Twists

jenjoycedesign© Twists Mitts

Yesterday and today I made myself one of my most recent designs,

a pair of   Twists Mitts  to match the colorway of my favorite walking shirt…

 

 

I thought the result was pretty successful, and I love the yarn (Berocco Ultra Alpaca).  The shirt is an old wool thrift shop find from a few years ago, and I have worn just about every day 7 months out of the year. Anyway, I have been knitting up these mitts recently, trying different yarns and colors. I’m very happy with this simple & very rustic design with cables that almost seem asymmetric and give affect of deep waves which create amazing warmth.

 

 

I hope you try knitting yourself a pair to see for yourself how fun these are to make and how amazingly warm they are!

 

 

Tartan & Tweed

jenjoycedesign©tartan-side

I’ve just finished my latest design, tartan-inspired, Fair Isle knitted, and I am naming it  “Tartan & Tweed”. The very interesting thing is that the Shetland wool ‘fuses’ to itself so well that I’m not worried the short floats will catch on anything.  Other yarns, yes … Shetland yarn, not.  The best part of this project is that I am finished with the pattern very soon, and then you may get started on your very own Tartan & Tweed knitted mitts! 

While I Was Out Walking . . .

. . . I brought my knitting.  You’re not surprised are you?  Well, this was raising the bar a bit on what I can do knitting-while-walking ~ I’ll be the first to admit ~ and I was pretty much only watching where I was walking every other row.  (do not try this !)  What we have here is a variation on the pin-stripey theme for still another pin-striped mitt . . .

jenjoycedesign©variation

The Lost Mitt

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*   *   *

It does happen then. All this talk about knit-walking, like it’s without consequence. Well, for the most part it is, however, I have tripped, and ‘descended clumsily’ into a fallen tree and scraped up my thumb bad enough. (That was about three weeks ago , and is just now healed nicely).  And I have dropped my yarn and it has unraveled as I walk on unaware for a ways,  sometimes a long ways, before I realize what has happened, then having to wind it back up while picking leaves and twigs and forest duff out of the yarn (very tweedy looking) ~~~ and this has happened countless times !  Oh, but this time, the most recent calamity, was that the other day (my birthday, I am certain) I misplaced a mit somewhere, maybe dropped along the way  . . . and lost it !

So this one pair of pin-striped fingerless mits, was to be my last pair I was going to allow myself to knit, of my mit-mania (um…we’ll see about that), and I’m merrily binding off the second of the pair and starting to chirp the joys of spring as it’s time for finish work ! Weaving in ends, soak in suds & dry. . . then wrap very cheerfull like and send off !  WAIT.   Um . . . but . . . where is the other mit?  Did I lose it ??? Not even panicked,  I search all my knit-walk satchels, then look about.  Mild panic, search the satchels again… at least 3 times, as if once isn’t enough. I mean I stick my hand in and grope disbelievingly,  repeatedly, and actually turn them inside out , as if I can’t feel a mit without doing so the first time.  I’m laughing.  Yet I’m starting to get impatient and swear at the same time, because I know exactly what happened, I probably dropped it ! Not laughing anymore, as I’m knowing full well there isn’t enough yarn to toss one together in the nick of time.   Still ,  I obligingly search the likely places in the house it might be. . . again . . . and no mit.  This was last night mind you, so I couldn’t go out looking for it !

Until this morning. This morning finally dawns, and after feeling the doom that I can’t make another, that it is forever lost,  and how am I going to deal , since I used up the last of one of the pin-stripe colors . . oh sheesh . . . must I dorkily make a mismatched pair????  Well, I searched those knitting bags again, my hands groping around without my mind connected, they just shuffle papers, lifting piles of crap on my desk table, lift pillows, blankets…  looking behind my sideboard,  under the sideboard . . .my hands are hoping for a stupid miracle that I covered them up, or pushed them off the furniture.  My hands are slaves to my disbelief and my reluctance to go out in 34F temperature to go ‘hiking’.  But, at last, Emma and I did go out and retrace our last walk.

This was our Lucky Day…. only a little less than a mile and we found it !

There it was !!!

There it was in the dirt road !!!!!

There it was in the dirt road in the dark woods, damp, shaking, barely alive !!!!!

It was lying so alone,  vulnerable, belly up, in the  middle of the dirt road, right next to a little fir tree snag that had fallen in a recent storm.  Ohhh…yyyeahh… I remember Emma’s leash getting tangled up when she jumped over it, and I remember having to put my knitting in the bag to help her get untangled.  Then we went on, and I carried on with the pin-stripes.,.. probably yanked out the yarn a little too hard.  If this little mit had a voice, I’m sure it would be thin and very high-pitched and calling out in sheer exhaustion ” Here I am, here I am…. oh you found me, where were you, why did you leave me??? I don’t think I could have survived another wild animal sniffing me over in the night . . .”   So anyway, the story ends happily. We have ‘er back, and the pair is reunited !!! Washed, rinsed, and the color has come back into her cheeks. In fact, I bet you can’t tell which one was lost, can you?

Ahhhhhh . . .  . . drying ! ! !

jenjoycedesign©mits-drying-on-woodstove

Mit Mania

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Finished.

Another  two pairs of pin-striped fingerless mits !

Aren’t they lovely ?

jenjoycedesign©pin-striped

These are for  Molly & Maya, belated xmas presents.

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For some reason, I can’t capture the colors very well with the camera .

These are a  medium greyish slate blue with marine blue stripes . . .

jenjoycedesign©blue
And these are a deep plum with royal purple stripes . . .

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I think that five pairs of pin-striped fingerless mits are enough for me for a time, but since I knit them all almost entirely while walking the mountain, I’m not sure if I might not cast on for another pair .  I mean, I fear I might trip without something to knit !

🙂

But for now I’m going down off the mountain into town to ship these mits in the mail, and then feel my feathers fluff up with a sense of satisfaction of a job done ! I find it difficult to believe that all the Christmas knitting is behind me now. I went for my walk this morning , and,  nothing to knit while walking along !  It was surreal.

Peppermint Parfait & Twittermitts

jenjoycedesign©fingerless-mits
One pair of  fingerless mits for Christmas for youngest niece.

I’ve been working on these, sans pattern, for about four days, while walking , standing at the stove, just ‘ about the house ‘ sort of knitting …. nothing too committed. I think I could easily knit one in a morning if I worked at it non-stop.  Anyway, I’m smitten with pin-stripes !!! So easy to be ‘jogless’ too, just give the yarn a little tug when you come to switching colors, and then the single-row stripe ends stay all in line …  it’s amazing… and so satisfying to have two color affects with no woven ends . I can see I’ll be knitting pin-stripes until I”m dizzy .  Now for my older niece, who is on twitter a lot, calling them Twittermitts . . .

jenjoycedesign©twittermits

The misty color combo is lavender and grey, a soft wintery colorway for one who has been very good and hoping for her first and very own iphone from Santa in a week, and from whom I’ll anticipate a lot of action on the Twittery front.

jenjoycedesign©jogless-joins
Can you even see where the pin-stripes join? A little tug at the switching of colors is all it took, and there it is… jogless ! I am dizzy from pin-stripes !!! Will there be no stopping me? Will I be pin-striping at Christmas eve into the wee hours of the night?  Will I bridge Christmas with the New Year doing nothing but more, more, more pin-striped fingerless mits , rationalizing still another recipient who might need a pair? There’s no way to really know, but to watch this space as they say.