HAND THINGS - KNITTED

 Being back in the office after a year of working remote, the little weekday personal time I have is devoted to actually crafting as writing requires focus and takes time away from whatever is currently on my hooks or needles.  This week it is needles and my absolute favorite flip-mitts pattern.  

You can purchase just the pattern for $5 here Flip Top Mitts on Ravelry or the kit from Kraemer  for $10.40 which is a great bargain when you see the number of colors of yarn that you get to pick from. Based on my own experience, I say, start with the kit because you get the printed pattern and the yarn is a pretty nice 30% wool/70% acrylic blend. It's 'shinier" than Plymouth Encore which is my go-to blend but I would buy the Kraemer yarn again. The skein of yarn that comes with the kit is more than enough to complete the mitts. You will also get the two buttons. My kit had very nice wood ones. 

From the first time I knitted this pattern (I'm now on project #3) I knitted both mitts first. I opted for the closed thumb because I just figure you want to keep as many digits warm as possible. My most important tip for this part of the project? Don't forget needle changes.  The twisted ribs are done on the smaller needles and the center part of the mitt is on the larger ones. I am an intermediate knitter so how quickly these went may not go as fast for a beginner.  I will say though that you may not want to use this pattern to move from beginner to intermediate as the next part is a little tricky...the flippers are knitted to the main body not sewn on later.  The pattern does provide a link to a tutorial for picking up the stitches. For me, it did not work. 

Below is are photos of how I picked up the stitches in the middle of the work. I use contrasting scrap yarn and a darning needle. Because up to this point the two mitts are the same you need to lay them flat with the thumbs toward each either so that the flippers are attached to the correct tops for left and right.  I chose a leg of the V of the stitch - example on the left mitt, I picked up the right leg of each V moving from thumb going to the left across the top of the mitt. 

Something else that I highly recommend, if you don't already own circular needles & know how to do the magic loop, now is a good time to do both.  I apologize that I only use DPNs for i-cords.  I am not going to include links to YouTube tutorials as it took me watching at least three different instructors to find one that taught magic loop in a way that made sense to me.  We all learn differently so don't be discouraged if the first one you choose isn't working for you.  Working these flippers on just two needles, at least for me, simplifies it as you knit the one side then the other of the hand. 

I'm going to end this post here because I am currently working on the thumb of the second mitt then I need to weave in those ends.  I will post again when I get to closing the holes that always happen for me where the thumb joins the hand and get a few rows into one of the flippers. 

Have a great rest of your Sunday.  

LET'S TALK HAND THINGS-CROCHET

 Good morning yarnies,

This week I'm going to spotlight some of my favorite and not-so-favorite things to keep one's hands warm.  These include mittens, gloves, fingerless mittens and flip-mitts both knitted and crocheted.  Personally, I have knitted and crocheted all of these and done so with various weight and fiber yarns. 

I'll start with crocheted gloves or anything with individual openings for pointer, middle, ring and pinky fingers.  These are a challenge for me.  Although I haven't done crocheted gloves in a while I remember that you have to be super careful that your stitch count is correct before getting into the fingers part.  The other thing I remember is that the two times I did fingered flip-mitts...I had not discovered the wonder that is stitch markers.  For crochet, whether hooking in the round or having to do a slip-stitch join + chain(s) for the next round, stitch markers, at least for me, have avoided gaining or losing stitches in the round.  They also make positioning the fingers easier. Other than that, I need to go back and crochet a pair of gloves to give you better tips in the future.

So that brings us to hand-warming devices that have a thumb and one large opening for the other four fingers.  Every pair of mitts/mittens I have crocheted are one continuous piece from the cuff.  The cuff is usually single crochet through the back loop. Here's a great video for that.

