My Sewing Space

Several months ago I made a mini sweater . Now that sweater is on our Christmas tree and I really like it there. I decided to look for some other miniature knitted things to put on the tree as well. My search led me to these Mini Mittens . The grey pair were the first ones I made. I like how they turned out, but grey isn't a great color for a Christmas ornament - not very festive and hard to see on the tree. I also wanted them to be even smaller, so I made another pair from multi-colored sock yarn on size 1 needles. These were just what I was hoping for (they're about an inch long). But, they aren't on our tree because I tied them to a Christmas card envelope and gave them away. Now I have to make another set. But, this is fun, fast knitting. I might make a couple more sets.

On Friday evening the Preacher and I stopped at an art show.  A woman that we know hosts it annually in her pottery studio.  Most of the art was her pottery, but she invites some other area artists to exhibit their work too.  One of the artists this year was a woman that makes things out of reclaimed fur.  The most common things were hats, mitts, and muffs, but there were also other things like slippers and fur-trimmed objects like purses.  The Preacher bought a pair of the mittens. They are rather unique.  The cuffs and the palms are soft leather and the fur is Alaskan Seal.  The inside is fur, too.  They are really warm.  They are also really big.  They don't stay on my hands (but they're not for me, so that's okay). Unfortunately, the artist wasn't there when we were, so I didn't get to talk to her.  The construction of the mitten looks pretty simple, but I would have had lots of questions for her about sewing fur....

My mom was knitting a mitten from this pattern when she came for a visit and I liked it so much I borrowed the pattern from her and made a pair myself. I thought they would be for my oldest daughter, but they are way too big for this coming winter. The odds of me knowing where they are when they finially fit are not good. This picture was taken just a short walk from our campsite in Rocky Mountain National Park. It was so beautiful! This is the second project I have tried in fair isle. My tension still needs a bit of work, but these are an improvement over the first project (a hat). I attended a workshop at a yarn shop about fair isle knitting and the instructor told us to wrap every stitch so that you don't get long "floats" of yarn on the wrong side that can get snagged and so the fabric doesn't get puckered on the right side. Knitting this way makes for a very dense and warm fabric - ideal for mittens. The pattern comes from Knit Mittens! by Robin Hansen. It'...