Hats and mittens

Winter was coming and so was the need for hats and mittens.

I had a lot of little balls of yarn left over from the Norge 2000 projects and this pattern also happened to have hat patterns in it so I started with a little lovely stranded hat for my little girl.

When I finished I saw that my little girl was not that little anymore. It was to small. I gave it away to a friend with a 4 months old girl, she will grow in to it.

I loved the combination of red and orange so I decided to use that for a second attempt. I casted on some extra stitches, looked for girly stitch patterns and knitted away.

The new hat was a little big, but she likes it that way, hiding behind the edge of the hat.

Then there were cold little hands. The orange yarn was almost gone, so this time off-white became the companion of red. I copied the butterfly pattern from some adult mittens I saw on the internet, 'Kotka' from this book from Eeva Haavisto.

My pattern should be much smaller, so I made a new chart in excell. I also made a pattern for the other side of the mitten and a little patterning for the thumb, but decided later on not to use that one.


The little mittens were a quick knit. I added a cord to go trough the sleeves of her winter coat and one child was prepaired for winter.

My son did not want a hat. He liked the fleece one he got in LegoLand.
What he wanted was a bigger version of his mittens from last year, the pirate mittens. These were made with sock yarn and the Norge 2000 yarn was thicker, so I figured I could use the same pattern.


I had to improvise a little with the left overs, combine some colors. The result was very well recieved. Winter could start.

Where to start

I have neglected my blog so badly, I'm surpriced it would let me in ;-)

Where to start with all the things I have done since november? Maybe I'll just start with the thing I finished most resently and work backwards.

The last thing I finished were a pair of beaded wrist warmers. I made them for myself and not only because they are pretty but with a purpose. At work my desk is next to the window and alltough the building is warm enough most of the time, my desk and things on it can be cold. Resting my wrists on the desk while using the keyboard sometimes leads to very cold hands. Just my hands, so no reason to put on a thicker sweater.
When I saw these nice wristlets on ravelry, I wanted to make a pair of my own. I took some sock yarn and ordered some beads (9/0 beads, from this shop). I got a pattern from this book: Beads knitting by Kotomi Hayashi.
The book is in Japanese, so I only used the chart and figured out the rest myself.
First to thread all the beads I needed. I used some beadwork thread to load like 20 beads on and folded an eye in it to transfer the bead on to the sock yarn. The sock yarn was to thick to use in the eye of the needle. I had to split it a little, remove part of the plies and use glue to make a nice transition. When all that was done getting the beads on was easy, but time consuming. Somewhere in the book I read 30 grams (beads? yarn?). After one evening stringing beads I was at around 18 grams of beads and desided I had enough for at least one wrist warmer. I wanted to get going with the knitting.

I started with a provisionaly cast on with 40 stitches, but that was to much, so I ripped it again and made a new start with 35 stitches. This turned out nicely. Knitting was realy easy, just knit and when the pattern asked for a bead slide a bead between the stitches. It could haven been done in a few hours, where it not that al those beads had to be slided over the yarn during the process. So I would knit a few rows and stop and spend 5 minutes sliding beads.
After 3 pattern repeats the rectangle was big enough.

I removed the provisionaly cast on, picked up the begin stitches on the other point of the circular needle and started grafting both edges together. Resulting in a beautifull seamless cilinder.
One down, one to go. More than half of the beads were still on the yarn, so no threading beads for the second wristlet. One other evening and that one was done to.

I'm very happy with the result. I will sertainly make some more, maybe in another color.

Although, there are still a lot of beads on the black yarn...

finished

The little norge 2000 top is finished.



I added a closure at the shoulder, with little bear buttons.



And luckely it stil fits.

Norge 2000 again

This spring I knitted the Norge 2000 of dale of Norway for my son. In the leavelet of the pattern there is also a pattern for a baby dress. I changed it a little for my girl.



The dress is almost done. In the picture the trims needed to be knitted, now only the butons need to be sewn on.

There were enough leftovers for a little hat, also from the Norge 2000 pattern.



Sadly it is to smal for my girl. So I gave it to a friend who's little one stil has to grow in to it.

For my girl I started a new hat with the left over orange and red.



The hat is finished and in use. I hope I remember to make a picture before it is dirty.
When there is enough time I'll try to write down how I knitted this hat.

Spinning

This summer I wanted to give spinning a try. So I bought a wheel form marktplaats, an very old wheel. I gave it some love and care. I also bougth a fleece, cleaned and washed it. Spend an evening combing and carding and spinned my first skein.



A little bit of thick and thin yarn, for a smal project. I knitted a little sheep.



The dark yarn is not homespun ;-)



The sheep shows the yarn very well I think.

The spinning on the old wheel was not easy. It is a double drive wheel, but the tension is not good to control. This made me buy an other wheel very fast. This time an old Louet.



Again some love and care needed. The attachment of the footman was replaced by some metal part that would make a lot of noise when pedalling. I replaced it with an original connector, put some vaseline here and there and it is so silent and a joy to use. This resulted in a new skein.



Stil thick and thin, but more consistent than the first one. And more yarn. Enough for a hat.



Spinning is so much fun.

Noro Shikisai

For a one skein exchange I ordered 2 different skein of yarn. The Colinette Jitterbug I used for the exchange. I knitted a nice bag out of it.



Then there was the Noro Shikisai. What to make out of it? I started of with a shawl, but had too few yards to my taste. I asked around on Ravelry and someone advised me to try Calorimetry. That was a fun knit.



When it was done my little girl wanted it to be hers. It was way to big, so I also made a smaller one.



I added a crochet flower and a bear button at the back.



And with the little left over I knitted a cozy for my cell.



That was a skein wel used.

Swallowtail

Did I blog about my swallowtail yet? Don't think so!

Begin this year I bought some yarn to make this. But I did not order the needed silke alpaca but alpace (so without the silk). I don't like the idea of cableling with the alpaca yarn, so I looked for another pattern.

I wanted to try some lace and choose the swallowtail.

I made it 5 repeats bigger and that was needed, it could even have been bigger.



Here it is on my lovely harmony needles, of which I broke one in the process. Not during the knitting, but when leaning on it while getting of the sofa. It was kindly replaced by Yvon of Storm op Zolder.
It only took 1.5 skein, so it is so light.



Now to think about something to knit with the other 11 skeins of alpaca.