Marly Bird's single crochet through the back loop 

The cuff is slip stitched together with the right sides facing. Turn the cuff right side out and pick up the required number of stitches around the edgel  I've developed my own system for this and it's hard to describe but know that most patterns call for picking up one stitch for each row of rib..so one for the "up" rib and one from the "down" rib.  Below is a link to Marly's video for the Snowday Mittens and the first few minutes shows this. Now she is doing slip stitches but most patterns I have done call for single crochets

Switch from cuff to palm

If you are doing fingerless mitts most likely your will just end with a crocheted row.  However, it may include a ribbing that I find fun once I did it. It starts with a chain followed by single crochet back down to the mitt, attaching to the body, turning then single crochets in the back loops back up.  If this is an actual mitten you will decrease per the instructions usually until there are 4 stitches left.  You cut the yarn leaving a long tail and put that on a darning needle. Run the yarn through each of the 4 stitches and pull it to draw the opening closed then turn the mitten inside out to weave in that end. 

 In crochet, again, it is ensuring that you have the correct number of stitches for your thumb hole. Adding the thumb or opening for fingerless mitts doesn't leave openings like knitting does.  However, hooking in a small circle is not fun and the smaller the circle the less fun (side note-this is why I don't do amigurumi). I will refer you back to Marly Bird and the Snowday mittens for completing a thumb.

Sometime in the future, I will post my notes on Sue's Free Crochet Mitten pattern which features the moss stitch. I have made two pairs of these.  

and her crocheted flip mitts which I have also made two pairs.

Go Handmade - Sweater with asymmetrical button tape - For English speaking/reading knitters

Link to free pattern in English

I don't remember where I saw this pattern promoted but it doesn't matter.  All I know is I saw this photo, I fell in love and had to have it. 

I downloaded it from Hobbii 's site.  I had the yarn in my stash - Knit One Crochet Too Sebago in French Vanilla. This is a DK and the pattern calls for Sport. I used 3 hanks. As I planned this for a child who would be 6 months old when I cast it on, I went up .5 cm on the needles so that between the weight of the yarn and that it would come out slightly larger...apparently I knit to tight or this is the first thing wrong with the pattern...my finished measurements matched the gauge for sport weight using 3.0 mm and 3.5 mm needles.

In the "Abbreviations & Definitions," you will find things that have nothing to do with this pattern.  You can ignore "I-Cord, Row With Holes, Short Rows and Crab Stitch."

This pattern is translated from Danish to English.  You will find commas in measurements where you are used to finding periods.  I apologize that I only did the math for the 6-month size.  To evenly increase 12 stitches, knit a front-back increase every 6th stitch. 

ROW 8 IS A RIGHT-SIDE ROW! I emphasized that because this pattern does not state that the first row is a wrong side row.  It's pretty easily looking at the photos of the sweater in the pattern also make this would be the case as the right side of the sweater is stockinette. The other reason for the emphasis is because the next line of the pattern will have you questioning everything you have done to this point

"On the wrong side knit as per diagram and purl all increases."

In reality? Purl the knits and knit the purls. You have set up the cables in the 8th row so remember knit before the 4 cable stitch & purl those 4 stitches. Purl each of the M1B. Also "knit as per diagram" is pretty random being placed here. The "diagram" is the 4-row cable pattern. You will refer to it on both the right and wrong sides. The diagram DOES NOT include any information other than these 6 stitches in each of 4 rows. PERIOD! 

Read literally this makes zero sense and is what had me emailing Hobbii and Go Handmade

"In each other row (right side), knit increases. Continue with the increases and cables until  15 (18) increases have been worked in."

Hobbii referred me back to Go Handmade.  They have also since removed the pattern from their site so I'm hoping that my request and my follow-up review of that help was the cause.  As for Go Handmade? Their test knitter didn't recognize any problems with the pattern. The pattern designer passed away before they published it.  Their English-speaking/writing customer service reps are not knitters. In other words, the help I got did not help.  At this point I searched through my patterns for a little girl's sweater I knitted 3 years ago that was a similar top-down raglan sleeve design.  Starting with row 10 and on all right side rows up to and including 44 add the M1B increases at each end of the sleeves, front and back sections. For all of these rows and the ones after you will refer to the "diagram" for the cables. 

