Tower Bridge Mitts

Finally, I've gotten the next pattern in the Southwark Collection finished and available.

These mitts are the perfect project for that special skein of luxury yarn you've been saving for a rainy day. Knit up with under 175 yds of fingering or sport weight yarn, these mitts are the thing to slip on for a cold March day, or to add an extra layer of warmth in February when the boiler is acting up.

The size is adjusted by changing the needle size and/or yarn weight. The teal mitts shown above were knit with 1 skein of Blue Sky Alpacas Alpaca & Silk (size medium), and the variegated pair below were knit with 1 skein of Indie Dyer 100% Superwash Fingering Merino (size large).

Many thanks to Knitapotamus, knucna, lindseylou, Mistydawn, oddbird26, phoenixblue and vshawn7, my intrepid test knitters from the Ravelry Free Pattern Testers group.You can see some of their projects on the TB Mitts project page here (Ravelry link).

I'm hoping to have the last pattern in the collection out to testers by the end of January, which would get it out probably around the end of February. Stay tuned.

FO: Handspun Northman Mittens

I can't remember if I did this last year or not (I don't think I did), but this year I've decided that, in the face of just over three weeks to Christmas, and a lot of gift knitting that must be done, thereby obliterating any other potential blog fodder, I am going to do the FO posts as the Os are Fd (so to speak). Otherwise I'll be forced to post a picture of my narrow escape from Sleeve Island and that will stay at the top of the blog for the next few weeks. And that's not what any of you want to see - grey cables are not very interesting photo montage material. So without further ado...Present #1 (that I'm blogging about in December - some of the others have already been mentioned and won't be revisited).

Pattern: Northman Mittens by David Schulz of Southern Cross Fibre fame
Yarn: For the outer mitts - handspun pencil roving from Artisan Threads, in natural white and naturally dyed teal, approximately 135 yds teal and 80 yds white. Also some handspun brown BFL for the cuffs, left over from the Norwegian Snail Mitten extravaganza last year - no idea how many yards. For the lining - 120 yds of handspun BFL singles that were dyed by me with Burgundy Jacquard Acid dye.
Needles: US 4/3.5 mm for outer mitten, US 5/3.75 mm for lining.
Gauge: Outer mitten: 6 sts/inch, lining: 5 sts/inch.
Start/finish: 28 October - 29 November 2010. They would have been done faster, but I had a wait of about a week and a half while I tried to get some more teal pencil roving, and then I had to spin and dye the lining yarn.

Comments/mods: Let's start with modifications: besides using handspun instead of commercial yarn, absolutely none. This pattern was a joy from start to finish - well written, nicely laid out, with gorgeous pictures and fantastic charts.

I like the purled cuff quite a lot - using two strands of yarn for alternate purl stitches creates an interesting texture. The pencil roving had a bit of lanolin left in it, and the rustic yarn made for a slightly scratchy outer mitten, but the lining solved the itch factor. And Gill at Artisan Threads was very helpful in procuring me another ball of the teal roving when I ran out (I may have even gotten some more of the white roving too. Just to have on hand, you know).

I really like the lines and patterning on the thumb gusset.

I even managed to remember to switch charts for the left and right mitten, so the amount of swearing involved in the completion of this project was greatly reduced.

For the lining, I spun a singles yarn because I thought that some feltability might be a good thing for mitten lining. And the Spintelligence Fibre Club has me in a singles spinning mode these days. This yarn was spun at 6.25:1 and soaked in hot water until it cooled (overnight). It then went in the dye crockpot with a 2 DOS burgundy dye solution (volume dye/weight of fiber) for a couple of hours. I let that cool overnight, and the dye bath was largely exhausted the next morning.

The BFL made for a soft and squishy lining, and my inability to loosely tie my skeins led to a Malabrigo-esque kettle dye job. Result! So these are destined for some lucky someone somewhere with cold hands. Any one want to predict who? There might be a prize in it...

Southwark Collection Part 3: Tower Bridge Mitts

The third pattern in the collection is actually the first one that I knit, now almost two years ago.

When we came over to find a place to live a couple of springs ago, I spent one day down near London Bridge wandering about. It was one of those grey days that is gloomy and raw, and then suddenly the sun peaks through the clouds and highlights something - that something happened to be Tower Bridge.

I promptly went home and knit up a pair of fingerless mitts using a stitch pattern that reminded me of the bridge.

I can't really explain what the resemblance was/is, but there you have it. The first pair were knit in a fingering weight yarn (multicolored version) and the second pair are in Blue Sky Alpacas Alpaca Silk. The pattern is just about ready to go out to testers, so I'm hoping to get it released soon. Shard should be out in the immediate future, since it's now with test knitters. Gherkin is about to undergo a major redesign, so maybe before Christmas, but I'm not holding my breath. That can be a post-Christmas knit for everyone to cast-on their new yarn.

Nana cheated

She opened her birthday present early. Of course, we were talking on Skype, and she did ask me if it was ok. After ascertaining that it was cold enough in the mornings to need some hand covering when she walks the dog, I said it was ok.

Pattern: Triskele Mittens by Violet Green
Yarn: Knit Picks Palette in Rainforest Heather and some unknown color of Jamesons Spindrift taken off of knitlet's hands in a stash swap back in Houston. Maybe 1/3 of a ball of the Palette and 25 gr of Spindrift? Not sure, but not much yarn at all.
Needles: US 2/2.75 mm bamboo dpns
Start/finish: 5 Sept - 13 Sept 2010
Comments/mods: A really nice pattern - reasonably quick for colorwork, and interesting enough to take some attention. I could work on them while watching TV as long as I didn't need to pay attention to every second of whatever was on (or even most seconds). I used fingering weight yarn instead of the DK weight indicated in the pattern. But Mom has small hands, so that worked out ok - I could get them on, but there wasn't any extra room in there.

I love the wavy palms, and the mirroring of the pattern in the left and right mittens.

Now that these are done, I'm ready to jump in to another pair of colorwork mittens, only this time with handspun. Yee haw!

FO: Ply by Night cowl and mitt set

Pattern: cowl blogged here, mitts just made up out of my head using linen stitch and more or less the same made up pattern I used for the manly mitts.
Yarn: handspun BFL singles from Chris at Briar Rose Fibers, blogged here in its final form. I used about 3/4 of the yarn, lets say 180 yds for the pair.
Needles: US 5/3.75 mm
Start/finish (for mitts): 12 December - 14 December 2009
Comments: No mods because it's my own pattern. I cast-on 47 stitches and worked in linen stitch pattern for 2 inches. Then I increased one stitch at beginning and end of row (2 sts increased) every third row five times, working new stitches in pattern. worked for about 2 more inches, then put 10 extra stitches on waste yarn, rejoined and worked 2 inches. Bound off in purl. Picked up 10 extra stitches plus 3 more and worked in linen stitch for 0.75 inches around the thumb, then bound off in purl.

Thankfully my mom's hands aren't too big, because the linen stitch has very little elasticity. But the set was very well received!