I am playing with mittens again. I need to knit quite a few to get the pattern writing details down. One detail I spotted on these is that it's necessary to specify which yarn to use for the decreases at the top of the mitten. I think the decrease stitches should all be in the solid purple colour (see the bottom mitten - one set of decrease sts are in variegated blue and the other side is in solid purple).

Details, details.
I am enjoying the small project colourwork. Do you do colour work? Do you do big projects or small things? Do you knit with a colour in each hand? I'm finding the variegated/solid colour combo gives a big impact.
Deb

Here's my first attempt at a video. It's for the Cast On I used for the latest crescent scarf where the Cast On needs to be really loose so that the points can be blocked nicely. The beauty of this method is that you don't have to go up several needle sizes to get a loose Cast On. You can use the needle you're going to use to knit the scarf or shawl.

Here are the written instructions.

VERY LOOSE Cast On:

It is so loose that you can use the smaller circular needle to cast on.

 

This is a Cable Cast On with an extra knit stitch worked between each cast on stitch and is worked as follows:

Make a slip knot and place on Left needle. - 1 stitch on needle.

Insert Right needle into slip knot, wrap yarn around needle and pull through, place resulting loop onto Left needle. - 1 stitch cast on, you now have 2 stitches on needle.

*Insert Right needle between 2 stitches, wrap yarn around needle and pull through, place resulting loop on Left needle, knit this stitch and slip off needle, replace knit stitch onto Left needle. - 1 more stitch cast on; repeat from * until number of desired stitches cast on.

It allowed me to block the points nice and long, even when using a cotton/acrylic blend. It's really, really stretchy with fingering weight wool.

If you try it let me know what you think.
Deb

I've been playing with mittens. They are the greatest little project to play with colour. This is an easy stitch pattern with 2 Main Colour rounds of 2x2 rib and Contrast Colour knit and purl rounds. The mitten on the left has the purple as the MC and the variegated wool as the CC. The right mitten has the variegated wool as the MC. They do look quite different in person. I like the right one better.

I love the striped palms. I think I'll do the next set of mittens all stripes, forget the pattern, I like it so much. I'll be working on the thumbs tomorrow. I'm going to work them as a large I-cord. Never tried this with stripes before so will be interesting.

Deb

Ta, da. A new crescent scarf, third time lucky. It's in Saucon Fingering, a cotton/acrylic blend which I really like. The pattern is written and I'm getting it testknit in Fountain Hill, a mohair/acrylic blend for two different looks. Hopefully that will be done next week. Maybe I will become a scarf person after all.
Deb

It's blocking day. This scarf didn't take long to knit at all, except for the cast on and cast off, ha, ha. And they do take a bit of time but taking a couple of breaks helps. It's much narrower than my first one. Blocks out to 7" deep at the top of the circle.

I worked it in Saucon Fingering which is a cotton/acrylic blend.

Knits up really nicely on a 4.5mm/U.S.7 needle. It's drying right now and will be ready to come off the pins later today.

Are there shawl people and scarf people? I must admit, to date, I am not a scarf person. But I do wear shawls. I love to knit scarves and I have several but never think to put them on. I also don't wear jewelry. Is there a connection between jewelry wearing and scarf wearing?

Here's my Judy wearing the crescent scarf.

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What do you think? I'm thinking it's still a little too wide for a scarf, especially at the shoulder when it's flung over. Also went a little overboard on the length. Wanted to add 3 more points for length and realized that 3 wasn't going to work so went to 4 extra points and could have done with only 2 extra points. Am I getting closer?
Deb

 

Casting Off a large crescent scarf.

I had to take a break part way through. It's a lot of stitches but seems to go faster than the equivalent length of a regular scarf knit from the short edge up. A crescent scarf is cast on on the long edge of a scarf so many more stitches to cast on and cast off.

On this version I cast on more stitches for 4 more points and cut the short rows in half so it's not as deep. It's much longer on the inside edge.

I've pinned it, steamed it and then sprayed it with water. Now I'm going to let it dry. On the weekend I'm going to compare the three I've done and figure out where to go from here. Some mashing of the three I suspect.
Deb