Knitting: Fish Scale or Stained Glass Mittens

Another iteration of my mother-in-law's popular is called Fish Scale Mittens.  I found the pattern online.  I was so thrilled with the way these came out.

My view on mittens is that they must be made of pure wool. I frequently choose Paton's Classic Wool since it is lovely and soft. It is also easy to knit up.

This grandson's current favorite color is orange.  The local Joann store did not have orange Paton's Classic Wool so I dyed some natural Classic Wool.  I used a Dylon dye which did not make a very vibrant orange but I thought it was still okay.  Another day I will discuss that process.

These are the mittens I knitted using Paton's Classic Wool in both Harvest color and the hand-dyed light orange.

Knitting: Mittens!

Another knitting project finished:  mittens for oldest grandson.

Years ago my mother-in-law made wonderful mittens for our children.  They were speckled mittens quite often, with two colors on the hands with alternating stitches. This makes a nice thick warm mitten.  I found the same pattern called Fish Scale Mittens on Ravelry, a free download. 

There are a few measurements to take if you would like them to fit nicely:

Wrist to end of longest finger
Thumb bone to end of thumb
Distance across widest part of hand (to help you choose size....these were the smallest size, casting on 40 stitches)

For this pair I used US size 5 needles and US size 6 needles.  When I make them for adults next time I will use size 5 and size 7.  Also I will use double pointed needles for the whole mitten.  Well, maybe not for the cuff, but for the rest of the mittens.  On these I use two circular needles to cast on and knitted the cuff and up to the afterthought thumb stitches then switched to dpns and knitting one mitten at a time.  The reason for this was that the stitches seemed a little tighter with the circs.

Since mittens MUST be made with wool to assure that hands stay warm even if wet,  I chose Lamb's Pride, a worsted weight yarn, in Blue Boy and Red Baron, which I purchased at Country Woolens.

This pattern uses an afterthought thumb.  That makes the knitting go really fast.

When you get to the spot for the thumb, knit x-number of stitches in waste yarn then go back and knit them again with the mitten yarn and continue on until fastening off the top....THEN go back and knit the thumb.

When the top of the mitten is done you just pick up the stitches above and below the afterthought thumb stitches.

Stitches picked up to knit the thumb.  The thumb goes very fast...

Christmas Knitting Journal, Day One!

The title of this series of blog posts is sort of like the Creation story in the Holy Bible...day one does not necessarily mean it was all done on THAT day, just like all the stuff done on Day One in the Creation was not done in one day, but in one period of time, whatever Heavenly Father's period of time happens to be.

So, each year  I knit for the grandchildren and give them at Christmas.  Usually it is mittens but this year I decided to ask what they would actually like to receive.  This is the list:

G: convertible mittens in light green and light blue
A: convertible mittens in light blue and dark green
L: gloves in pink with some purple and mouse faces on the fingertips
T: a Christmas tree to go on a cardboard cone
A-2: a Christmas tree to go on a cardboard cone
J: a felted dinosaur
E: mittens
C: mittens
L: mittens
B: mittens

Three of the last four sets of mittens are already completed since I knitted them in January to get a head start on Christmas knitting.  The rest of the process is why I am writing this Christmas Knitting Journal....the other parts of the Christmas knitting have already been taxing in the extreme.

Having some Hilda Yates' Farm Bartlettyarn which is wooly and very thick and warm, I knit a prototype convertible mitten to see how it would go.  I found a pattern on Ravelry and knit it up true to the pattern. Her mittens/glittens are absolutely beautiful.

Sadly, this pattern did not work very well for me.  At least, I thought it was way too humpy and armour-like.  Kathy Cochran, the designer, said she had used DK weight yarn for years but had started using worsted weight yarn with the same needles which only made the glittens a little bit larger.  All her glittens were so promising but when  I used the Bartlettyarn  I was unhappy with them.  Here is the prototype I made with that yarn:

Bartlettyarn glitten closed

Bartlettyarn glitten showing fingerless glove interior of mitten

Maybe I mentioned above that the glitten feels like chain mail armour, or at least, how I imagine it would feel. I am a bit claustrophobic, so this is a problem for me.

Since this failed for my liking, I purchased some Cascade 220 Superwash in DK weight to try again.  VERY similar results!  SO...obviously the problem is with me and my knitting. Kathy's glittens are stunningly beautiful...

DK weight glitten backs...

DK weight glitten-palmside

DK weight glitten - palmside showing fingerless glove

Things I have already learned on this project to this point:

1.  The intensity of the yarn colors matters.  If you are going to go to the work to do a somewhat complicated pattern, there should be a vast different in hue so the pattern will show clearly.  No bragging rights if you can barely see the design.  Sadly.

2.  Even following a pattern exactly will not necessarily give you the results you are expecting.  This does not make the pattern wrong.  Expectations may need to be readjusted!

3.  Sometimes it is a good idea to have some kind soul try on the glitten to see if it fits on a hand more closely approaching the size of the hand of the recipient grandchild.  This can be encouraging.  Diana was kind enough to try on this DK glitten and found it comfortable and fine.  She suggested that the ribbing on the palm was the only flaw...should have been tightened up some, so when I make the second glove insert I will do it differently.  At least, I hope to do so...

 

Whoopee!

Today was a real changeable day: I woke up early after a very bad night...leg cramps, nightmares, too much pain everywhere,  etc.  I had a meeting to attend but had to beg off and spent a good deal of time in bed but by noon I felt a little better and started working with the knitting machine again...the one that the very kind lady on FREECYCLE gave me yesterday.

The first few strips I knit with the machine nearly made me tear my hair out, but I kept telling myself that I was smart enough to do it...same as yesterday.  That really didn't help very much, actually.  Eventually it occurred to me to try YouTube, and voila!  There was a whole course on using the newer version of the knitting machine.  The final strip attempt today was 36 inches long...needs to be 48 inches long, so I am making progress, though still a long way from getting 6 strips completed.

In  the interest of sanity I stopped with the Incredible Knitting Machine around 2:30, picked up my bag of sock projects as well as the spinning workshop mitten project and went to Elsie's for knitting group.  It was SO GOOD to see her and Sharon and Cameron again. It has been a whole month since I was there with them.  Last week Elsie had a wonderful class at the library teaching kids to knit. She had 8 kids and one mom--7 girls and one boy who, by the way, picked up on Elsie's Continental knitting style and learned to do both knit and purl that way!  Good for him.

Anyway, after knitting with Elsie, Sharon and Cameron and watching Cameron's slide show of his trip to Ghent, I batted out for a shortish set of errands to include getting another skein of yarn for the strips and border of the homeless blanket. I do not believe it will be completed by Monday night, but will be much closer.

So, after coming home I worked a bit more on the last strip then picked up the mitten project. and WHOOPEE!!  I finished the first of them. It looks a little funny and it fits a little funnier, but I love it.  I showed it to Bob and he said..so? in a very sweet and gentle way.   I told him he should be impressed because it was the first project knitted with totally me-weighed/blended/carded/spun yarn.  I am so happy to have it done.  Parenthetically, I was so sad to hear that Bonnie, one of our spinners, was run into by a unthinking woman who was having her dogs drag her down a ski slope.  When she ran into Bonnie she broke Bonnie's shoulder/upper arm.  Bonnie's doctor says it will take about six months to heal before she can start spinning and knitting and weaving again.  So sad.  Plus she has missed her trip to Alaska and the Iditarod.

Mitten photo will be here soon.