mordues de mitaines kal

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Pattern: St. Albans Valentine Cable Mitts (scroll down for download)
Yarn: Elann Baby Cashmere, mulled grape
Needles: 2.75 mm

I feel like I'm going to burst. I've been wanting to show you these since last November!!! But I had to keep it under wraps until Feb 1st for the Fingerless Gloves Fanatics Designer Feb 2009 KAL. Well now that the time has come, I can show you what these look like!!! Yay! These mitts were designed to match the St. Albans Valentine Cable Scarf.

(Yes, I know, it is not Feb 1st yet, not even in GMT ... however we've got James' blessing to post early)

The purple one is mine. Susan made the red one, visit her at her blog here.

St.Albans Valentine Cable Mitts Pattern

St. Albans Valentine Cable Scarf

Note: Chart last updated 6 March 2009 to correct typos in definitions for BC & FC.

Hope y'all enjoy knitting this mitt.

If you're wondering why all my photos look a bit "lumpy" around the left wrist, you can ready about it here.

Copyright © Smariek Knits 2005-2009. All full copyright rights are reserved by Smariek Knits.
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swimming against current

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Related posts:
28Mar2009 post (shoe shot, 1 photo).
07Feb2009 post (finished pair, 11 photos).
19Jan2009 post (beginnings, 11 photos).

Practice Pair of Socks #1, Sock #1

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It must look like I am making "backwards" progress in the needle usage department. I've received a lot of comments and suggestions about using 2 circular needles or 1 circular needle (magic loop) to knit socks, instead of using DPNs. I know these are popular methods for knitting in the round.

The funny thing is that I had started out all my in-the-round knitting using circular needles. I learned how to knit hats in the round using circs. I had knitted fingerless mitts (Persephone Mitts and Regina Mitts) using sock weight yarn and 2.75 mm circular needles -- hey, that's practically half a sock! :-) Everything was fine, but most of my circs are 30" or longer and I found that the long dangling cords would drive me nuts. (And definitely looks weird, which is why this happened at Starbucks) Anyhow, this is why I eventually picked up some short pointy sticks to try out.

I'm hoping to perfect the use of my new pointy sticks and then move on to magic looping. I'm still searching for the missing DPN and I can't believe that I only had the DPN set for 4 days before I lost one. I'm thinking I need a BIG tomato needle cushion for me to stick my idle DPNs into so they don't get sucked into a black hole.

My first sock knitting experience is moving right along. I've managed to finish the foot and toe decrease. This portion was a cinch. Meezermeowmy had pointed out something that would prevent laddering. The thing is that it was exactly what I was doing, EXCEPT that I would shift the back (left) end of the left needle OVER the next needle while I was knitting from it, and then return it to the UNDER position after I was done. Other than this, all my other needles were in the correct Escher-like position -- left tip UNDER, right tip OVER. I don't know why I started to shift the left tip of my left needle OVER when I worked with it, I guess I found it more comfortable to knit that way. Well, I've stopped this extraneous needle shift and my laddering is much reduced. Cool. Thanks Barbara!

I tried on the sock to see how it fit. The foot seems long enough. The sock is on the loose side overall. It is neither hugging snug nor slouchy loose, though I imagine the cuff won't stay up for long. I am not very good with that gauge thing. Was I supposed to swatch? Perhaps I need to knit tighter. I'll try that on this sock's mate. I was a little sloppy in that gusset. There is a gaping hole! I'll try to do a better job on the 2nd sock.




Do you know how difficult it is to try to take a photo of one's own foot?

Copyright © Smariek Knits 2005-2009. All full copyright rights are reserved by Smariek Knits.

mitaines roses

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Related posts:
22Mar2009 post (2 Photos - finished mitts)

Pattern: Blueberry Tea Mitts (Ravelry Link)
Yarn: Elann Baby Cashmere
Needles: 3.0 mm

These are the mitts I test knit for Paula, using fingerling weight yarn and 3.0 mm pointy sticks. I was off to a slow start with these since I thought I'd try ML and I also CO too many sts to fit my petite hands. That didn't work out so I eventually reverted back to my pointy sticks. What I ended up doing to make these fit me is to CO 52 sts for the ribbing, increase 3 sts for the pattern, then decrease by 3 for the ribbing. I could have CO 56 for ribbing, decrease 1 for pattern, then increase 1 for ribbing, however I decided a snugger fit for the ribbing section would be better for my hands. In the end they are a perfect fit for my small hands.

