Tag: mittens

Socks and salt dough

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I’m so bored of saying this, but I’m ill, AGAIN! Just a cough and a cold, no doubt brought home from one of the hundreds of children who came to take part in activities at the museum over half term. But as a result, there has been a great deal of languishing on the sofa, and a need for some extremely simple knitting. So, I used up some leftovers of sock yarn and made these teen-tiny newborn sized baby socks!

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When they were done I still had a little bit of yarn left over, so I improvised a pattern for some matching mittens. They’re so cute, I might have to start knitting baby socks with all of my leftover sock yarn! And even though I was looking for easy knitting, I still managed to learn something – these little socks have my first ever short-row heels. I don’t think I managed to close up all the holes very neatly, and I didn’t wrap the stitches, but I know that once these socks have been through the wash a few times, any little irregularities will disappear.

Salt dough experiments

This afternoon I had a little bit of a play with some salt dough, which is currently waiting to go in the oven. I tried two recipes, both of which I’d found on Pinterest, but one was significantly better than the other. These are made from my usual combination of 2 parts flour to one part salt, but with the addition of a small amount of cornflour. This made the dough feel extremely smooth, and it certainly picked up the detail from the leaf cutters (designed for fondant icing) very well.

Salt dough experiments

The second recipe… well, that just made a great big mess. It called for cornflour and bicarbonate of soda, but while the proportions of the recipe were provided, there were no instructions. I knew the split second I’d added too much water because I didn’t have dough so much as this…

I’ve made cornflour gloop with the toddlers enough times to know that I was never going to make anything useful out of it, and I don’t know why I didn’t realise sooner that this is what would happen! Perhaps the state to be aiming for with this recipe is something more like damp sand rather than actual dough. Although I don’t know whether that would hold together enough to cut shapes out of it. (It does work for bath bombs though, so perhaps it would be okay.)

The reason I’m mucking about with salt dough is that I’m looking for an alternative to polymer clay. I did an experiment several years ago using essential oils to scent Fimo, but now I think I want to use something a bit more natural as my base material. I’ve had limited success with papier mache, so I’m thinking that air drying clay might be my next best option. We’ll see. If these little leaves and flowers survive their baking and a little bit of paint, perhaps salt dough will be fine!

Progress on the pattern, and a sock cheat-sheet!

Re-writing the pattern

Well, the knitting pattern’s still in progress. I finished knitting the first test-mitten in the larger size yesterday, and when Paul came home and tried it on for me, it was revealed to be ENORMOUS. So, after consultation with regard to how exactly Paul likes his mittens (apart from Not At All, which he doesn’t really get a choice about, being married to a knitter), I have now re-written the instructions for the larger size. I could have unravelled the Very Large Mitten, but I spent ages working out how to make a cable pattern fit on the back of the hand, and it seems a shame to let all that work go to waste. So I’m knitting the matching one anyway.

I’ve now printed out several copies of the pattern, so I can keep notes about each pair of mittens and any alterations I might continue to make. I have two test-knitters ready to go, but if anyone else would like to give the pattern a try, please let me know! I can email you a pdf file of the latest draft, but you’ll need to supply your own needles and yarn.

Judy's Magic Cast On

This is a sock toe, my first knitted using Judy’s Magic Cast On. At first I couldn’t get the hang of it, but now I’ve got the crossing-over part figured out, it really is like magic! Next I need to figure out how to cast on two socks at once using this method. That would really knock Second Sock Syndrome (where you absolutely can’t face knitting the second one) on the head. And make sure they both come out the same. (Harder than you might think.)

When I first learned how to knit socks, I made myself a cheat sheet. I use the slip-stitch heel pattern from Wendy D. Johnson’s book, Socks from the Toe Up. I very heartily recommend this book – it has lots of different options for casting on, three different types of heel, and lots of patterns to plug into your socks once you’ve got the basics figured out.

But, I don’t want to carry the entire book around in my sock-knitting bag, which is where the cheat sheet comes in. I know how to knit socks now, but I need reminders of how and when to turn the heel, and how to do a stretchy cast off, and how many rows I knitted on the first sock, so I can make the second one the same. Hence the cheat sheet.

Because I find it so useful I thought it would be nice to share it, so I’ve uploaded it to a tutorial page. I should say that the original pattern obviously remains © Wendy D. Johnson, and you really do need her book for the full instructions! The sheet isn’t a full sock pattern in its own right, it’s just some helpful reminders for when you haven’t got the book in front of you.

Meanwhile, I’ll be knitting yet another test mitten, and hoping that this one turns out to be a normal human hand size!

Mitten pattern…

Mitten pattern

So, the weekend’s knitting was derailed a little bit, when I decided it would be a good idea to invent a pair of mittens, knit them, and write up the pattern for publication. As you do.

