Twice as Nice

A little less than a year ago, I decided to tackle a pair of Northman Mittens as my Knitting Olympics project. They were a resounding success.

So much of a success that I almost immediately decided that I needed to knit a “reverse colorway” pair with the leftovers.


I cast on during the Family Reunion trip between Christmas and New Year’s. And then discovered that my gauge was WAY off. So I ripped out and started again with a larger needle. Totally worth it.


The pattern is so intuitive and well-written that I would recommend it for anyone, even fair isle beginners. With the dark blue on the beginning cuff, it’s difficult to see the braid at the start. Sorry about that, but it was really freakin’ cold out on Saturday when I was taking these pictures.


Having now knit this pattern twice, I still won’t rule out doing it again. These mittens have made me a big fan of Ultra Alpaca, and in a surprising change of events, a new devotee of Blue Sky Alpaca’s Brushed Suri.


When I finished my Knitting Olympics pair and shared my blog posts with David, the designer, he suggested lining The Sequel with the Brushed Suri. I finished these mittens at Hurricane Knitters on Wednesday night, and it was unanimous. If you put on the old pair first, they were very nice (lined with Blue Sky Melange). But then you put on the new pair with the Brushed Suri liners and …


… Heaven. Seriously. I can’t even tell you how nice they feel. And I’d say I only used about ¾ of the skein. Yes, I have seriously small hands, but still. Plenty in a single skein of the Brushed Suri for two liners.


Again, the little details really make these mittens. The colorwork on the thumb flows perfectly with both the front and back of the mittens, as you see above.


Now, my biggest problem is going to be deciding which pair to wear!

Northman Mittens, The Sequel

Pattern: Northman Mittens by David Schulz (Ravelry paid download)
Yarn: Berroco Ultra Alpaca in Navy and Light Blue
Blue Sky Alpacas Brushed Suri in Acai
Quantity: Leftovers of the Ultra Alpaca with enough left over that I wasn’t nervous about running out. Roughly ¾ skein of the Brushed Suri
Needles: US 5/3.75mm throughout. Magic Looped with KnitPicks Options
Started: 27 Dec 2010, ripped and re-started 5 Jan 2011
Finished: 19 January 2011
Mods: None. The pattern remains perfect.

WiP Wednesday

We spent a goodly chunk of Tuesday evening plotting some home improvement, so I do not quite have a finished pair of Northman Mittens, The Sequel to show you. I’m just a liner-thumb away from being finished. So close, yet so far away!


I knit a round on the Musique socks, but that’s hardly worthy of new photo. I would have knit more on Saturday, but I couldn’t tear my attention away from the game. They’ll jump up a rung or so in the near future.

I will show you the next project to get back into the rotation. It’s a test knit I did for the wonderful and talented Susan Pandorf, and it’s a garter mosaic scarf. This un-named pattern could be part of her LOTR series, at least that’s CelticQueen’s guess. It has a really cool knit edging, then you drop stitches for the fringe and pick up and knit the mosaic. I’m one repeat in on the body of the scarf. And yes, I got Susan’s permission before I gave you this peek. It will most likely replace my Northman’s Mittens in the rotation.


I got one more mug rug done on the loom. I’m definitely improving and have high hopes that I’ll be cooking with gas when it’s time to do my rep weave placemats.


I’m doing better with writing deadlines vs. free time this week, but there is certainly still room for improvement. Here’s hoping I keep getting better at balancing my time. I’m lucky to be in a position that the freelancing is working and I’d like to keep this system going.

And maybe, next week, I’ll have a little quilting to show you!

WiP Wednesday

Northman Mittens, The Sequel are zipping right along. After taking the picture last week, I frogged the entire first mitten and started over on a US 5. Much better, although I’ll certainly be doing some stretching during the blocking process!


As you can see, I’m into the decrease section atop the second mitten. If I time-manage well today, I could be blocking by this evening. Fingers crossed!

However, because my time management kinda sucks lately, the loom is still sitting patiently in a corner waiting for the next project.


Maybe I can get it warped on Sunday. I can hope!

WiP Wednesday

With 2010 in the rear-view mirror (wrap-up post to come tomorrow. It’s already pre-posted, linked to the hilt and scheduled to appear in this spot tomorrow morning), here’s a little peek at what I’ve been working on.

Hubster and I plan to take down the Christmas tree on Sunday (first tree pick-up in our neighborhood isn’t until the 15th, so there’s no rush), and I already have a warp measured and chained, all ready to go on the loom once it’s out of the corner.


It’s a kit for Mug Rugs I got from the Yarn Barn of Kansas in order to participate in a rep weave Group Weave-A-Long as part of the Warped Weavers group on Ravelry. Oh, and if you have no idea what rep weave is, it will create a warp faced fabric (you can’t see the weft – left-to-right – yarn at all, just the lengthwise warp threads that are very densely sett). Eh, it will make more sense once you start seeing in-progress photos. I’m planning a set of placemats once I finish the mug mats.

