Matt’s fingers have been suffering this winter. While I’ve been getting by just fine with my Herringbone Mittens, Matt’s gloves gave up the ghost in Japan. In their stead, he’s been trying to survive with a pair of fingerless mitts I made for him in 2006. Fingerless mitts seem to be fine when it is barely cold, but as soon as the weather even marginally resembles Winter, they are completely insufficient.

He was well overdue for a pair of knitted gloves, particularly because I’d promised to make him a pair after I made my Dad a pair of Knucks a few years ago. In what can only be described as perfect timing, just as I was starting to look for glove patterns, Ozknitter pointed me in the direction of a nifty mitten pattern that would do the trick.

Presto

Chango!

Podster Gloves by Glenna C.
Sock yarn from the Bendigo Woollen Mills bargain room (equivalent to Heirloom Argyle)
2.75mm needles
Start: July 2010
Finish: July 2010
Modifications: different yarn, larger needles, added rows to the thumb gusset
Ravelryed: here

The largest size offered by the pattern were for small mens’ hands, so I used 2.75mm rather than 2.5mm needles and added two more rounds to the thumb gusset. With these modifications, they fit pretty well.

By far the best part of this pattern is the podster thumb. It has a little flap so he can flick his thumb out and use his iPhone (iPhone touch screens are unresponsive to gloved fingers). The pattern calls for part of the flap to be knit separately and then attached to the thumb, but was a little unclear about how to sew it down. I ended up using a whip stitch which probably wasn’t the best option, but it’s pretty secure and the dark yarn hides a multitude of sins. The long cuff is also really good, and can be easily tucked under jumpers or jackets.

So far, they’ve been worn nearly every day since I snipped the last end off. Nothing says success than that.

Last night I discovered my table and chair was posted on Design*Sponge, which was not only a lovely surprise, but a nice way to end the working week (thanks for the heads up Debs!). If you’ve moseyed on over here on account of that post, welcome!

It was astutely pointed out last post that the blog has taken quite a sunny turn. So I don’t get people’s hopes up, here’s a dull grey jumper I finished a couple of weeks ago:

Still by Kim Hargreaves
2.75 balls of Bendigo Woollen Mills Boutique, Grey
4.00 and 3.00 mm needless
Start: May 2010
Finish: July 2010
Modifications: different yarn, smaller needles to get gauge (no lengthening required!)
Ravelryed: here

I mean dull in the nicest possible way, because I’m really happy with how this jumper turned out. The length is good, the waist shaping sits nicely and I really like the neckline. I was concerned the gathered sleeves were going to be a bit fussy for my taste, but they seemed to puff out a little less with the yarn I used. This might also be because of the sleeve cuffs, which despite my adherence to the pattern, seem a bit shorter than the version in the book.

The yarn was a limited run that came out a couple of years ago. I bought three balls almost as soon as I saw the shade card, because Bendigo Woollen Mills was, and to a certain extent still is, not known for their greys. I think the colour suits the pattern well, making it a little less girly than the book’s version, which is a pastel pink. The yarn itself is a little rough, making it a wee bit prickly, but nothing I can’t get used to. I have worn it a couple of times and it has started to pill around the sleeve cuffs. It would be preferable if it didn’t pill, but I’m one of those odd people who gets a strange sense of satisfaction from de-pilling, so it doesn’t bother me too much. It’s a jumper that will get a lot of wear.

I enjoyed reading everyone’s thoughts on the value of handcrafts. It’s a recurring issue, but one that I doubt will ever be fully resolved. It is inherently difficult to price handcrafts — as Michelle mentioned, I think there’s a tendency to price goods based on what the seller thinks the buyer will pay, rather than what’s fair compensation for materials and time taken to make the item. I did this myself in my short foray into selling knitted items. Obviously, there is no point pricing something so high that no one will purchase it. However, to me it seems pricing of handcrafts is often based on the price of its substitute, machine-made or mass produced items. Perhaps (re)education is required for both the buyers, in terms of understanding the time required to acquire a skill and produce an item, and the sellers, in terms of valuing their hard-earned skills. Having said all that, it seems like quite an over-simplification for, as mentioned before, quite a vexed issue.

Matt and I are edging ever closer to owning matching tracksuits, now that my version of Henry is finished.

