Double Sided Cable Scarf

Super cute scarf with a cable technique I had to try. The cable is done as k1,p1 ribbing which makes it reversible! The pattern is from the Sweater Surgery blog and available for free here:

To make this pattern work I swapped ROW 5 and ROW 10 – I don't think I was reading the pattern backwards or incorrectly but whichever way I was reading it, switching the instructions for those two rows made it work.

Notes:

Size 8 needles

1 skein of Naturally Caron Country Yarn-Peacock

My Ravelry project page for Double Sided Cable Scarf.

Slipper Boots

I loved the challenge of this pattern. There were lots of different crochet techniques and I have two pages of written notes that helped me get through the pattern!

The pattern is from an Annie's Attic publication titled Quick Stitch Simple Slippers and the pattern is called Slipper Boots. The pattern is clearly written (there was never a question about what to do) but I did have to diagram out what was happening (and where) and I also needed to make a list for the ending stitch count for each row. Markers are a MUST for this pattern!! My advice -- mark, mark, mark and mark again for good measure. You'll be glad you did.

There were two crochet techniques used in this pattern that look like knitting. One is rows of slip stitching in the back loops and the other is the split single crochet stitch. These stitches are very thick so it wouldn't be practical to crochet an entire garment using these stitches(just knit it, in that case!) but for an accent area they are extremely effective and interesting.



Notes:

2 skiens of Moda Dea Washable Wool in Raspberry

Scrap amounts of Red Heart Super Saver in Aran and Grey Heather

I achieved gauge with H and I hooks

I worked the 9-inch size

I made these slippers for Sarah and she has carpeting throughout her apartment but I would add some sort of gripping material for the bottoms if these were to be used on tile or wood floors.

My Ravelry project page for Slipper Boots.

Baby Surprise Jacket

Everyone who knits eventually gets around to an Elizabeth Zimmerman pattern! Here's my first "pure" EZ project -- I say that because Jacqueline Fee's The Sweater Workshop borrowed extensively from Elizabeth Zimmerman (and is acknowledged as such) so Laura's Harry Potter Sweater is a pseudo first EZ project.

Blog entries, forum discussion boards and a Yahoo group dedicated specifically to this pattern had me so intimidated me that I broke down and bought the video. I probably didn't need to, a little time and dedication to figuring things out would have sufficed, but I did enjoy the video and picked up a few techniques as well.

I stash busted with this project and used Wool-Ease Oxford Grey (1 skein) and Buttercup (less than 1 skein.) It didn't occur to me until too late that I should have thrown in some Cranberry and I could have had a baby Harry Potter Sweater, maybe the next one!

There is one modification that I need to figure out. After the center 90 stitches have been worked for 10 ridges, there are 10 stitches that are picked up on each side and this is done in two rows (1/2 from the right side and 1/2 from the wrong side of the knitting.) The picked up stitches wind up on the front two sides of the sweater and there is a visible difference in their appearance that I don't like. I think a consistent look can be achieved with the simple solution of cutting the yarn and restarting the row from the beginning, so that all the the stitches get picked up on the same row, but I need to check that out.

I did applied icord for the final row and continued around the neck by picking up stitches and applying icord there as well.

The sleeves for this pattern are 3/4 and I like long sleeves (if I'm cold then the baby's cold, right??) so I added a k2,p2 cuff for 1 ½".

The finished measurements are 14" length, 21" chest, and 7" sleeves.

A cute pattern that will be fun to try in different weights of yarns. The design possibilities are endless!

My Ravelry project page for Baby Surprise Jacket.

It's In The Bag

In order to avoid acquiring new (and even more) bags while errand shopping, I had started to throw a few grocery bags into my purse for reuse. In an effort to keep the bags neat and tidy the idea to crochet a bag to store the bags popped into my head and here's the result:


I submitted the pattern to the Crochet Pattern-a-Day Calendar 2009 and they accepted it! "It's In The Bag" is the pattern of the day for April 24, 2009. This is my first design to be published in print and I'm hoping it's a catalyst for getting even more ideas out of my head!

There are actually two patterns designs, but I submitted only one. After the 2010 calendar has been released then I will offer both patterns for free on my site.

Mini Teddy Bear

I have a whole pile of "wannado's". It's a collection of patterns that have caught my eye as something I might like to make someday. Occasionally, I go into the collection and weed out the patterns that no longer say to me, "make me", "make me" and periodically I actually get around to making something!

