Fab mitts

October 26, 2019October 26, 2019 stgeorgeknits11 Comments

Do you remember this shawl I knitted some time ago? I had just a tiny bit of the yarn left over. It was not enough for a matching hat or mittens. But fingerless mittens? I played yarn chicken and won. I finished a pair with just a couple of metres left over.

I don’t usually use a pattern for fingerless mittens. I just wing it with the number of stitches (because I’m not so active with swatching). I knit either a rib or garter stitch cuff and ordinary increases for the thumbs (I’m not sure if there is a name for that kind of thumb increase), and then a matching ribbing or garter stitch for the other end. And finally just a few rounds for the thumbs.

The yarn is Patons Fab, all acrylic. What it lacks in natural fibers it makes up for in bright colours. I could wear these with all black gloves underneath to keep my fingers warm, too.

Happy knitting!

Hats · Knitting · Stash busting

Knit one, get one free

October 18, 2019 stgeorgeknits6 Comments

I had two little balls of some unknown thick-and-thin cotton yarn in turquoise and purple. I’ve never really thought of these two colours together but I can’t see a problem now. I couldn’t think of anything I could make with the amount I had, anything other than hats. Potholders would have been ok but the thick-and-thin thing put me off somehow. So hats it was.

Rare for me, but this time I knitted a swatch. I wasn’t sure about the thick-and-thin and wanted to make sure the hat would be a good size. It would be one of those hats that would be worn for any reason but warmth, but I’d still like it to be a good fit. I also wanted it be slouchy. And it was. But it was also huge. Swatch and all, and still it was too big. Aaarrgghh. So I changed the needles for a smaller size and cast on less stitches and on the second run the hat was a good size, only not as slouchy.

I only planned to knit one hat but after finishing the first I still had about the same amount left.

When I started the second hat with the colours reversed, hubby said that he could use one. No problem. I made the second hat a tad bigger and with different decreases on the crown. I started the decreases later than on the first hat, and instead of doing them first every other row and later on every row, I instead knitted 2 together for the whole row, 3 rows without decreases and then again the whole row K2Tog. And then again the whole row K2Tog. So the hats are similar but not quite the same.

By now these hats are way too cold and we would both end up with aching ears and frozen skulls if we wore them now. They must wait almost a year for warmer weather.

Happy knitting!

Fingerless mittens · Knitting · Stash busting

Thin blue line

October 12, 2019 stgeorgeknits7 Comments

Another pair of fingerless mittens. They are so quick to make and they take so little yarn. If the yarn is not enough for socks, it’ll make a pair of mittens. Failing that, it’ll make a pair of fingerless mittens. And that’s what I did.

I added a few lines of checker board pattern with blue, just to brighten up a bit the otherwise boring all-white. I have no idea what this yarn is. Just a nameless little ball. Same goes for the blue.

Happy knitting!

Fingerless mittens · Knitting · Stash busting

Whaddya fink?

October 6, 2019 stgeorgeknits3 Comments

Just a pair of fingerless mittens to get rid of some tiny balls of yarns. Fingerless mittens are so quick to knit that it’s almost like not knitting at all.

This yarn is probably quite a few decades old. I think it’s from my grandmother’s stash. The yarn ball was wound over the yarn label (my grandmother used to do this and that’s how I ~~know~~ think it must be hers), which means that I found out the yarn name after I finished the mittens. It’s 100% Norwegian wool by Dale Garn, called Fink. It’s rough as a bear’s-you-know-what. I remember reading once that some people put hair conditioner in the rinsing water to soften the yarn. I tried that and to my surprise it actually worked. They are now a lot less like a bear’s-you-know-what. Still a little rough though. Ho-hum.

It’s getting a bit cold for fingerless mittens now but one can always put mittens or gloves underneath the fingerless mittens.

Happy knitting!

Hats · Knitting · Stash busting

Saturday surprise

September 28, 2019 stgeorgeknits15 Comments

Surprise, surprise, I have a finished hat! I bet you didn’t see this coming.

I’m still trying to use up odds and ends. This is a thick woolly hat that sits snug and nicely when the ribbing is turned up. It’s also very warm over the ears this way. If left down, it’s nice and slouchy. I added a pompom because I had a little bit of yarn left.

Happy knitting!

Hats · Stash busting

2 heads in a duffel bag

September 20, 2019 stgeorgeknits8 Comments

Sometimes the odd balls of yarn start to make me neurotic and I simply have to drop everything else and use up the yarn before it drives me crazy.

This 100% wool yarn was perfect for a slouchy hat.

Brown is not really my colour so I’m thinking that maybe this is part of my Christmas offering to someone. This would mean that I’ve actually started my Christmas present making. Yay me!