I’ve knitted the first pair of mittens, in the smaller size, and have written up the pattern. (Easier said than done, maths has never been my strong point!) I like tickyboxes in my knitting patterns, so I can easily scribble all over them and keep track of what I’m doing. I’m currently knitting the mittens in the larger size, so I can make sure it’s definitely possible to get two mittens out of one ball of wool.

The design is extremely simple, and the pattern’s hopefully written in such a way that a beginner can understand it. Because the mittens are so plain, I think the back of the hand would make an excellent place to practice simple lace motifs or cable patterns. If I can figure out how to write up some modifications without making the pattern a dozen pages long, I might give that a try too. Meanwhile… back to knitting these cuffs!

More Marvellous Mittens

Purple organic pointelle gloves

I had grand plans for making lots more pairs of gloves today. Above, you can see the total sum of my glove-making endeavours.

Admittedly I got rather sidetracked this morning by a hat, and didn’t start making the gloves until after lunch. Unfortunately, it turns out that making gloves from organic cotton pointelle is the most enormous pain in the backside. It’s very thick and very stretchy. It’s difficult to mark, and it’s difficult to cut and sew accurately. All of this makes working with it very slow going indeed.

I’ve prepared the backs and the bias tape for two more purple pairs, and cut the contrast stripes for three more pairs. Those will be teamed with more pointelle but in brown.

However frustrated I might be by the length of time it’s taking me to sew these, I have to admit that I rather like them! The bias trim (which is also around the thumbs) is a pleasing finishing touch, and I’m happy that all of the fabric is organic cotton. Now I just need to get a move on, and finish making them!

Lazy Day

Lazy day winding yarn

Working weekends is a peculiar beast. I only work in the afternoons, but that leads to rather polarised mornings – either rushing around like a mad thing, or staying in bed for as long as possible. And then I don’t take time off during the week, because I feel guilty spending time on myself when I have so much to do.

This weekend brought the end of Neverwhere, the play I’ve been working on at Progress Theatre. We saw the final performance on Saturday night, and then spent Sunday dismantling the entire set so that the next production can start to build theirs. Oh, and there might have been a little bit of a party in between…

By Monday I was well and truly ready for a bit of a break. I’ve been working on two large knitting projects for several months (both now completed), so I wanted to have a rummage through my yarn stash and make some plans. I couldn’t start knitting anything, mostly because Pony don’t make circular knitting needles with 3.5mm tips, and that’s the only brand of metal needles sold at my local yarn stores. So I contented myself with winding all of my single skeins of yarn into balls, and looking up some patterns to go with them.

The yarn that’s wrapped around my knees and on the ball winder in the photo is Skein Queen‘s Delectable, a gorgeous silk and merino heavy laceweight. It’s earmarked to become Jane Sowerby’s Glimpse Maxi Cowl, if I can ever get hold of some needles in the right size. Diane gave me a gorgeous mystery mini skein in a very similar colourway and a mittens pattern for Christmas so those will match beautifully.

I also wound up two skeins of Noro Blossom, that I’d bought with the intention of making a pair of chameleon-paw Tridactyl mittens. Then I saw them next to my stashed Rowan Big Wool, and they were perfect together. So now I’m about half way through knitting a moss/seed stitch scarf. It’s four feet long already, so it’s going to be a proper Doctor Who style monster, but it’s really pretty. All of the colours in the Noro look gorgeous against the pale pink of the Big Wool, and the bumpy texture of the yarn and the stitch pattern look great. It’s really nice to have an instantly-gratifying project, after having worked on two long-term ones.

I’m going out for a knitting date with friends this evening, so hopefully progress on the scarf will continue quickly. I’ll write up the pattern (if you can call it that!) once it’s finished.

 

Milly’s Monkey Hat

Now that we’re into the New Year, I think it’s safe to reveal some of the things I made as Christmas gifts.

I don’t have photos of all the knitting because I wrapped and posted it as soon as it was finished. But I made a pair of socks and a pair of wristbands and a cowl and a pair of fingerless gloves. And a hat and mittens.

I do have a picture of Milly’s Monkey Hat and Matching Mittens:

Milly's Monkey Hat and Mittens

The pattern was one of Ann Budd’s basic hats, and I made up the ears as I was going along. The mittens are from a Ravelry pattern by Anke Klempner, designed for newborns. The pattern calls for 3.5mm needles, so I used 4mm to make the mittens slightly larger. I managed to get the hat and mittens out of one 50g ball of Sirdar Snuggly, and I used the leftovers to make the mitten string. The cream parts on the monkey’s face and ears are made from fleece, blanket stitched into place, and the eyes, nose and mouth are simply embroidered on.

I made the string for the mittens on my knitting nancy, and I think it’s probably long enough to last Milly until she’s at least eight. I was a bit worried that the hat would be too small, but it seems to be okay:

Milly's Monkey Hat

The ears do make it ridiculously easy for Milly to grab the hat and chuck it across the room, but apparently that happens to all hats at the moment – and she was far more interested in the crinkly wrapping paper anyway!