When I wanted another project for the Ravelympics (an event held during the Beijing Olympics over at the knitting and crocheting social network of Ravelry) I dug into the "wannado's" pile and pulled out this Mini Thread Bear. The bear is know as Monique and was designed by Edith Molina. The free pattern can be found here.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my mini teddy bear! She's as cute in real life as she was on the pattern page. I needed help from my daughter with placing the facial features (my usual face phobia) and there is one pattern correction I made, but other than that --- LOVE, LOVE, LOVE.

Pattern correction: The bottom of the legs were off until I made the following adjustment to the beginning of the leg -- Ch 6, sc in 2nd ch from hook, sc in next 3 st, 2 sc in next st, TURN AND CONTINUE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CHAIN, 2 sc in next st, sc in next 3 st. ..... continue with pattern ....... The items in red are my additions/corrections. Once I made this change I had no problem with how the foot came out and all other instructions worked perfect.

I used Aunt Lydia's Classic Crochet Thread (size 10) in Wood Violet and DMC Cébélia Cotton size 30 for the muzzle. I didn't have a size 11 hook for working the muzzle so I used an 10 with no problem.

I did not follow the directions for jointing the bear. Instead, I placed the legs, arms and head where I wanted and stitched them down. She's securely sewn together.

I'll be making more!

My Ravelry project page for Mini Teddy Bear.

Victory Junction Afghan #3

Over at the knitting and crocheting social network Ravelry I needed to find a couple of projects for the "Ravelympics". The idea of the Ravelympics was to challenge yourself with projects during the Beijing Olympics. I picked two projects - The first one was to work another afghan for the Victory Junction Gang and to use the square "Fox's Heart of a Child" which I had previously pattern tested.
Project Notes:

I used Red Heart Super Saver colors Cherry Red, Paddy Green, Bright Yellow, Royal and Aran.

Adjusted/rewrote rounds 4 & 5 of the original pattern to get symmetry.

Made 5 squares each of the red, green, blue and yellow for a total of 20 squares.

Using the last three rounds of the square pattern I designed a border using red, blue and yellow.

The afghan is bright and cheery and somebody at Victory Junction is going to love it. The results, for me, are satisfactory -- BUT -- I am not completely happy. The final round of each square looks fine on their own but when it was time to join the squares the corners became thin looking and pulled in and I do not like it. The pattern calls for a ch-2 in the corners for the final round that must, at the very least, be changed to a ch-3. If I use this square again I would think about something different for the corner and test the join.

My Ravelry project page for Victory Junction Afghan #3.

Why this stuff needs to be written down!

I love this bear. I made it a long time ago with some yarn that I picked up on clearance for $1 a skien. I still have a lot of the yarn left and I'd like to make more bears but I can't find the pattern! I could have sworn it was from Toy Knits by Debbie Bliss because I definitely remember making a pig for Sarah and a rabbit for Laura using this book. However, there isn't a matching pattern for this bear in that book and I have no memory of another knitted teddy bear pattern. I've searched my collection with no results and now I'll just have to be patient and wait for it to turn up. This illustrates the importance of writing this stuff down for future reference. Memory is like a hard drive .... back it up.

Anyway, while searching for the teddy bear pattern. I remembered a few toys I had knit or crocheted through the years and figured I had better heed my own advice to "back it up"!

"Girl Rabbit" from Toy Knits by Debbie Bliss	"Piglet" from Toy Knits by Debbie Bliss
"Little Pink Piggy" from In Love with Crochet published by Leisure Arts

The crocheted pig was done with Red Heart Super Saver yarn and I'm not positive about the knit rabbit and pig but it looks like Wool-ease.

The Empty Nest

Laura wants to learn how to design and build houses. This is something she's always loved to do. When she was very young (and before she was allowed to use scissors) she built houses and villages by tearing and taping paper. Soon after that she was painting and decorating bird houses. Some of them were meant to be bird houses and a couple were purely craft projects but I liked them all and there was a perfect spot to hang them right outside the kitchen window. I put the houses up in the spring of 2002 and they were pretty to look at but not a lot of bird action took place. Bees, but no birds. The two small craft houses fell apart during the next couple of years but the big ones held together ... however, still no birds.

It had, almost exactly, been six years since I hung up the bird houses when, lo and behold, we started seeing sparrows around the "472" house!

It started with this sparow hanging around the outside of the house. In addition to the bird activity, the feather sticking out of the back of the house was a clue that a nest might have been built.