I don't know what these mitts will be called. The name Paula had originally chosen is already taken, so she is going to rename them to something else soon. You'll find her blog here.
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Copyright © Smariek Knits 2005-2009. All full copyright rights are reserved by Smariek Knits.

HUGe - Part 2

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This is Part 2 in a series on the 2008 HUGe swap.
Click here for Part 1.
Click here for Part 3.
Related post: 08Jan2009 post - 21 Photos - Elann HUGe 2008 Swap, Group 1 box

Bangles #1, #2, #3, and #4

Bangle #4:

Bangle #4

I decided to use the same pattern as Bangle #3 for Bangle #4. The only difference is the yarn and color. I used Elann Highland Wool in Ruby red color. Despite being the same pattern, I think Bangle #3 in the Elann Luxury Merino Superwash came out better. I think the stitch pattern stands out better in the blue color.

Well, I thought I'd insert a photo of a the ball of yarn here. Unfortunately I can't seem to find my photo. Boo.

Red bangle

Bangle #4 is made with a red bangle, like the one above.


My personal notes on how I made this bangle:

Elann Highland Wool, Ruby
4.0 mm (US6)
Red bangle.
Circumference = ~11.25 inches (29 cm)
Width (all around) = 3 inches (7.5 cm)

Cast on 52 stitches, join in round.
Round 1 & 2: Knit
Round 3 & 4: * K2, P2 *
Repeat rounds 1 to 4 for 22 rounds have been completed.

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Bangle #5:

Bangle #5

I wasn't sure I wanted to try another cable stitch after making Bangle #2 (the purple one) because I wasn't 100% happy with how that one turned out. I think it had something to do with the "non-standard" cable pattern and how the cable pattern stretched out when it was attached to the bangle. Then in June, I showed Theresa the first four bangles and she told me she preferred the cable and seed stitch pattern more than the other one. So I decided to give cables another try, this time choosing a more "standard" cable. I am more pleased with the results this time.

Red bangle

I knit this one using Cleckheaton Country 8-Ply DK weight superwash wool yarn in a brown color. It is the same yarn I used to make my this scarf. I used 4.0 mm (US6) needles. I don't know what I was thinking but I started this one in the round, knit a few rounds, and then realized that what I really needed to do was knit a skinny strip. So I had to start this one over again. After I knit my skinny strip, I attached it to a red bangle like the one above.

Bangle #5

Here's what the bangle looks like on my wrist. I like this one so much more than the purple one I made that I might even make another.


My personal notes on how I made this bangle:

Cleckheaton Country 8-Ply, brown
4.0 mm (US6)
Red bangle.
Circumference = ~11.25 inches (29 cm)
Width (all around) = 3 inches (7.5 cm)

Cast on 16 stitches.
Row 1, 3, 7, 9: P4, K8, P4
Row 2, 4, 6, 8, 10: K4, P8, K4
Row 5: P4, Cable Crossing, P4

Repeat rows 1 to 10.

Cable Crossing: Slip 3 stitches to Cable Needle and hold in front. Knit 3 stitches. Knit 3 stitches from Cable Needle.

To get the cables to cross in the opposite direction, just hold the cable needle in the back.

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Bangle #6

Bangle #6

I decided to try another cable pattern for my next bangle, but something different than the basic cable I used in bangle #5. It took me a while to knit this one due to the thin sock weight yarn and itty bitty 2.75 mm (US2) needles. I think the color is off in the photo above because I took that photo at night with bad nighttime lighting. The yarn is Elann Sock It To Me, in latte color, which I picked up July specifically for this project (thanks Theresa for the suggestion!). Of course other stuff fell into my shopping cart, I mean, who buys just one ball of sock yarn??? I picked up some more of my favorite yarn, Elann Luxury Merino Superwash DK. For the cable pattern, I chose a cable pattern that was simply called "pattern 120" from NKSL pg 73. I think it turned out ok on the bangle. I like the cable pattern more than the one I used for the purple bangle. If the bangle above looks vaguely familiar, it is because you had seen it back in July. :-)

I was originally going to use a bangle with a silver/mirror finish, however decide not to when I didn't like how the silver showed through the tan colored knitting. So I used another one of these charcoal colored bangles instead. At this point I wasn't sure what I'd do with the silver bangle, maybe find a lacy pattern where the silver can intentionally show through and create a (hopefully) neat effect.