You will be moving the sleeve stitches to the stitch holder or scrap yarn on a wrong side row. I know this is obvious but "knit flat"...you're still knitting everything except the cables in stockinette so knit right side, purl wrong side. Other than that, this will be a nice, calm section of knitting. The buttonholes open at rows 8, 34, 60 & 86. They will close on 9, 35, 61 and 87.  

Now things are going to get difficult where they don't need to be.  The designer went with casting 8 stitches on (4 at the beginning and 4 at the end of the sleeves.  This opening is then closed by sewing the underarm of the sleeve to the underarm of the body together. I HATE SEWING and especially hate weaving in ends. So again referring that that other sweater pattern I mentioned earlier I just picked up the 8 stitches that were cast on the body when the sleeves were moved to the stitch holder. On both sleeves, this worked very well. The other thing I changed was the cuffs. Because I knit with magic loop when doing tubes smaller than 16" and having tried switching from in-the-round to flat on circulars this was not something I wanted to mess with so I just pulled the last 8 rows in-the-round for the cuffs.  

Finishing? Stick with buttons 3/4" diameter or smaller if you don't use toggle buttons. The buttonholes are pretty small.  Also, use plainer buttons. I bought Minnie Mouse and sunflower buttons but they drew the attention away from that cable right alongside the "button tape".  

In the future I would like to play with this patter to enlarge it for at least a 2-year-old.  I'll update this post if I do.  Here is my progression of the sweater

Any questions? Don't hesitate to ask. 
 

A RESTART - HELP WHEN YOU CAN'T FIND HELP

 Hello friends,

I know I've been away for a long time.  Mainly because I couldn't figure out what to do with this blog along with needing a break from writing.  It took my most recent project to inspire me for a direction for this blog-project help.  

How many times have you been super excited about a pattern, either quickly downloaded it if it was free or hemmed and hawed for an hour...a day...whatever deciding whether you want to purchase it?  The latter can go longer if it involves having to purchase a book to get that one pattern you fell in love with a photo of oh Pinterest or Ravelry.  Once you have the pattern, you round up the yarn from your stash, pull out the correct sized needles or hooks and steel yourself for creating your own masterpiece version. Come on, it didn't look that difficult.  

The first reason for me choosing to be a help blog...the 60 Quick Knits series of books.  My first piece of sage advice? Read the reviews!!  Even if you are all about supporting your local businesses so you're planning on buy a book at a brick and mortar or by mail-order from a small business that doesn't post reviews - go to Amazon or Barnes & Noble and read the reviews. Had I done this I would not have bought one book from this series much less two. After the fact I did this and I also got into conversations on Facebook and Ravelry groups to find out it wasn't just me who ran into errata and false expectations. It was the first time I went looking for help.  For this instance it was fairly easy to find the information I was looking for.  

I'm sure you have at least one pattern that has presented some challenges and you went looking for help but it's not a pattern that on Ravelry has 50 projects done with it.  Maybe it's not even on Ravelry.  Maybe it's out of print. When you go searching on Pinterest it's just links to the page on the publisher's site or Etsy.  There are no notes. No help.  Now you turn to Google. If you find any information it's a picture or a link to where to acquire the pattern but there's no help.  

I want to tip my hat at this point to my brother and sister yarncrafters who have the skills & talents to do video tutorials.  I have at least two online video teachers who are my go-to's but even they only address specific patterns occasionally.  I was really lucky that my favorite instructor recently partnered with the yarn manufacturer whose kit I had bought and she had a complete tutorial on the pattern.  This was huge and I'll explain why in another blog post about that pattern.  

So for those of you who do better with the written word who are struggling with some of the patterns I have knitted or crochets, here I am.  Please put questions in the comments and I will tell you how I resolved them.  However, please do not ask about the seed-stitch beanie in 60 Quick Luxury Knits.  I have tried to get past the second row after the i-cord tail on the top and given up.  I will say there are a lot of notes on individuals projects on Ravelry along with questions that have been answered by the designer. None of them helped even after I went with a normal i-cord rather than the seed stitch version the pattern starts with.