All speculation ended when we saw birds being fed. At first we only saw one, but it became clear very quickly that there were two.


Here they are taking their first look at the world.


All grown up and getting ready to fly away.

But, FIRST there must be a party!!

All of this happened outside my window during the month of June and the timing and symbolism is not lost on me. Sarah graduated from college on May 25th and has moved to Seattle to live and work. Laura graduated from high school on June 4th and leaves for college on August 22nd (to study architecture!) For the first time in over 25 years there will be no children at home in September. I will have an "empty nest". I watched a cycle of life played outside my window this spring while another takes place in my life. Fly high and strong birdies. Live free, strong and happy, my daughters.

Grandama's Tablecloth - The Finishing Details

Thank you to everyone who emailed me or left a message at the original blog entry. They were all a great contribution in helping me determine how to finish the tablecloth.

The final decision was that some sort of border was needed to stabilize the edges. The original border was not a good design and through the years had not held up well, so I decided not to recreate it. The slight visual differences between the old and new thread meant the edging needed to be small and simple -- so I started with a round of single crochets. I liked the look of this but the row "curled in" on itself and didn't look right. A second row of single crochets looked awful and I experimented with a number of single crochet, chains and picot patterns for the second row and hated them all.

The winning effect was to turn the tablecloth after the first round and slip stitch around for the second row. This produced a thin, stable and non-curling border which was exactly what I had in mind. I LOVED IT!! I worked the first row of single crochets with a size 10 hook, and this matched the gauge of the tablecloth, but the slip stitches made using that size hook were tight and pulled the edging inward so I bumped up to a size 5 hook to get them loose enough.

Before & After
Without Border	With Border

Unfortunately, I don't have a good way to properly block the tablecloth. So far I've managed using a stair railing and a touch-up with an iron. My Aunt remembered a very interesting device called a curtain stretcher. Lace curtains had to be washed, starched and stretched and the curtain stretcher was a wooden frame with sharp pins around the edges which held the curtains while they dried. Mom said Grandma had one and she'd take the tablecloth over there and use it for the tablecloth. They're actually available for about $10 on eBay and Craigslist. They're big and bulky and from what I've been reading, not friendly to the fingers! So considering the number of times I'd actually use it .... I'll make do.

I've picked out the pattern for the motif and written it out. It's available over on the free vintage patterns page of this blog.

Fox's Heart of a Child Square - Pattern Testing

Occasionally, I like to test the patterns of other designers. This is a necessary step in designing because fresh eyes and hooks are needed to get a pattern written down correctly and into instructions that most crocheters will understand. This is not only an important process but, for me, a lot of fun.

Donna Mason-Svara aka Smoothfox designed this gorgeous heart square, which I immediately feel in love with when I saw it. There was no problem reading her pattern (she provided pictures for every round which were most helpful) and in an evening I had crocheted two squares! Donna also had a great idea to have the tested squares sent back to her so she can assemble them into an afghan to donate. So these first two are off to her but I'm starting another afghan using scraps for the hearts and a soft white for the main color.

Thanks Donna for a great pattern and the opportunity to help out!

Update 8/25/2008
Check out the afghan I made using this square!

A couple of repeats

I had three family graduations this spring! My niece Karla and my daughter Sarah both graduated from college and my daughter Laura graduated from high school. It's becoming a tradition for me to make afghans for these life transitions.

The afghan I made for Karla is a remake of the Soft Boucle Throw. This time I bumped up a hook size -- to a M! and added a pattern repeat to the width (an additional 24 stitches to the beginning chain). These two adjustments were exactly what was needed, I won't need to tweak anything more. I love this pattern! The afghan is light and soft and is a perfect warm weather throw. The finished size was 49" x 59" (not stretched)

However, once again, working in Boucle has it difficulties. It's hard to see the beginning chains when I work in Boucle and that's exacerbated even further with a dark color of yarn. Because I can't see those chains, I'm crocheting mostly by feel when I work the first row of the pattern and I know I'm skipping some chains or working two stitches into others and this is a problem if I come up short at the end of my chain (it's easier to take chains apart or spread stitches out at the end of the row than it is to bunch a number of stitches together.) So my strategy when working in Boucle and making the beginning chains is to work about 3 or 4 more chains then the pattern calls for and take them out if I don't need them.

The afghan I made for Laura's "Going Off to College Afghan" is a remake of Teatime Elegance this time worked in Red Heart Super Saver Country Blue, Soft Navy and Soft White. The finished size is 54" x 72".

