CogKnition » Hats & Mittens

Anemoi Mittens (Larger)

CogKnition — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 03:52:28 +0000

Pattern: Anemoi Mittens, by Eunny Jang
Yarn: Dalegarn Baby Ull, #0010 and #5545, 1 skein each
Needles: Addi Turbos, US 0 (2mm) and US 1 (2.5mm)

Woohoo!! The larger pair is now done. Three mittens (smallest size) used up one full skein of each color, so I had to dip into extra skeins to finish the final mitten.

Additional Pattern Commentary
In finishing the second pair, I remembered a few more things about the pattern that I didn’t mention last time:

Errata
In the chart for the right hand palm, there is an error in row 57, the last row of the repeated section. The first stitch to the left of the border on the right side of the chart is marked as Main Color, but it should be marked Contrast Color. This should be clear when you examine the left side of the chart and the overall pattern.

Modifications
I made the cuff longer for both pairs of mittens—24 and 25 rows of corrugated rib instead of 18, respectively. I like the longer cuff because it seals against the cold better (plus I have long arms and so my wrists are forever peeking out from under my sleeves), but this isn’t so much extra length that it upsets the proportion of the mitten.

Finishing
I think it’s absolutely necessary to block the mittens the way Eunny recommends in the pattern—palm side up, with the thumbs folded in and pinned to the palm. I am generally a big believer in blocking, but there are a couple of reasons why it’s an especially good idea for the Anemoi Mittens:

The purl stitches are meant to run along the side edges of the mittens, but they are knit with the front and the back. This means that the mittens will be slightly twisted when they first come off the needles but a proper blocking will restore the intended shape.
The thumb gore is actually attached to the palm, not the side. If you look at the palm charts, you’ll see that the border continues down next to the thumb gore. Folding the thumb in when blocking preserves this border and also forms the mitten so it more closely follows the shape of your hand. After all, your thumb is usually bent in slightly, not sticking straight out to the side.

More pictures and commentary after the jump.

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Anemoi Mittens (Smaller)

CogKnition — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 03:39:57 +0000

Pattern: Anemoi Mittens, by Eunny Jang
Yarn: Dalegarn Baby Ull, #0010 and #5545, 1 skein each
Needles: Addi Turbos, US 0 (2mm) and US 1 (2.5mm)

Eunny is a knitting goddess.

There was a terrifying moment after I bound off the third mitten in which I thought that, instead of making a mitten to match one of the two sizes I already had, I had knitted a mitten of an entirely new medium size.

Fortunately, a good blocking matched the intended mates up nicely. Whew! This is the smaller pair meant for my knitting friend with the tiny hands.

If I cast on the fourth mitten tonight, and if I don’t experience more gauge wonkiness, I might have a pair for myself by the time I face Wisconsin’s fifteen-degree (that’s -9.4 degrees for you Celsius people) weather next weekend.

I did find a few minor typos in the pattern. There’s a “ktog” on the top of p. 5 that should be a k2tog, and there should be 8, 9, and 8 stitches on each dpn when you start the thumb. But the pattern as a whole is super easy to follow and the finished product is just gorgeous.

More pictures after the jump.

Continue reading Anemoi Mittens (Smaller) (25 words) »

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My Herringbone Hat

CogKnition — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 01:45:31 +0000

Pattern: My Herringbone Hat
Yarn: A Malabrigo-like handpainted, chunky handspun wool, in an unknown colorway purchased from eBay
Needles: Addi Turbos, US 10 (6mm)

I’ve was hoping for nice-ish weather so I could photograph this outside, but this is the forecast for the rest of the week:

Snow
Snow likely
Chance snow
Chance rain/snow

So we’ll have to make do with a photo of me, sitting in front of my very cluttered bulletin board.

I am an obsessive matchy-matchy sort of person, and it has long bothered me that my My So-Called Scarf had no companion for my head.

I had already started swatching the herringbone pattern, trying to figure out how to best convert it to the round, when I randomly Googled “my so-called hat” and found moonfrog’s pattern.

End of swatching. Cast on!

I sort of winged it with the size of the hat, wrapping the band around my head until it seemed right, and then picking up stitches until I ran out of space.

One Super Bowl and several episodes of American Gladiator later (it took several episodes because I have irresistible urges to jump up and down and pump iron while watching that show, and I have yet to figure out how to juggle free weights and knitting needles at the same time), I have a matchy-matchy hat!

Other entries about My Herringbone Hat:

Solution: Generosity

One More for the Road

CogKnition — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 17:25:12 +0000

Pattern: Original
Yarn: Elann Peruvian Highland Wool, #3103 Allspice, skein
Needles: Addi Turbos, US 7 (4.5mm)

I still had one more skein of the Elann Peruvian Highland Wool, even after the slew of hats and a pair of mittens. My original calculations had the mittens requiring 160 yards. They took 60. Oops.

So I set about making a one-skein hat. I cast on 96 stitches, knit some 2×2 ribbing until I got tired of it, and then made 24 increases in preparation for the cable pattern. I knit alternating panels of the XOXO cable pattern until the hat measured around 5 inches deep, and then started the decreases for the crown.

I mostly winged the crown decreases, ripping once after I decided it was ugly and starting over. I’ve unvented this combination cable-cross/decrease move that helps maintain some cable-y goodness as you start to the narrow the panels. The remaining yarn went into the pom-pom.

The finished hat is about 16″ around.

I rather like the finished product. If I had to do it again, I’d do a couple fewer rows of ribbing at the bottom so I could finish the second repeat of the cable pattern before starting the crown decreases. I think that proportion would look a little nicer as well.

