Wednesday 14 October 2020

Simply Slipped Mittens In 2 or 5 Colours

 I wanted to play with my Simply Slipped Mittens pattern to see how it worked out using a different number of colours. 

Here's the mitten using just two colours.



And here it is using five colours. This may be my most favourite version of these mittens so far. 




Saturday 20 June 2020

Simply Slipped Mittens Pattern Now Available

My newest pattern is now available on Ravelry. My first design to be released in 2020.


These mittens are worked using an easy to remember sequence of knit, purl and slipped stitches, creating a design that looks more complex than it is. This simple technique produces a mitten in three colours, while only working with one colour per round.

The mittens can be knit with sport-weight yarn (shown in blue) or fingering-weight yarn (shown in brown). The mittens can also be knit with just one or two colours for a completely different look. 




Go to my Patterns For Sale page to purchase this pattern.

Thursday 23 April 2020

Knitting That Soothes

During these stressful times, I've found that I'm happiest with simple knitting projects that soothe. So, I've moved away from my usual mittens to things like this shawl that I just finished. It's filled with long stretches of plain knitting and was so comforting as it grew into a shawl. Now that it's done, it's perfect to wrap myself up in while I knit my next project. 


Tuesday 17 March 2020

Social Distancing Knitting

During these times of social distancing and isolation, knitting is wonderful. A great distraction from the stress of the day. 

This past weekend, I finished these mittens. The yarn is KnitPicks Palette. The design is the Chrystanthemums Mittens from Knitty.com.



Last month, before we were all about social distancing, I finished these mittens. I was inspired by graph 122 in the Latvian Mittens book by Lizbeth Upitis. There were also knit with KnitPicks Palette yarn. 

Sunday 2 February 2020

I Hate Gloves

After giving it a go twice, I can firmly conclude that I hate knitting gloves. At first I thought what's the big deal, it's just like ten thumbs and thumbs aren't so bad. But no, fingers are just worse in every way. My main challenge is having to cast on and pick up stitches between each finger. For me, picking up stitches is one of the most dreaded knitting tasks. I want my stitches to look super neat and I can never seem to pick up stitches neatly enough (and, of course, when knitting at night with older eyes it is even harder to see where to pick up stitches.)

But I do love my husband and he asked for gloves so for him I designed gloves. In the process I came to realize that it is quite challenging to design a glove that will fit correctly with every hand. Some people have narrow hands and fingers, some wide. Some people have long fingers, some short. With mittens you just put all four fingers into one mitten and the fit doesn't have to be has precise. 

So, here are my works of love for my husband. You will not likely see any gloves from me in the near future. 



Friday 17 January 2020

Etsy Shopping Closing

In 2017 I opened an Etsy shop to sell finished mittens and socks. Since then I've made only a couple of sales through that shop and so I have decided to close down the Etsy shop and find homes for my finished products in other ways. 

While the Etsy shop was a fun experiment, I find it is more satisfying to give my finished mittens to friends, family or charitable organizations. Yesterday, we stopped by Sistering, a multi-service agency for at-risk, socially isolated women and trans people in Toronto who are homeless or precariously housed. We specifically stopped by to drop of a bag of mittens and scarves. They were most appreciative of the knitting and it was an honour to gift them some items that would be of use to their clients.