FO: Cafe au Lait Mitts

My mom complained to my father that she wished she had a second pair of fingerless mitts to wear when she’s teaching. He relayed this information to me (although, why she didn’t ask me directly is a mystery!), and I cast on for a pair of Café au Lait mitts.

They definitely turned out to be a success. They’re just the tiniest bit tight on me, and since Mom has smaller hands, they were a perfect fit. I love the lace pattern, and the fact that it looks like it has cables without having the effort of actually cabling. These knit up so quickly, and they were super-easy. Mom loves them!

Pattern: Café au Lait Mitts

Yarn: Knitpicks Swish DK

Needles: US3

The Verdict: I love the way these knit up! They’re perfect for Mom. I definitely would use the yarn again. I’m not sure if I’d knit the same pattern again, but only because there are so many other fingerless mitts out there that I am dying to try.

WIP Wednesday

My mom’s mitts are coming along nicely- The first one is done (except for the thumb) and the second one is coming along quickly. These are a super-quick knit, and they turn out looking so pretty. They have a cabled look without the cables!

My Truly Tasha’s shawl is also looking good. I’m not going to bother putting a picture of this up, because really, the picture looks pretty much the same from week to week, just a bigger triangle! At this point, I’m almost done with the third ball (which will mark the half-way point of the shawl!) I have been having some issues with this shawl, however. First of all, the tips of my Knitpicks nickel-plated size 5 needles are really sharp! I tend to push the needle through the loop with my left index finger. I was not pleased when I realized I was starting to get a hole in my finger from the needle! Rather than stop knitting, I’ve been using a band-aid while I knit. I’m hoping a callous forms soon so I can knit bare-fingered without pain!

The other potential problem I’m encountering with this shawl is that it’s getting big! This is a good thing because it means I’m making progress, but it also means that it will soon be too big to take places with me. This has been my travelling project because it’s so simple and requires so little attention- once it gets too big, I’ll have to find a new travelling project.

Last but not least, my swift finally arrived* so I was able to wind the yarn and get back to knitting my Pipp’s Openwork Eyelet Scarf. The second skein is a little less purple than the first, and you can tell where one skein ends and the next one begins; however, I don’t think anyone will notice but me. The knitting part is done, but I still consider this a Work-In-Progress because it still needs the ends woven in and a good blocking.

This post is part of Tami's Amis WIP Wednesday. Head on over to see what everyone else is working on!

*By the way, if anyone is interested, I’d be more than happy to post a review of my swift!

WIP Wednesday

I’ve definitely made some significant amount of knitting progress this week! I’m almost done with my Everlasting Bagstopper- just a few more rows to go, then the handles!

The Monkey socks are looking good as well. I’ve turned the heel on the first sock and started the foot.

I joined a second ball on the Truly Tasha's shawl- it doesn’t look like I’ve made a ton of progress, but I’m definitely moving on it.

Last but not least, I cast on last night for my mother’s birthday gift, a pair of Café Au Lait Mitts. I've just finished knitting the thumb gusset:

This is part of Tami’s Amis WIP Wednesday. Take a look to see what everyone else is working on!

FO: Fetching Mitts

I wanted to make something for Napoleon’s owner, too, and a nice pair of cabled mitts to match Po’s coat seemed like a perfect gift. I settled on the Fetching mitts from Knitty. They have just enough cables to be interesting without over-doing it.

Cascade 220 Superwash is so soft and such a pleasure to knit with. I enjoyed making these mitts so much. They also knit up super-fast- I think I finished them in three days total. The pattern was really easy to follow, and it had a couple of new techniques that I had never used before. When I’ve knit mitts in the past, I’ve knit the gusset for the thumb as I’ve knitted or I’ve put those stitches on waste yarn to hold later. Instead of doing this, the Fetching pattern has you actually knit the waste yarn into the pattern. Basically, you knit a tube, then go back later, pull out the waste yarn, pick up the resulting live stitches, and knit the thumb. Suddenly, you go from having a tube to having a glove. It’s like magic (although not as much magic as turning a heel)!

The picot edging was also new for me. It’s one of those nice little features that never would have even occurred to me to use, had I been designing the mitt, but it really adds something to the finished object. It was really easy and fun to do, too!

Pattern: Fetching

Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash

Needles: US4

The Verdict: I love the way these turned out. They were quick and easy, yet such a fantastic finished object. I definitely want to make another pair!

FO: Cabled Mitts

I finished these in August and never really got around to posting them here (Whoops!) I wanted to knit a nice pair of fingerless mitts for my August Color Swap partner- as you can see, the color of the month was Blue (one of my favorites!) I chose a cabled pattern for a little more interest than your basic, stockinette or ribbed mitts. They knit up really quickly, and fit nicely.

Pattern: Valentine Mitts

Yarn: Lion Brand Wool-Ease

Colorway: Blue Heather

Needles: US 6 DPNs

The Verdict: I like them! I don't know if I'll be knitting this pattern again (there are so many great fingerless mitt patterns out there, and I'd like to try them all), but I'd call this pair a success.

FO: Celestial Mitts

Way back in January, I won a Dye Dreams Celestial Mitt Kit from The Martha's Vineyard Fiber Farm Blog. I finally got these gorgeous fingerless mitts all knit up.

I loved working with this yarn. It's a blend of Alpaca, Merino Wool, and Silk, and is absolutely heavenly. It's not splitty at all, and it frogs well. I'll definitely be buying this yarn again; however, I'm going to have to wait a bit until I manage to actually get a job and have money to spend on nice luxury yarns. If only someone would pay me to knit…

The pattern was great for the right mitt. After I wove in all of the loose ends and tried on the left mitt, however, I realized that the thumb gusset (which I had knit exactly where the pattern told me to) was in the wrong place, making the cabled panel off-center. I had tried on the right mitt before weaving in the ends, and figured that since that one worked, the left one should too- I need to stop making assumptions, apparently. Look at that cable pulling way towards the thumb:

Luckily, I had enough yarn left over (this was a fairly generous amount for the gloves) to knit a third mitt. On this third one, instead of putting the thumb at three stitches into the round, I instead put it one stitch before the end- and it was perfect. Look how much more centered it is:

Overall, I'm very happy with the finished product. Although I have to say that I was frustrated with the thumb problem for the left mitt, they knit up so fast and the yarn was so yummy that I didn't mind making an extra one too much. I loved the cables- turning them in towards each other was a nice touch in the pattern, and because there are only two cables (as opposed to cables all the way around), they aren't a pain to do. And aren't they pretty?