Mittenz 2008 Challenge

It's that time again! Mittenz Maddnez




The challenge is - 8 pairs of mittens ( knit, crocheted, sewn, purchased ) to be mailed in October to the Cheyenne River Reservation. Just in time to warm hands for the upcoming winter.

You can read more about it, where to mail, when to mail, rules, etc
on Ann's blog - and she has a contest going on too!

Last year 405 pairs were sent to the Rez - Let's make it more this year!


I've made 5 pair already - but you all know I am not stopping at 8.... Several of us are having a "Battle of the Needles" going on - great fun!


1st Pair



Pattern - Isela's Cabled Mittens from a LAL on the Loom-a-Long Raverly Group.
Worked on the blue Knifty Knitter round loom.
Yarn - Woolease Chunky


2nd Pair



Pattern - None - just improvised
Yarn - Chunky odds and ends.



3rd Pair



Pattern - I improvised on 32 sts with #6 needles on worsted wt yarn.
My first pair of mittens on 2 circs!


4th Pair



Pattern - South Dakota Mittens - I am working on writing this up.
Yarn - Odds and ends of worsted wt.
#5 & #6 needles


5th pair



Pattern - Anami's Mindless Mittens
Yarn - Columbia Minerva Shannon - discontinued
80% Orlon, 20%Wool
Knit two at a time on 2 #5 circs

Easter Basket

What a great Easter Basket I received this weekend!

I won all this as a prize!



Ann of Sheep Shots had a contest on her blog

People's Choice Award for Heet the Feet 2008

My little yellow slippers won the most votes!



Thank you!

You Are A Star!

Just a few more rows and I'll be finished with this 8 point Sun Star.



Kathy you wanted to know how I come up with these color combinations?

I found the inspiration for the Sun Star here.


Another quick hat - I used up odds and ends of bulky type yarn. This one was knit from the top down, with a 3" brim for extra warmth. No pattern - stopped increasing at 60 sts.






Little Poncho Is An FO!
Pattern is at the Lion Brand Site - Hooded Baby Poncho





Another Old Wip added to my "to finish" list!
A half circle shawl I started back in Nov of 2006 - found it in a bin.



The pattern is on my sidebar - Half Circle Knitted Shawl


More mittens & slippers are on the needles!

Hats & Hatz!

More Cranky Hats!




Using only Lion Brand Woolease, I made 5 hats to find the best fitting one.
Woolease works great, flows with ease thru the needles while cranking away.
It also stretches more so the hats (well the final one) actually fit my head.

Starting at the lower left side going clockwise is the Hat#1. I attached the brim after I took the hat off the machine. Ok, too short, brim a bit snug.

Hat #2 - I hand knit a garter stitch border and then attached it, stitch by stitch to the machine.
Too much trouble and still a bit snug.

Hat #3 - Brim width ok but could be longer - body of hat needed more length to cover my ears.

Hat #4 - Brim still not enough width but I think I got the body length just right.

Hat #5 - Center hat - TaDa! The brim depth just right so it's double thickness covers the ears and the body length long enough to hit just at the end of ears.

Here is my "Hat Recipe" for using Wool Ease yarn on the Innovations Machine.

Innovating Hats

Using LB Woolease gives a gauge of 3sts & 5 rows to 1”

Cast on with waste yarn for however many rounds you like (I knit 4)

Change to MC and knit for 40 rows,

After about 40 rows start attaching the brim.

Reach into the inside and pull up the bottom of the fabric, you need to find the corresponding st.

Pull out the stitch and place that stitch on the blue needle and adjust it downwards to meet with the stitch on there.

Crank the machine and feed the yarn to knit the two sts together.

Continue picking up sts from the brim, transferring them to the needles and manually knitting them together as you crank.

Knit 20 more rows then change to waste yarn, knit about 6 rows and take off to hand knit crown of hat.

I swatched first to find what needle size gave me the same gauge as the machine.

Crown decreases:

Rnd1: K9, K2tog around = 40 sts
Rnds 2,4,& 6 Knit
Rnd 3: K3, K2tog around = 32 sts
Rnd 5: K2, K2tog around = 24 sts
Rnd 7: K2tog around = 12 sts. Break yarn with a long tail to gather up these last sts.

Here's an inside view of the hats.





And even tho it took me about a day to crank out and hand knit the machine hat, I can still hand knit a hat in one night.!

One of our NAS group members, Mary, gave us a great link to some real easy hats.

So I made this one last night.




Basic pattern can be found here on Pat Hodd's Website.

Watch Cap Patterns

I used about 3 oz of worsted wt yarns and #6 needles.

The only thing I do not like about this pattern is the crown - I prefer a more fitted crown so my next one will be knit with the crown the way I prefer. This one was knit according to the pattern. And it really was easy!


Oh and I have not forgotten about the mittens - I'm getting ready to start another pair!

