Sooo proud of myself

Look at this:



Wow! It's a swatch. First time I both 1) made a swatch 2) washed it before measuring!!!
I know. 1) should be automatic and actually 2) should, too. But for me it took some unexpected happenings with the gauge of my forecast cardigan when I washed it, to actually start doing this.
The wonderful swatch is for Sukkertrøjen, designed by Marianne Isager. It is knitted with half Tvinni and half Spinni Alpaca (50% wool, 50% alpaca), both from Henrichsens Uldspinderi. I went on another trip to their factory outlet, and I promise I bought almost nothing there and it was very cheap...

Hat and mittens, done!

Finally! Hat and mittens are done:The mittens have a braided string (70 cm, hope it is long enough) between them, in theory rendering them impossible to loose. The hat has a picked-up edge around the face, picked up through both knitted layers and sown to the inside:
The verdict: the set turned out quite cute in the end. Very fluffy, warm, soft. I wish I had a (much) smaller head.

Baby mittens, as promised

Here's the story about the mittens. A never-ending story, I am tempted to add.
To at least have the feeling that the end is in sight, I decided to knit both at the same time (also improves chances that they will have similar size). Here are the cuffs: white rib for the inside, sage stockinette for the outside:I then picked up stiches at the lower edge, folded the cuff, knitting the two parts together and continuing with the outside (in white). Each mitten is asymmetric, and they are of course mirror images, so a bit of brain activity on the way... and even more fun when I picked up stiches on the inside and knitted the cotton lining which is of course the mirror image of the outside. And they say women's brains are useless for spatial tasks! Here are the mittens in their near-complete stage: the left one only knitted (and seen inside-out), the right one with the lining sown (and seen outside-out):

Baby hat and mittens

This is the hat and pair of mittens I am making for Iris aka "the Worm" as a peace offering. The design is by Birgit Østergaard for Marianne Isager. The main color is a white Tvinni Tussah (merino wool/silk), with a sage green contrast of Tvinni (wool). Hat and mittens are lined with sage green mercerized cotton.
The hat is knitted in one piece, starting with the rib around the neck, then a stockinette piece for the head. There is a contrast stripe on top. Then, the stitches for the lining are picked up on the inside (of course with the wrong sides facing each other), and the lining knitted in stockinette to the same length as the outside. I finished both inside and outside with 3-needle bind-offs. Here is the hat seen from the side:

I'll pick up stitches in both outside and lining, and knit an edge in sage wool that will surround the face (the lower edge in the picture).

The outside is wonderfully soft, and with the lining, the whole hat is very warm and fluffy. But I have to say this is some of the most boring knitting I have ever done. It just went on and on. On 3 mm needles with this thin yarn (100 g/3.5 oz is 510 m/558 yd), the number of stitches was maybe the same as in an adult sweater. So Iris, we are more than even now!!

About the mittens in the next post.