A New, More Exciting Pair of Mittens

I finished reworking Irish Moss. I added two pattern repeats, which will make it about 4 inches longer and tightened up the neck a little bit. I'm blocking it now. While it's taking it's own sweet time to dry I started a pair of snowfling mitts.  I just bought the pattern although the wool looks gorgeous and I may have to buy a kit for the mittens or maybe for the Four Seasons hat.

The pattern calls for DK weight for the mittens and fingering weight for the lining. This is what I found at my LYS.

The pink and the white are Sublime baby cashmere merino silk DK. The teal is ONline Linie 33 Cosmo, which is a cashmere/merino blend fingering weight. I dropped a needle size so they'd be smaller but I think I'm going to rip them and use a larger needle. They fit now but they'll be too small when they're lined.

 I have very small hands and was concerned that they'd be too big even if I used a smaller needle so I also bought 3 skeins of the ONline Linie 33 Cosmo for a second pair.

Still Avoiding Point Arena

I used my random skein 0f Sheep Shop Yarn Company Sheep 3 yarn (what an incredibly awkward name. It doesn't really abbreviate to anything; Sheep Shop, I guess) to knit a pair of socks.

This is a wool/silk blend and therefore isn't very durable, so these are sleeping socks. Or sit-around-and-watch-tv-while-knitting socks. Lounging socks. Let's go with that. I also made a pair of really uninspired mittens to go with my Kittiwake hat. I considered putting the Kittiwake cables on them, but there are two sets of decrease 4 in there with no matching increase and I couldn't figure out an easy way  to maintain the stitch count and I wanted to finish them up so I could start a new, more exciting pair of mittens. But before I do that, I have to finish reworking Irish Moss. I took it apart and am about 1/3 done with knitting the additional length. With any luck, I'll be able to put it back together this weekend and then I can get back to not working on Point Arena.

Avoiding Point Arena

I decided to take a little break from Point Arena and do a couple of small projects that would use up some of my stash.

This is Kittiwake from the reprint of Aran Knitting. I have 4 skeins of Scottish Fleet in Sea Green. I need a hat and this goes nicely with my plaid scarf and brown coat so I'm using up some of my stash and looking coordinated.  The pattern calls for two skeins but I used very little of the second skein. There was enough left over to make a pair of mittens so I am very coordinated.

I made some minor modifications to the pattern, which called for p2tog on the first two stitches and also on the last two stitches on 4 rows of the second chart but doing two p2tog next to each other was creating dimples so I did a p2tog at the beginning of the chart for rows 3, 9, 15 and 21 and a p2tog  on the last two stitches of the chart for rows 6, 12, 18 and 24 instead.  I also did a series of 3 needle bindoffs for the last 24 stitches. The pattern calls for drawing the yarn through the remaining 24 stitches and fastening off but I couldn't close the hole without pulling the yarn so tight I was afraid it would snap so I did a series of 3 needle bindoffs, pulled the braid through the hole that remained and then tightened everything up and secured the tassle.

I've got two skeins left, which I'll use eventually for a pair of socks.

Scarf and Mittens

I ordered a kit for the Birdsfoot scarf in Lapwing from Virtual Yarns but couldn't make the gauge work. The scarf would have been too wide or too tightly knit. Either way, the scarf would have been about 18" shorter than I wanted so I used the yarn to make a scarf using a simple lace stitch.

Nothing fancy; I was fed up with the whole project and just wanted it done. I have no idea what this stitch is called. I copied it from a sweater I bought.

I also made a pair of Komi mittens using the Hebridean 2-ply in Kelpie (navy), Lapwing (teal), Shearwater (blue) and Bog Bean (green).

I have more of all four colors and will eventually make a pair of fingerless gloves with Kelpie. I have some ideas on how to make working the fingers easier but for now I'm supposed to be working on Point Arena. As for the Birdsfoot pattern, I think it's better suited to a dk weight yarn.

Gloves

I figured it was about time I learn how to make a decent pair of gloves. So I started with a very basic pair.

These are Hebridean 2-ply in Lapwing on 2.25s. They have a wide gusset on the side so both gloves are exactly the same. Then I made these:

These are Hebridean 2-ply in Lapwing, Shearwater and Bogbean in a slip stitch pattern with a 4 stitch repeat:

row 1: k1, p1, s1, p1
row 2: k1, s1, p1, s1

with a color sequence of Lapwing, Bogbean, Lapwing, Shearwater. These have a wide gusset on the palm, so there's a left and a right glove.

 
Both are 64 stitches cast on. Fitwise, I prefer the thumb on the palm but both thumb placements have their advantages when it comes to design. I have two skeins of Kelpie, which will eventually be made into a pair of fingerless gloves but I lost steam after the second pair so they'll have to wait .

Irish Moss

I finished this a couple of months ago.

I don't love it. It's too short. I did 2 fewer pattern repeats than the instructions called for because it seemed so long. I have enough yarn to make it longer but that means taking it completely apart, making it longer and then putting it all back together. The "making it longer" is the easiest step. Putting it back together is tedious (it took me two weekends the first time) but I can deal with that. Getting it apart will be a nightmare. I've worn it a few times and it's shetland wool so it will have started to felt.  I am not looking forward to this but it really is too short. The sleeves are the right length, so there's that I guess.