I had some more of the yarn left after the said hat, but not enough for another hat. So I added a stripe of another yarn – a dark grey-ish colour, which kind of goes. I knitted this one top-down so that I could use all of the yarn. I added a pompom with the dark grey-ish colour, just to make it look like it was all planned this way.

I love hats and I wear them all the time – almost all year round. But still, this second hat might end up as a Christmas present, too. We’ll see. But to think of having two presents ready and September isn’t even finished yet. I’m on fire!

This yarn is all gone now. I can breathe again. But the dark grey-ish yarn might start to call me soon because there is some of it left. This is a never-ending circle.

By the way, this is the first time I carried a polystyrene head into the woods. It got a nice 7 km walk.

Happy knitting!

Fingerless mittens · Knitting · Outdoors · Stash busting

Knitting, cycling and a few sheep

September 12, 2019 stgeorgeknits17 Comments

I might have mentioned earlier this summer that I’ve started to take my knitting with me on hikes. Turns out, I also take my knitting to bicycle rides. Cycling is not really one of those activities when one thinks of doing any knitting, but sometimes when the weather is just right and there is no rush to get anywhere, stopping for a few rows is just great. There is a place to sit on the bike and the saddle works fine as an arm rest. I can’t complain.

I often ride over this bridge. Finland is not a big sheep country but quite often I can see some sheep from this bridge. I usually just shout something like “hello ladies”, as I ride past them. This time I sat knitting on the bridge and was so pleased to be able to show the sheep my progress. Only one was interested.

Happy knitting!

Fingerless mittens · Knitting · Mittens · Stash busting

Utmost gravity

June 24, 2019 stgeorgeknits8 Comments

Another one of my stash busting projects. I wanted to use up all of this yarn, which I dyed ages ago. I wanted to make fingerless mittens but to use up all of the yarn, I knitted them top down.

Also, I think I reinvented gravity because these mittens are hanging on this wall without anything holding them up. There are no nails or hooks or anything. I put the mittens next to the wall, thinking they would look good there but I had nothing to attach them. To my amazement, they stayed, just like that. Hurrah for weathered wood.

I knitted the cuffs as long as I could. I suppose they would look best bunched up. The yarn is Novita’s Florica, 100% wool. I knitted them with 2.5mm needles. Can you see the snowshoes below? Yup, this is another project I photographed end of winter and then forgot all about them. Snowshoes are kind of essential if you go off the beaten track here in winter. Or, not essential as such, but it’s just very hard work to walk without them if you sink down to your thighs with every step. Anyway, enough about winter – it’s summer now! Well, sort of.

I’m very pleased with these and happy to have another little bundle of yarn less in my stash.

Happy knitting!

Jumper · Knitting · Stash busting

Jolly green jumper

June 20, 2019 stgeorgeknits10 Comments

I’ve just finished a summer top for a 5-year-old girl. I was not sure about this while knitting but it turned out quite well in the end and it is a good fit.

I found the pattern in a Finnish knitting and sewing magazine. I used Schachenmayr Cotton Lux yarn in green. I only had 200g and knew it would not be enough. I went ahead anyway and decided to wing it. The green was enough for the front and back but would not be enough for the sleeves. I had some Drops Design Muskat in purple in my stash and so the sleeves became green-purple. At first I thought it was a crazy combination but I quite like it now.

Hubby made a bee necklace to go with the summer look.

For some reason I knit/wear very little cotton. I guess it is the climate up here. The summer is so short and there doesn’t seen to be enough time to wear cotton. Summer is so short that if you blink, you missed it. I cycle and hike a lot and knitted cotton tops just don’t seem the right kind of stuff to wear. I go for t-shirts. Every summer I remind myself to wear my knitted cotton tops this summer (with skirts), and so often the summer is over before I wear any of them. I guess I should stop blinking.

I hope this little girl gets more wear out of her cotton top. She lives in the south where the summers are longer, so there’s hope.

Happy knitting!

Scarf · Shawl · Stash busting

And it suddenly turned blue

June 15, 2019 stgeorgeknits6 Comments

Just a quick little scarf, and look! no snow in sight!

This is a stash busting scarf. I have no idea what the yarn is. It’s some bouclé yarn and I suspect made mostly of man-made fibers. It’s soft and feels nice. I had 75g of it in a fairly large and loose ball and it seemed to be all green. When I started knitting, I was surprised when it suddenly turned blue. And then I was even more surprised when the blue turned into purple. Shame the yarn ran out then and I only got just a hint of purple.

This was a quick little job and I used an odd ball of yarn to the last inch of it. Not bad.

Happy knitting!