Total Afghans for Afghans item count: 7

Now that that’s done, time to revisit that lace!

Cabled Child Mittens

CogKnition — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 18:55:14 +0000

Pattern: Original
Yarn: Elann Peruvian Highland Wool, #3103 Allspice, oddballs
Needles: Addi Turbos, US 7 (4.5mm)

Here’s another FO in my quest to outfit the children of Afghanistan with my wool oddball stash. These should fit a child aged 2-4 years and used about 60 yards of worsted-weight yarn.

These are my first mittens using standard mitten construction. The Target Wave Mittens were my first mittens ever, but they’re built in a non-standard way.

I mashed the cable pattern from the cable and rib hoodie and the cabled pom-pom hat in with the mitten pattern from Ann Budd’s Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns and wound up with these.

I made a few modifications to the standard pattern. First, I added increases along the back of the mitt to adjust for cables’ tendency to pull in. Second, I moved the decreases for the top of the mitt and the thumb to the sides, opting for a flat top instead of the spiral decrease pattern in the book.

Total item count: 6

I’ve just cast on for one more child hat, and then hopefully my oddball stash of Elann Peruvian Highland Wool will be gone. Then we’ll see about depleting my Cascade 220 stash.

Baby Hat Trick (Plus One)

CogKnition — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 05:21:22 +0000

Pattern: Original
Yarn: Elann Peruvian Highland Wool, oddballs

Cabled pompom hat: #3103 Allspice
Purple and yellow ribbed hat: #2713 Aubergine and #7725 Freesia
Orange and red striped hat: #1004 Pumpkin and #2055 Ruby
Striped pompom hat: #7725 Freesia, #100 Natural, and #1004 Pumpkin

Needles: Addi Turbos, US 5 (3.75mm) and US 7 (4.5mm)

Here’s what became of the oddballs. Total oddball use: 186 grams, or about 370 yards. There was some referring to the Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns for measurements, but otherwise I mostly just winged it, weighing the yarn as I went to make sure I had enough to finish each hat.

The cabled hat is designed to go with the cable and rib hoodie. The purple and yellow hat is evidence that I am a bad Wisconsinite, otherwise I would have noticed much, much earlier that I was committing the cardinal sin of making an item in Minnesota Vikings colors.

Both the striped hats are hemmed hats. The orange and red one is about 16″ around, as are the two hats above. According to Ann Budd, that makes them fit for infants 0-6 months. The other one is about 18″ around and should fit babies 6-18 months.

I thought I had been knitting toddler-sized hats the whole time and it came as a great shock to me that these are infant…infant…sizes. It made me cross my legs and marvel that anybody actually tries to give birth. Anyways…

Continue reading Baby Hat Trick (Plus One) (162 words) »

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Endpaper Mitts

CogKnition — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 00:02:58 +0000

Pattern: Endpaper Mitts, by Eunny
Yarn: RYC Cashsoft 4-Ply, #420 Papyrus and #423 Monet
Needles: Addi Turbos, US1 (2.5mm) and US2 (3mm)

These are my new favorite fingerless mitts. The double thickness and the snug fit make them very comfortable and very warm. They were a little tight just off the needles, but a good soak and blocking loosened them up just enough to fit perfectly. The pattern actually calls for a US0 for the ribbed portions; I used a US1 because that’s the smallest needle I own. It turned out to be just the right size, I think. Any tighter and the ribbing would be pinching my thumb.

KathyMarie asked: Are they lilac and light lime colored?

Lilac, yes. Lime…depends on the lime. The ribbing color is called “Papyrus” and is a sort of taupe/khaki color that hints at grey and green. If you had a key lime pie that had started to grow fuzz, you might wind up with this color.

In retrospect, Cashsoft 4-Ply is not a great yarn for this project, although it is definitely soft and nice against the skin. The yarn is a bit fuzzy, which obscures the colorwork a bit, and really isn’t meant for a hard-wearing item like fingerless mitts. I’m sure I’ll make a second pair at some point, but definitely in a different yarn.

Continue reading Endpaper Mitts (148 words) »

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Shedir

CogKnition — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 03:30:56 +0000

Pattern: Shedir, from the breast cancer awareness mini-issue of Knitty by Jenna Wilson
Yarn: Gedifra Cashmerino, #1446, 2 skeins
Needles: Addi Turbos, US 3 (3.25mm)

Yay, I have a new hat that fits my head! Getting it to fit my head took some serious blocking, though.

First, the pattern is for a snug-fitting hat to begin with. Second, I was getting a smaller gauge than the pattern called for; I probably should have knit it on US 4s instead of 3s. So I took a page from the lace handbook and stretched it way, way out during blocking. I think I stretched it to a 20″ circumference instead of the 17″ or 18″ in the pattern. And now it fits my head perfectly.

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Target Wave Mittens

CogKnition — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 20:54:53 +0000

Pattern: Target Wave Mittens, from Knitting Nature and reprinted in Interweave Knits Fall 2006
Yarn: Plymouth Encore, #848 (navy) and #208 (white), oddballs
Needles: Addi Turbos, US 6 and US 8

Started last, finished first!

These are a very quick knit. I made the Child’s Small size and I’d guess each mitten took a couple of hours to make, including the seaming.

Continue reading Target Wave Mittens (132 words) »

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CogKnition » Hats & Mittens

Anemoi Mittens (Larger)

Anemoi Mittens (Smaller)

My Herringbone Hat

Similar Posts:

One More for the Road

Similar Posts:

Cabled Child Mittens

Similar Posts:

Baby Hat Trick (Plus One)

Endpaper Mitts

Shedir

Target Wave Mittens