I followed all my notes and adjustments from the first time I made this and the results are perfect! I made no further adjustments.

Sarah is waiting until she has moved and found an apartment so that she has a better idea of what kind of pattern and which colors she'd like for her afghan. Stay tuned!

Laura's Harry Potter Sweater

My daughter Laura liked a sweater she had seen in the book Charmed Knits: Projects for Fans of Harry Potter by Alison Hansel. For my part, I was interested in learning to use the techniques for a seamless sweater that I had found in the book The Sweater Workshop by Jacqueline Fee. So I had a project!

The sweater from the Harry Potter book is a classic preppy grey V-neck design with alternating burgundy and gold stripes above the ribbing of the body and sleeves, based on the Gryffindor house colors. However, in order to follow the design suggested by The Sweater Workshop, I needed to convert the V-neck to a crew neck. In addition, Laura wanted to change the striping around the body to a solid burgundy, but to keep the burgundy gold striping around the sleeves. Laura liked the crew neck but thinks that the neckline would be better if it were wider and dipped lower.

Here are my notes & adjustments:

I used Lion Brand Wool-Ease Oxford Grey, Burgundy and Gold.

Shoot, I can't remember how much Oxford Grey I used for the body! Four or five skeins? One skein each of the Burgundy and Gold with plenty of yarn left over.

I used size 6 needles for the ribbing, size 8 for the body and size 10½ for binding off the neck band (see note below).

2" of K1,P1 ribbing for both the body and sleeves.

Semi-shaping for the sleeves (about 1/2 of the increases were done at the end of the ribbing and 2 stitches were added about every 7th row for the second half.)

In order to make the neck binding loose enough I went from size 6 to 8 needles on the last row of ribbing and then bound off in 10½. I am not sure whether this is a technique that always has to be applied when making a crew neck, or something that happened to be needed in this particular instance.

Laura wanted the sweater to have a longer body, but all of the shaping for the body occurs right after the ribbing, so finding a way to achieve a more gradual shaping needs to be considered in future projects. The book points out and gives options for more gradual shaping in the sleeves but not for the body where it is useful as well.

This is the second sweater that I have designed using the techniques from this book. I made my first one many years ago, before I had developed an understanding of gauge and garment fit. As a result of that, together with my liking for loose fit, that first sweater finished with a size that would have been large enough to fit a gorilla! My more recent attempt fits much better, and I expect my next design to be even more refined. Stay tuned!

Grandma's Tablecloth

It's been revived! My mom gave me a tablecloth that has been in our family since I was born. It was a present from her mom and during the years of my childhood it was an elegant fixture for special family occasions. However, through the years it was stained, had yellowed and a number of areas developed holes so it's been in storage for a long time. It came to me in rather bad shape, with the hope that it could repaired and used again.

Step 1: Clean. I filled up the bathtub with water, Oxiclean and a 5 day soak (it may have been longer.) Result: a clean WHITE tablecloth with NO stains!!
A long soak in a spare bathtub washed away
the years of stains & yellowing.
Step 2: Figure out what thread and pattern was used. I inherited my Grandmother's crochet books but none of them had the pattern for this tablecloth. Fortunately, the pattern is not complicated and it wasn't difficult to figure out the pattern for the motif. I also tested many different kinds of white thread for the best match, which turned out to be Aunt Lydia's Fine Crochet Thread, size 20, 100% Mercerized Cotton. I'm working on writing out the pattern for the motif and will publish it here when I have it.

A simple & elegant motif
Step 3: Assess the damage. The tablecloth measures approximately 56" x 70" and is made of joined motifs, each about 3.75" and a border had been added around the joined squares. The vast majority of the damage was a lot of broken stitching around the border (see photo). It was clearly a weak design area that did not stand the test of time. The damage to the border was too extensive and unrepairable. So with the blessings of my mom, I ripped it out (but not before I picked out and wrote down the pattern!!) I tried to save the thread so that I could reuse it in the repair of the motifs but the last two rows of the border were long chains and time and wear seemed to have fused the crochet and combined with the damage I couldn't get pieces long enough to be useful for repairs.

Example of the extensive damage around the border.
Only one corner area survived intact. (see photo below)
Step 4: Repair the motifs. This picture is an example of the typical damage to the motifs. Luckily it wasn't extensive or too difficult to repair. I took the crochet back far enough to be able to secure down ends and attach thread to work the new repair. The new thread is slightly whiter than the old but you'd have to have eagle eyes and a microscope to pick out the repairs so I'm quite proud of my conservation efforts.