My personal notes on how I made this bangle:

Elann Sock It To Me, latte color 42837
2.75 mm (US2)
Charcoal bangle.
Circumference = ~11.25 inches (29 cm)
Width (all around) = 3 inches (7.5 cm)

Cast on 26 stitches.
Row 1, 5: P7, K2, P2, K4, P2, K2, P7
Row 2, 4, 6, 20: K7, P2, K2, P4, K2, P2, K7
Row 3: P7, K2, P2, CB4, P2, K2, P7
Row 7: P7, FC, CB4, BC, P7
Row 8, 18: K9, P8, K9
Row 9: P9, BC, FC, P9
Row 10, 16: K9, P2, K4, P2, K2
Row 11: P7, BC, P4, FC, P7
Row 12, 14: K7, P2, K8, P2, K7
Row 13: P7, K2, P8, K2, P7
Row 15: P7, FC, P4, BC, P7
Row 17: P9, CF4, CB4, P9
Row 19: P7, BC, CB4, FC, P7

Repeat rows 1 to 20.

CB4: slip 2 onto cn hold back, k2, k2 from cn
CF4: slip 2 onto cn hold front, k2, k2 from cn
BC: slip 2 onto cn hold back, k2, p2 from cn
FC: slip 2 onto cn hold front, p2, k2 from cn

To be continued... Click here for Part 3.

Copyright © Smariek Knits 2005-2009. All full copyright rights are reserved by Smariek Knits.
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Testing 1 2 3

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Happy CNY!

I am easily side tracked. I thought I'd try to do two things together by learning magic loop while test knitting Paula McKeever's new mitt pattern. I understand that you need one circ for ML so I went to my Poor Man's needle storage to fish out a 2.75 mm. After opening the flap, I remembered that I recently got this needle set and know that the cord is very flexible. Then I remembered somebody advising me to try out all the needle tips with all the cords because she had one tip with bad threads and one cord with bad threads. I fished out the nedele set and started screwing and unscrewing all the tips and cords. I must admit that I got a little lazy. I tried both tips of one size with all ends of all cords. It was such a tedious task that I ended up trying both tips of each remaining size on only both ends of one of the cords. Yep, Parresseuse is my middle name. Then I realized that the needle set only contained size US4 up to US 9 or 10 or something like that. And what I wanted was US2. Well that didn't work out for the test mitt. So back to my PMNS for a regular circ in size 2.75mm. The longest one I had was 32 inches.

I proceeded to CO 64 sts, split the sts, pinched the cord & pulled it out. Ok, now how do I join in a round when the needle tips are parallel?! When I knit in the round using 2 circs, I just swap the 1st & last sts. Well, I turned my work around so that the half with the working yarn would be in my right hand, and just started knitting my first round. And knit around I went, until I reached the end of my round and found a strand hanging between the beginning of the round and end of the round -- it was 2 inches long!!!

Whoopsie!

Then I started over with a few 2.75 mm pointy sticks (didn't want to risk another ML failure at this point), knit a few rounds and decided that 64 sts was still much too large. I didn't think the ribbing and cable pattern would pull inwards enough to make it fit my small hands.

I've started over a 3rd time. This time using 3.0 mm pointy sticks and 52 sts for the ribbing. The pattern repeat was 11 sts, so 64 - 11 = 53. And there is a 2 st increase after the ribbing section, which would make the target st count 55. I could have co 56 for the ribbing and then reduce by 1 st. I decided to go with co 52 for a snugger fit, and then increase 3 in the last ribbing round. I think this will work out...

In retrospect, I should have known from past experience with this yarn that I should have co between 50 to 56 sts to fit my hand.

Well that's it for now. It's been busy on this end. I did manage to get my eyes examined, it has been a while cough4to5yrscough since my last. The good news is that nothing has really changed. The right is still bad and the left is still worse, but the diopters have remained the same as before. Well, there is one wee little change in axis for one eye. I'm not sure why there is this slight difference. I suppose I could get away with not getting new glasses. However the desire for new scratch-free lenses and an updated frame won out. The downside is that clip-on shades have fallen out of favor which meant having to choose separate prescription sunglasses. This means I have to carry a big eyeglass case for the sunglasses instead of a thin sleeve for clip-on shades. I know, it should be no biggie except that purse real estate is hard to come by when I'm hauling all my "pursy" stuff along with all of Missy's stuff. It'll be about 10 days before my glasses are ready.

Copyright © Smariek Knits 2005-2009. All full copyright rights are reserved by Smariek Knits.

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