Et par tvangsvanter - og mit første garn

Endnu et færdigt projekt her i januar - et par bittesmå vanter af moskusuld til babyen, der snart ankommer:

Der var simpelthen ingen vej udenom, for min kære moder helmede bare ikke:
- "Hvordan skal den holde hænderne varme på vej hjem fra hospitalet???"

I finally succumbed to my dear mother's unrelenting pressure and knit a pair of tiny mittens out of quiviut, so the baby, due very soon, can keep its hands warm on the way home from the hospital.

Og så er jeg blevet færdig med mit allerførste håndspundne garn, her i helt ubarmhjertigt nærbillede, så man virkelig kan se hvad der foregår:

Det lider noget under at fremskridtet faktisk var enormt fra spindingen af den første til den anden enkelttråd. Den første var alt for snoet, og man kan faktisk se flere steder, hvor den bare sidder i en stor snoet kage uden at være tvundet sammen med anden tråd. Nå, men det næste jeg er i gang med at spinde ser faktisk allerede meget bedre ud.

My first handspun suffers from all kinds of... imperfections. It's only going to improve from here!

After a Long Battle: Mermaid Mittens Finished

This project was a battle at times. It started as my X-mas present to the women in the family - 2 skeins of Koigu each. This turned out to be a strategic move, as it is less bad to suffer together.
Actually I am really happy with the result, so let's not overdo the suffering part:I knitted tightly on 2.25 mm needles (a bit hard on the hands) and followed The Yarn Owl's instructions for thumb gusset and fingers, which worked out perfectly after switching left and right to their meaningful places in the instructions. But that's OK, I also still have problems with those words myself.
I made a tubular cast-on with these instructions, works beautifully for this project, but did give rise to one problem - I wanted the bind-off to be 1) identical and 2) invisible. This is where the project hibernated a bit, but after some practice rounds with these instructions, I did pull myself together and got it done. And I am very happy with it, the beginning and end do look very similar:

Thrummed Mittens

Last week was our official family knitting week! Inspired by Knitting Daily's thrum theme, we chose these mittens as part of the program. We bravely made the thrums (despite warnings that this can act as a gateway drug to spinning, which again can lead to a farmhouse filled with sheep, goats, and alpacas) out of roving that I have also used for my felted hat , so they go very well together:I used Yarn Forward's pattern, with quite a lot of lazy modifications instead of obtaining gauge with my random stash Harrisville Orchid Yarn:

• entire mitten knitted on 4 mm needles, so ribbing was 32 stitches and mitten 40 stitches
• 8 stitches saved for thumb
• when mitten was long enough decreased 4 stitches per round until 4 were left
• 17 stitches for thumb
  

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.