Example of motif damage
Step 5: Decide what to do about a border. So the question becomes -- What do I do about a border? Here's a picture of the original border. It only looks good because it was opened up and pinned to paper -- see the Step 3 photo for the way the border actually looked.

The only corner of the border that was intact
1) Do I rework the original border? The Aunt Lydia's thread is a good match that is not discernible for the small repairs of the motifs but it would be noticeable once three rounds of border have been worked. The border was probably original to the pattern but with the test of time and wear it was not a great design. The first round is fine because it finishes off the petal design of the motif but the last two rounds are a series of long chains that during years of use got scrunched together and became a weak area where the most damage occurred (see Step 3 photo).

2) Design and work a new border? I would have the same thread difference issue as reworking the original border but perhaps some type of stabilizing border would be beneficial. If yes, what kind of new border? A simple round of single crochets? or reverse single crochets? Should I follow the first round of the original border and end there?

3) Leave it the way it is now with the original border removed? The picture below and the one at the top of this post were taken after the border was removed and all motif repairs had been worked. It looks fine. My daughters argument for this choice is that, except for restoration repairs, the entire the tablecloth remains crocheted by my grandmother and should stay that way! This choice would leave it a little unfinished by regular crochet standards and not in it's original state but may be the best way.




I need help deciding what to do! Please leave me a comment with your thoughts.


7/29/08 - Update
Grandama's Tablecloth - The Finishing Details

Lattice Square Afghan

I received the squares for this afghan from a "secret buddy" and I can't really tell you about the squares themselves except they're very interesting and I have yet to run across the pattern. So I didn't completely make this afghan, however, I did assemble it and crocheted the border and all of that is the pain in the ass part, right? I used a joining technique found in the Braids for Baby afghan pattern from Mile-A-Minute Afghans by Leisure Arts. I've used this join a couple of times now and it's the best of all things --solid and decorative-- I love it!!

The edging pattern is:
Round 1: sc evenly around blanket, working 3 sc in each corner.
Round 2: *dc, ch 1, skip 1 st repeat from *around blanket, working 2 dc, ch 2, 2 dc in each corner.
Round 3: *dc in each dc and ch 1 space, repeat from * around blanket, working 2 dc, ch 2, 2 dc in each corner.
Round 4: *ch 3 and 2 dc in same stitch, skip 2 stitches, sl st in next stitch, repeat from * around blanket, working ch 3 and 2 dc, sl st, ch 3 and 2 dc in each corner.

This afghan and the Autumn Glory afghan are going to be donated to Victory Junction, a summer camp for children with chronic medical conditions or serious illnesses. At the end of their camping experience each child gets to take home a hand-made afghan and a hand-made teddy bear. My niece was a camp counselor there for a summer and told me about how the campers love their blankets and bears. I just had to make a contribution and hope to make more.

My Ravelry project page for Lattice Square Afghan.

Autumn Glory

This afgahn was made for a donation to Victory Junction -- a summer camp for children with chronic medical conditions or serious illnesses.

The pattern is called Autumn Glory and can be found in "101 Easy Scrap Crochet Projects" published by House of White Birches and edited by Laura Scott.

My finished size is 35" x 44"
The original pattern uses black as the main color to tie in all the scrap colors but I wanted to brighten it up, so I used Red Heart Super Saver - Aran Fleck. In addition to swapping the main color I also made the following adjustments:

Because this blanket will be given to a child I decreased the overall size. I began by chaining 121 instead of 163 (I still used a K hook).

The double triple crochet shells for the boarder did not work for me so I reverted to a simple shell of 7 dc's. The pattern for the border thus became: *shell (7 dc's in the same st), skip 3 stitchs, repeat from star around and adjust the number of stitches skipped, if necessary, in order to work a shell in each corner. I also put 3 sc's in each corner.

My Ravelry project page for Autumn Glory.

Teatime Elegance

I love patterns with texture and this is an interesting one that caught my eye. I was a little unsure the first time I did a panel and worked all those double triple crochets (that's one loooooong stitch!) but everything worked up easily and I enjoyed crocheting this afghan. I was also concerned about the area where the green border is worked around the center shells -- it looks like a weak spot in the structure -- but this afghan has seen a lot of use because it is big and remarkable warm (even with the open work center) and so far there has been no damage or repairs. In fact, I'll soon be making another because Laura has requested this one as her "going off to college blanket".