Henry by Mareike Sattler
1.5 skeins of Malabrigo Worsted, Paris Night
5.50 mm circulars
Start: February 2010
Finish: June 2010
Modifications: many, listed in detail below
Ravelryed: here

While doing research into Matt’s Henry, I came across this version and knew that I would have to make a similar one for me. Because I used Malabrigo Worsted, my Henry is a lot thicker, softer and I’d argue warmer than Matt’s. That’s not to say mine is necessarily better than his, it’s just different. A good kind of different.

The pattern calls for three repeats (12 rows in total) for each diagonal section, and seven pattern repeats (the herringbone ‘v’) in total. I opted for two repeats for each diagonal section and four repeats in total. This resulted in a scarf a smidge over 12cm wide, a little bit over half the width prescribed by the pattern. I don’t think a wider scarf would work as well in worsted weight yarn as it would feel a bit too bulky around my neck.

As with Matt’s Henry, I used a cable cast on, but the cast off used for Matt’s — k2tog and slip resulting stitch back to the left needle — didn’t translate well to the heavier yarn. The closest I could get to a matching cast off was to use a modified sewn bind off. The cast on and off don’t match exactly, but I think it’s close enough. If I were to make another Henry, I would definitely swatch the cast on and off, something I neglected to do this time round.

Besides the cast on/off issue, the only minor niggle I have is the slight flare at the ends due to a slightly looser tension at the ends of the rows. It’s not too noticeable, and because I wear the scarf under my jacket, the ends aren’t generally visible anyway.

Although a few little issues created frustration at the time, I’m pretty pleased with how this one turned out. The herringbone pattern scales up well, with some minor modifications, and it is so lovely and warm — perfect for the cold weather we’ve been having.

Excluding my Tyrolean Cardigan, it has been over a month since finishing my last knitting project. There’s been lots of knitting going on, but progress has been slow. So, it is with great relief that I present my latest finished project:

Generic toe up sock pattern by Wendy Johnson
75g Bendigo Woollen Mills Classic 8ply, Raven
25g Bendigo Woollen Mills Classic 8ply, Kelp
3.75mm needles
Started: May 2010
Finished: June 2010
Ravelryed: here

As the name suggests, these socks are a belated birthday present for my Dad. Although they are late I am pretty confident he will not mind — he seems to quite like hand knit socks. In fact, this is the fourth pair of socks I have knit for him, the third with this pattern and colour combination.

The previous pairs of Dad socks were knit either using one colour only, or with contrasting ribbing, heels and toes. This time I decided to treat Dad to some stripes, using the spiralling stripe method (Ysolda has a good tutorial here). I quite like this method for knitting stripes in the round as there’s no jog to worry about. However, it did require working with a number of balls of yarn at once, which resulted in some major tangles.

This pattern is my go to for plain socks as it is very straightforward. The yarn makes nice thick socks and has the advantage of knitting up very quickly relative to convetional sock yarn. Based on previous Dad socks, it seems to wear pretty well too. The fabric is probably a bit open, so next time I will use smaller needles.

Speaking of next time, I will have to find a better foot model. There was a little bit of a goldilocks thing going on when I took the photos — Matt’s feet are a smidge too big for the socks and mine a smidge too small. I am sure Dad will appreciate me drawing comparisons between his foot size and a fairy tale character.

I’ve been a bit restless with my knitting lately. Swatches have been knit, but I don’t feel particularly drawn to any one pattern. This is a bit of a problem because it creates a small knitting vacuum; besides one secret squirrel project, I don’t really have anything on the needles, but I feel I should be doing something.

The current knitting situation seems to be a good reflection of my non-knitting life of late. I have niggling feeling, that I can’t articulate and can’t work out why it’s there. This means I can’t work out how to fix it, which starts the restlessness all over again. ‘Tis quite a frustrating cycle.

All of this started soon after finishing these knitterly morsels, and thus it’s only fair that they are blamed for this bout.

Umbilical Cord Hats by Jennifer L Jones
Small amounts of Bendigo Woollen Mills Luxury 8ply, in cream, pink and bracken
4mm needles
Started: April 2010
Finished: April 2010
Modifications: Used a lighter weight yarn, and slightly smaller needles
Ravelryed: here

A couple of the guys at work recently became fathers for the first time, which presented a prime opportunity to knit baby hats. I suspect the hats are a bit big for newborns. However, I have it on good authority that babies grow, so the size shouldn’t be too much of an issue.