In other news, there has been a little more knitting!


The first of Northman Mitten Pair #2 is coming along nicely. I split for the thumb last night and if not for this pesky freelancing gig (I kid. It’s a great turn of events and I have no complaints other than my own time management) I’d be zipping right along.

Sadly, when I flipped the mitten right-side out for its photo shoot this morning, I noticed it was really snug. So as pretty as this looks, it’s headed for the frog pond. Oh well. I’ll start it over tonight at knit night!

Olympic Update: Day 12

I had exactly the kind of weekend that I needed, and I cranked on my mittens.


It looks like I’m done, doesn’t it? But I’m not. See how the mitten on the right is curling a little on the bottom and the one on the left isn’t? What you also can’t see in the photo is that the mitten on the left is narrower and a lot thicker than the one on the right. Why?


One liner finished, one to go! Friday is pretty much my only knitting time for the remainder of the Olympics, but I’m hopeful that I can finish in time. But I’m not going to finish with a lot of time to spare.

So yeah, I picked my project wisely. Challenge to finish, but not crazy-making. Thanks for the reassurance on project selection, and if you are participating in the Knitting Olympics, I hope your project is going as well as mine!

On a different note, thanks for your kind words about my friend Carol. I think all of last week's posts were skipped by most feed readers, so I was hoping at least that one would "catch."

O Canada

First of all, my WiP Wednesday post seems to have been skipped by several friendly neighborhood feed readers. Including the one I use. So if you want to see what my Northman Mittens looked like two days ago, go here and check it out.

Meanwhile, you guys know that Roxanne at Zen Yarn Garden is my very favorite yarn pusher. Since she lives in the host country of the current Olympics, I figured showing you a little more of her yarn would be a good mid-Games post.

After I got my December Cashmere a la Carte shipment and saw the spoiler photos of the “cool” color, I decided I could find a little room in the yarn budget for the other color in this yarn.


Once again, it’s Roxanne’s “Serenity Worsted” base, which is 80% superwash merino, 10% cashmere ant 10% nylon. It’s a double skein, 400 yards.


Again, cashmere content, so very yummy. Colorway name is Ice Blue. No clue what I’m going to make with it. But again, something that will go next to the skin.


I got some good work done on the mittens at Hurricane Knitters on Wednesday night, and yesterday (Thursday) was a total wash. Since taking these pictures, I’ve gotten to where the decreases are scheduled to begin. But I’m second-guessing whether or not that will make an appropriately-sized mitten. (ETA: Lifelines are good. I’ll forge along and see what happens)

So at the mid-point of Day 7 of the Games, here’s where I stand:



I’m really behind. I’m going to lose Wednesday night, Thursday night and all of next weekend (the last two days of the Games) If I can get some good work done tonight and Sunday, I’ll probably be OK. I’m also wondering if, although I’m getting gauge, I’m knitting too small. GAH.

Well, back to the grindstone. Have a great weekend!

Warm Paws

I had been wanting to try colorwork for quite a while. When I started browsing the “Critter Comforts” section in the Winter 2008 Twist Collective, I was pretty sure I had found a great first colorwork project. I think I was right.

Michelle at Bloomin is responsible for those pansies. NOT me.

I started these mittens just before Thanksgiving. They also feature my first-ever knitted hem! I did a provisional cast-on for both mittens, it only unzipped properly on the second mitten, thanks to a Lucy Neatby YouTube video.

They had several stops-and-starts between other projects. They were my Super Bowl project, and I had to tink about two rounds that I knit (incorrectly) during the last minute of the game. But that's OK. I'll take it.

Thanks to CelticQueen for modeling my mittens, since it’s very hard to take pictures of your own hands.

I got a little confused with the decrease instructions on the chart for the mittens. You have to “steal a stitch” from the previous half-round each time you do a double decrease. I figured it out, but not before a few false starts on decreases for the first mitten.

I like the checkerboard pattern on the underside of the thumbs, showing here.

I did do a gauge swatch, but I wound up tighter than I should have been anyway. As a result, they are just barely big enough for my small paws. I’m hoping these mittens loosen up a bit with a good soaking/blocking, but if they don’t they might be a gift for my sister-in-law. And that’s OK too.

Postwar Mittens

Pattern: Postwar Mittens by Mary Ann Stephens
Source: Twist Collective, Winter 2008
Size: one size
Yarn: Dale of Norway Baby Ull in blue, black and white
Source: Bloomin Yarns
Needles: US 2/2.75mm Hiya Hiya (2-16” circs)
Started: 23 November 2008
Finished: 16 May 2009
Mods: None
Ravelry Project Link