Notes:

Teatime Elegance from "Mile-A-Minute Afghans" by Leisure Arts.

Used J hook (instead of listed I hook)

Measures: 52" x 74" (this was measured after a few years stretch and the fact that I moved up one hook size -the size listed with the pattern is 44" x 66")

Red Heart Super Saver Yarn - I don't have the exact color name but I did use a lighter green. Bone and Lt. Rose are the other two colors.

Because this afghan is big and fairly heavy I slipstitched rather than whipstitched the panels together, a sturdier joining that I prefer to use when I can.

My Ravelry project page for Teatime Elegance.

Plarn Gift Bag - Valentines 2008

Plarn: Yarn made from plastic bags.

I finally got around to making and crocheting with plarn. The push to try it came while I was writing a paper for a consumer textiles class about using yarn from recycled materials. Plarn has been around for awhile and been made from newspaper and bread bags but the real explosion of its use came with plastic grocery bags.

Making plarn is pretty straight forward and easy. I followed the instructions over at Marlo's Crochet Corner for cutting the bags and once I had a few nice sized balls I started experimenting. I've been working on a design for another bag project (details to come!) and so this small bag just evolved. Personally, I think it's one of the cutest things I seen or done and the timing was perfect to be this years Valentine!

Plarn Gift Bag Pattern

#31 Jeff Burton

Here is my latest Nascar associated project. It's a washcloth with the #31 of my sister's (the source of my assimilation into the racing world) favorite driver --Jeff Burton.

This pattern is from Woodhill Design Knits and patterns for most numbers of the different drivers are available.

Specs:
#7 needles
Lily's Sugar'n Cream - Hot Orange

That's it!! It's an easy, fast, fun and no hassles pattern.

My other Nascar related projects have been beaded bracelets in the colors of our favorite drivers and a checkered flag afghan.

BTW - My sister is a league bowler and uses this as a wipe cloth for her bowling ball. Other bowlers have noticed and and admired it. Can't ask for more than that.

My Ravelry project page for #31 Jeff Burton.

One Skein Scarf

Writing up journal and blog entries just doesn't seem to produce the same feeling of satisfaction or sense of accomplishment that creating and making things does so I'm trying to catch up my blog about a lot of projects I've finished the past few months but haven't written about.

This is another skinny scarf for my daughter Sarah's collection (see: *K2, P2 *across, K1, Skinny Scarf - Boucle and Skinny Scarf - Homespun

An easy peasy, pattern from the book Stitch 'N Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker. Unfortunately, that's the only pattern from the book that really caught my eye.

I worked the scarf in TLC Amore yarn. I LOVE this yarn! I designed my wristwarmers and a hat (patterns I haven't written up or posted yet -- but coming!!) using this yarn and I try to use it when ever I can. It's on my list of projects to work up a Heart Silhouettes square with this yarn and see how that works.

My Ravelry project page for One Skein Scarf.

Glittens

Glitten: A fingerless glove with a retractable mitten, as worn by anyone who wants to stay warm and still grab stuff. (www.urbandictionary.com)

Yep, that's me! My favorite glitten pattern is from Sirdar's pattern leaflet #9445. There are patterns for two needle mittens, gloves. fingerless gloves and glittens in sizes for children, women and men -- a choice of everything in one leaflet!

I've just finished making two pairs. One pair (the grey) for me and one pair (the turquoise) for my daughter Sarah. I splurged on yarn and bought Jo Sharp's Silkroad DK Tweed (85% wool, 10% silk, 5% cashmere)

Here are my notes:

1) The pattern makes the glittens by adjusting the fingerless glove pattern. However I wanted full mittens when the flap was over the fingers and this pattern didn't close the thumb so I adjusted the pattern by following the full glove pattern for knitting a thumb.

2) I like long cuffs so I added 2 rows to the wrist between the cuff and the thumb gusset. This worked well for Sarah's glittens but I think the next time I make them for me I'll add at least 4 more rows between the cuff and thumb gusset and an additional 1/2" on the cuff.

3) These patterns are worked with two needles so there are seams. However, I did not follow the instructions by binding the mitt top off and sewing a seam. Instead I grafted the final row to make a smooth top to the mitten. I purled two stitches together in the final row of the mitt(to get down to an even # of stitches) and divided the stitches onto two needles and grafted. A very nice top for the mitten!

4) I have had 100% success from the great grafting instructions found in the book Sweater Workshop by Jacqueline Fee.

My Ravelry project page for Glittens.