Tuesday, November 21, 2006

My Mittens are Finished!

Yay!  I finally managed to finish my mittens.  Here they are:





And here is my entire matching set:





Mittens are so complicated (at least for me)!  Since I almost never need mittens I doubt I'll be knitting more any time soon.  The instructions I used were from HJS Studio's website - they call it their Generic Mitten Pattern (scroll down 1/3 of the page to see it).    This is another pattern like the hat where you use your measurements and your gauge (stiches per inch) to knit - they do not tell you exactly how many stitches and rows to knit.  I like this type of instruction because it makes it easier to use whichever type of yarn and size needles I want. 

While I was knitting the mittens I also knitted a simple scarf for my father:





This scarf was knitted following the same Loopy Garter Stitch pattern used with my previous scarf.  Since it is for my dad, I knitted 12 stitches per row instead of 10 to make it wider and made it 6 feet long instead of five.  I also used a different style of yarn (Lion Brand Homespun in Colonial).  This yarn was less bulky than the Red Heart Light and Lofty yarn I used with the first scarf.  I started out knitting with only one strand of the Homespun yarn but I found that with the size 15 needles I was using this was going to leave big holes in the scarf.  I ended up getting another ball of the same yarn and knitting with two strands of yarn held together throughout.

I'm now working on a baby blanket for a friend who is expecting.  It will probably take me all of Thanksgiving vacation to finish.  Next I'm thinking of making some kind of knitting bag - I'm getting tired of chasing yarn, needles, and other knitting bits around the house.