The yarn, Bendigo Woollen Mills Luxury 8ply, is really good for baby knits. It’s lovely and soft to knit with, has a good range of colours and is machine washable. I think Luxury 4ply would work well with some of the vintage patterns I have earmarked as future projects.

The pattern is from Stitch n Bitch, the first knitting book I bought after starting to knit again. Although the book is really well worn, I’ve only made a couple of things from it and was recently contemplating giving it away. These hats prove that reference books should almost always be kept (my second year Business Finance text book is an exception to this rule).

If only I owned a book on how to get my knitting back on track…

Bottoms Up by Alice Bell (rav link only)
2.5 skeins Louet Euroflax Sport, Graphite
2.75mm needles
Started: January 2010
Finished: April 2010
Modifications: Knit a size smaller due to heavier weight yarn, added length to the body, used slip 1, knit 1, psso rather than knit 2 together through back of loop
Ravelryed: here

I didn’t think this top would get a wear until later this year, but because of some unseasonably hot weather down here, I wore it to work yesterday. Although it’s probably a bit more fitted than other versions out there, it was really comfortable. This bodes well for Spring/Summer.

A few modifications were made, but the length was the most important. In the pattern, the body is made up of four sections of ribbing, consisting of 40, 18, 18 and 10 rounds. After reading comments about this pattern, I knitted 60, 24, 24 and 15 rounds, respectively. This added around about 12 cm to the length of the garment but I still think it’s a tad too short on me. Short enough that I won’t be wearing it with trousers anyway; just high waisted skirts.

Length seemed to be an issue for a number of people on Ravelry who made Bottoms Up. The designer commented that it was designed for someone of average height (by american yarn standards). I’m above average height, particularly in terms of torso length, so I expect to have to add some length to almost all patterns. However, 12cm seems a lot of length to add for a garment to still be a bit short, even with my preference for slightly longer tops.

I’ve thought quite a bit about whether I’m being reasonable in my frustration, and I don’t think I am. The designer offers this pattern for free, which is very generous, and I do have a garment from it that will get a lot of wear. The instructions in the pattern are clear, it’s just the length that was an issue. Ultimately, at this stage of my knitting career, most patterns should just be treated as serving suggestions — if I need to change something to suit the recipient, then so be it.

When the yarn was last mentioned, I hadn’t started the yarn over ‘bubbles’. There are decreases each side of the yarn over, which was quite hard on my hands. The fabric itself is lovely and heavy, so while my hands will need a rest from linen, I suspect I will be working with it again. Particularly after seeing this version of Orangina. Sorry hands, you’ll just have to toughen up!

There were high hopes for a productive Easter break, with lots to blog about. In reality, I came down with a bad cold on Thursday, and have only been able to potter around in dribs and drabs for the last two and a bit days. The cold’s impeccable timing is a little frustrating, but what can you do?

Despite the reduced productivity, I managed to finish Somerset yesterday.

Somerset Cardigan by Melissa Wehrle
Around 6 balls of Cleckheaton Angora Supreme
3.25mm and 3.5mm needles
Started: December 2009
Finished: April 2010
Modifications: Smaller needles, added length to the body and an extra buttonhole, made the collar narrower
Ravelryed: here

Although a few modifications were made (which were largely to do with gauge) it’s a nice straightforward knit. The end product is maybe a little big around the shoulders, but it’s still quite wearable. I might need to work on smoothing out the collar edge a bit more, but it’s looking a lot better now than it did when it was first finished:

The yarn created a very soft and warm fabric and I think it worked well with the pattern. It did tend to break if I was a bit rough with it though, and being an angora blend, it sheds like no one’s business. It was particularly nice to find a use for the yarn as I purchased it over five years ago. I originally intended to use it for a pattern that called for 4 ply angora yarn. As Angora Supreme is around 10 ply, the initial swatches required 2mm needles in order to get even close to the required gauge. My sanity and fingers are very glad that project didn’t get past swatching.

The real star in this project is the buttons. Without venturing too far down hyperbole lane, I think these buttons are truly things of beauty and match the cardigan really well. They were purchased from Buttonmania, a button wonderland in Melbourne CBD. The buttons were purchased by the owner of Buttonmania in a collection of 33,000 (yep, thousand) buttons. She showed a lot more restraint than I in that situation; I’d be sorely temped to dig a pit, empty the buttons into it, and dive in, Scrooge McDuck style.