It Must Be Spring in Southern Calif

Thought I would share some pictures of my nectarine tree.




It's called Panamint and is very prolific with loads of fruit every year.













New Ravlery Group!

I just started a group on Ravelry to be a companion group to our Native American Support Group on Yahoo. Come join in the fun! Ask questions, post projects, or just stop by and say hello. Hopefully with the help of the listmoms on the NAS group, I will post information about our latest Blitzes and Challenges for the Cheyenne River Reservation. Where to send stuff, etc.

Clicking on the banner below will take you to the Ravelry Group - if your signed in.





Next post I'll have some FO's to show!

What the Haek does Haekelbeutel Mean?

It means a crocheted bag!

I used odds and ends of Sugar n' Cream yarns and a size F crochet hook.





AND - I just had to start another 8 point star blanket.
Pattern from Trinket's Crochet Blog.
I'm calling this my Sun Star Blanket.





Here's the cabled mittens I knit with the Knifty Knitter Blue Loom.
Pattern was only available for a limited time from the Ravelry LAL.




Well I thought the loom knitting was fun, but too slow for me, so using the pattern as inspiration I used double points to knit another pair with k1p1 ribbing.





A little more on the HEET the FEET 2008 Challenge

Woolwinder wondered how many knitters participated in our Heet the Feet 2008 Challenge.
Well we do have about 230 members in our group, but only 29 of those members were responsible for sending in the 717 pairs!

Double Trouble

We had a very successful Heet The Feet 2008 Challenge!

717 pairs of socks & slippers were mailed to the Cheyenne River Reservation.

Now we are looking forward to the upcoming 2008 Mittenz Challenge that has yet to be announced.
And some of us are getting a head start on Heet the Feet 2009!

This is turning out to be a lot of fun for our group as some of us have been calling it the

"Battle of the Needles"

And so I have decided to learn the knitting socks on 2 circular method. I am hoping this will cure my 2nd sock syndrome! And just to make things more interesting, I cast on for mittens with 2 circulars.


A mess of needles and yarn!



WIP Update

All the current WIPs are progressing slowly and some are FO's.

The loom mittens are done and then I knit another pair with the same yarn.
Pictures and more details to come.

The Bond Scrap blanket - I made two panels and I am crocheting around them.
2 more panels need to be made but I needed the machine to knit up some quick dishcloths.

Still working on the Mile-A-Minute blanket and the 6" crocheted squares.

The Lion Brand poncho is halfway done.

The Haekelbeutel squares are all done, just sewing them together, then for the straps.

Finished trimming all the trees in the backyard - now for weeding, ugh....

Just finished reading The Beach House by James Patterson.

And I wonder why I do not have time to take pictures and post!

Surprise!

I finally finished my Curve of Pursuit blanket!

Monika - you guessed it right on!



I started this way back in July of 2006. It's a design by Pat Ashforth & Steve Plummer
of Wooly Thoughts

I used #8 needles and Lion Brand Woolease.

Lots and lots of garter stitch. I really love this blanket and I think I am keeping it for a winter snuggle up! If and when I ever make another one, I will omit the last set of blocks.
It's about 50"x50" right now and omitting that last set would make it more of a baby sized blanket. Less bulk for knitting laying on top of one's lap - especially in the summer heat!


I am already planning another Wooly Thoughts blanket - bought this pattern already.

Revolution

They are so addictive!

Thrift Shop Finds & Answers

Went to the Thrift Shop the other day and found some yarn for my double knit blanket.

99 cents!



Not sure what brand the blue one on the left is but there were 4 balls of it.
I'm thinking little sweater.


And for $1.99 - I could not pass up this book.



Now for some answers to some comments. Figured I'd answer in a post - much easier!

Lizzie asks what I do in my spare time - Oh, bake, watch tv, weed, trim trees, shop, web surf...
Today we are going to trim another of our backyard trees. I'll try and take pics.

Kathy asked if I had a pattern for my earflap hat - no I did not take notes - just knit until it looked good.... I'll try and make another one soon.


And what about all those WIPs I showed you?

Well the books have been read - I'm on to new ones now.

The Midnight Club by James Patterson
and
Deadly Decisions by Kathy Reichs

Crocheting around 2 panels of the Bond/ISM blanket.

and some reason I dug out an old favorite WIP and trying to finish it.

I have 6 more rows to go!

Hint - It is RED, WHITE & BLUE

Never Say Tomorrow!

I tried to be back - but too many things have been distracting me!

I've been busy reading these two books.




WIPs
I did promise a photo parade of WIPs - so here they are.

#1
Ravelry gets me into trouble - I belong to the Loom-a-Long group and we are working on Cable Mitts by Isela Phelps.




#2
I've also joined the Haekelbeutel CAL and using up my cotton stash.
Pattern is a PDF here





#3
A little baby poncho from Lion Brand yarns. Using LB Homspun.





