colorwork – Sheetar.com

Actual knitting content on the blog! Fear not, even though there have been a lack of posts about knitting and spinning, I’ve still been doing both. It’s just a lack of time to photograph the finished objects! But I have one here, and there will hopefully be more to post in the next few weeks. They knit up in three days (about 5 hours in the evenings after dinner and before bed), and used about 225 yards between the two colors (125 of the blue and 100 of the yellow). The yarn is a nice, densely spun wool completely sourced and produced in the USA from Rambouillet sheep, using natural dyes that surprisingly didn’t bleed when I gave these a wash and block. The yarn has incredible stitch definition and feels really sturdy which is perfect for mittens. I only made one big modification to the pattern – I switched the thumb to a “sore thumb” instead of the charted traditional Selbu Thumb since I find a sore thumb fits better. A pretty easy modification to make, just shifting the thumb gusset placement over a few stitches. Speaking of the thumb, I love that cute little owl worked into the thumb chart. Really happy with how these came out between the colors and the fit! Finished them just in time for the slow creep of Fall’s chill.

Pattern: Night Owl Mittens
Designer: Jorid Linvik
Needles: US 1.5 (2.5 mm) for the cuff, US 2 (2.75mm) for the mitten body
Yarn: HiKoo by Skacel American B.R.A.N.D. in Yellowstone (Yellow-108) and Hawaii Volcanoes (Blue-102)
–Ravelry Project Link–

I’m REALLY pleased with how these mittens came out! The yarn was purchased at Purls of Wisdom in Kimberton, PA with the intent to make mittens at some point. Finally, I grabbed the yarn, found a pattern, and went to work. I managed to churn these out in five days (worsted weight mittens go pretty quickly even in colorwork), and have been wearing them since mid-January when they were finished. As usual, I’m super late posting these to the blog, but you know that’s nothing new. 🙂Yarn: Ella Rae Classic Superwash in colorway 15 (orange-rust color) and 19 (cream color). Lining is Alpaca from a friend’s farm.
Needles: US 3 (3.25mm)
Pattern: End of May Mittens by Mandy Powers
–Ravelry Project Link–
Notes/Modifications: The pattern originally called for the lining to only extend up about an inch or two from the cuff. I went ahead and used the same directions for the outer mitten minus the colorwork for the lining. It came out a little bit wide (there is some wrinkled-up fabric inside the mitten), but not enough that it’s unbearable. They blocked out to the perfect size for my hands! The alpaca actually came from a co-worker of the husband’s who owns an alpaca farm. It’s really luscious stuff and makes the mittens extra warm – perfect for the cold winter we’ve had!