On an unrelated note, it was a relief to read that I’m not the only one that dislikes ribbing. I felt a bit guilty being so negative in my last post; it’s not reasonable to think that I’d like absolutely every aspect of knitting, but I still felt bad whinging about something I do for enjoyment.

Once upon a time, I had a little idea that combined two things I’m interested in; video games and vintage home furnishings/decor. This idea percolated in my mind for years until Matt gave me all the things I needed to turn my idea into a tangible object.

My Duck Hunt flying ducks have sat finished for a bit over a year now, but didn’t post them because I thought people might think them a bit naff. I’m obviously over that now (it’s my blog dang it, I’ll post what I want to!).

Once the images were scaled, they weren’t difficult to put together. In fact, the trickiest part of the process was making sure all the beads had melted together. I don’t have the best iron which probably didn’t help matters.

Unfortunately my ducks’ current location is flat on a mantlepiece as finding a good way to get them up on the walls has been surprisingly difficult. The ducks are pretty delicate so falling off the walls would not be good at all. Another challenge was finding a spot to take these photos, as it seems the walls here are riddled with picture hooks.

The biggest motivation for posting this project is because its one of those projects that I should have done ages ago, a recurring theme on this blog. This year I’d like to try a few more of those types of projects, ones that don’t necessarily take up that much time, but always get set aside for one reason or another.

The first finished object for this year, with photos taken with the first of this season’s tomato crop during the first heatwave for the year.

Herringbone Mittens with Poms (PDF) by Elli Stubenrauch
Scraps of Malabrigo Worsted, American Beauty and Lincraft Balmoral Tweed, fawny colour
3.75 mm and 4.00mm needles
Started: December 2009
Finished: January 2010
Modifcations: lengthened hand and thumb sections, left off the pompom
Ravelryed here

To anyone who saw the photos being taken today, they must have wondered what on earth that girl was doing, wearing mittens and toting tomatoes when it’s hot outside. These photos make up for any slippage in our standing around the neighbourhood, right?

Given the weather, it might be surprising to know these mittens were borne out of necessity. It seems I don’t have that much in the way of proper winter clothes, an issue that will become most apparent when we’re in Japan next month (!!!). The mittens, while not solving all the winter wardrobe deficiencies, will hopefully keep the winter chill off my fingers somewhat.

It pleases me greatly that the mittens were made from yarn left over from other projects. I was concerned about whether I’d have enough yarn for the mittens, and whether the yarns would go together, but both concerns were completely ill-founded. There is still some Malabrigo left, and the yarns worked up together really well. Using the Malabrigo at the edge of the cuff might not have been the wisest choice, as I suspect it’ll pill or even felt a bit.

There’s been a noticeable slow down in knitting on account of the warmer weather. So much so that it took a concerted effort to get the thumbs finished and ends woven in and I’ve been contemplating doing some sewing instead of knitting. The horror!

It’s impossible to leave the last finished object for 2009 go unblogged. Victory is finished!

Your Victory Jumper by Home Notes (via the Victoria and Albert Museum)
2.5 balls grey Grignasco Bambi, 1.5 balls royal blue and 0.5 balls cream
2.75 mm and 3.25mm needles
Started: June 2009
Finished: December 2009
Modifcations: lengthened and added another repeat, stitch wise, to the body
Ravelryed here

If you heard strains of The Halleujah Chorus floating on the breeze sometime last Sunday, it was likely coming from me as Victory was unpinned from the blocking board. It was not so much the relief of finishing, but the excitement that she could finally be worn. I already love it to bits.

The lace pattern came out really nice and crisply with the yarn, and although I opted for a non-patriotic colour combination (the pattern was published in England just after VE Day, and recommended the use of blue, red and white yarn), I’m quite pleased with how well the grey, blue and cream worked together.

I found the sleeve’s shoulder cap construction a bit strange, in that there was no cast off at the armpit, just a gentle decrease from there to the top of the shoulder. This did make it a little difficult when seaming but the sleeve and body stripes match up, so I’m happy.

If you are interested in WWII era knitting patterns, it’s worth looking at the collection hosted on the Victoria and Albert Museum’s website. I tend to think Victory is the pick of the bunch, but there are some other nice patterns on there that I’d consider making down the track, once my pattern queue and stash has diminished significantly.