck is made from the alpaca. My neck is one place I do not appreciate "scratchy" wool.