#4
An Innovations Hat that needs the crown part knitted. I find I like to hand knit the tops instead of the usual gather up finish. This one is made with Wool Ease and a Fun Fur brim.




#5
Six inch squares for a bright baby blanket.




#6
A Mile-A-Minute type crocheted afghan for oldest daughter. I think we had started this when she first lived in Aurora, Colorado. Then she moved to Texas and the project became a UFO.
Now she's back in Colorado and I've decided to finish this for her before she moves somewhere else!




#7
A scrap blanket on the Bond/ISM. The plan is to make 4 panels and fold them inhalf, crochet around them and then crochet them together. A variation on the 9 Patch Pattern.

What Happened To Me?

Guess I have been busy knitting and cranking away!

Purple Earflap hat - no pattern - I improvised and I used Paton's Melody yarn from my stash.




Two more pair of Slippers for Heet The Feet!

Yellow and black pair with 2 strands of worsted wt yarn on 24 sts.




Blue & white pair with 3 strands of think yarn, 24 sts and a short row heel.




Innovations Ladder Scarf.

Tried flat panel knitting just because and made this dropped stitch scarf.
This little crank knitter has 44 needles but only uses 40 for flat panels.
I dropped every 4th st and that left me with 4 knitted stitches at each end.
If make another scarf like this I will probably use my Bond/ISM knitting machine but had to see what this little Innovations could crank out!




One More FO
Another 14 Scarflet for Kurt's Fiance!





I'll try and be back tomorrow with a list of WIPs - I have 6 or 7 going right now....

Cranky Hats & One Potholder

I just had to crochet this potholder! I was visiting My Boring Life's Blog and I was enticed by all the pretty potholders she has crocheted.

So easy, so simple and I have lots of cotton yarn to choose from.

Pattern with lots of good pictured instructions is here.




Been playing with my new toy here - the Innovations Adult Knitting Machine.




We even started up a group on Ravelry - called Crank Knitters - come join us!

I've been making hats, but they are not really large enough for an adult. Since the machine only has 44 sts, they come out best for infants or small children.

Below is an experiment that I did to make the hat a bit larger/wider.
I knit the tube, took it off the machine, finished one end and then dropped 4 sts evenly spaced around. Probably not a great idea for a single layer hat but with a double layered one - not too bad and it fit my 23" noggin better than the smaller ones.




I used worsted wt from the stash


Picture is of both sides.

The dropped stitch effect is probably better for a scarf and that's what I am working on next!

Still knitting away on those Heet The Feet slippers and booties!

Is The Water Hot Enough?

I don't think the water was hot enough today.
It was a cold last night for So Cal - around 36 degrees.

Threw my socks in the washer with some sweats and a few hand towels.
They took awhile to start felting not as quick as the last time. And this was the same yarn I used on the squares slippers. So I'm blaming it on the water temp.
I even put them in the dryer for a few minutes and that seemed to help shrink them down a little more.

I don't want to stick my foot inside them right now while they are damp so I won't stretch them out too much. I did try both of them on before they went into the dryer and they did fit.
Maybe a smidge too long. The width is just about right, but that is for my wide foot with socks on.




These will be going to the Rez for Heet The Feet as I am sure they will fit some poor swollen feet. There are many who suffer from Diabetes that would love these slippers.

Next time I am going to try less rows - good thing I kept a row count! But since this is a 44 needle machine, I cannot do anything about the width. Maybe a lighter wt wool yarn might work..... back to the drawing board (knitting machine)!

While Others Watched Superbowl

I managed to finish up some WIPs!

Another pair of slippers for Heet The Feet from Ann's recipe.
These look small but garter stitch stretches so they fit me too, but they're going to the Rez :)




Then I cranked out another double sided hat on the machine! Here's a pic of both sides.

Felting Experiment In Progress

So okay - I've played around with knitting up little hats on the machine.
Now to get down to some experimenting.

Why not felted socks? So I used the Fuzzy Feet pattern from Knitty.com as a guidline and knit up this tube. The pattern called for 44 sts to be cast on and the machine has 44 needles.
I used waste yarn at the beginning and end and on 22 needles for the afterthought heel.
The gauge on the machine knit tube with worsted wt wool was 3.5 sts & 5.5 rows to one inch. Found the right needle size to match that and made me a toe and heel!

Just have to finish the 2nd one and toss them into the washer.







Another quick fix project was a pair of crocheted booties.
Found this cute pattern in one of my older books,
Woman's Day Bazaar Best Sellers 1983.

Another little pair for Heet The Feet!




And I finally felted these slippers made from squares.
I started these in November and never got around to felting them.
They're the Easy Felted House Slippers from Craft Magazine.



There is also a very helpful video on YouTube to show you how to fold them up.

Folding The Norwegian House Slippers