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!

 

 

Join in my Mitt Fiesta !

I have been blessed with a bunch of really helpful & friendly knitters to knit my two new patterns :

Jenjoyce’s Pin-Striped Fingerless Mitts 

Tartan & Tweed Fair Isle Fingerless Mitts

I would like to acknowledge all those involved in refining my first patterns, by throwing a bit of a fiesta!  I will be simply making a gallery page &  video slideshow of all photos , in process, finished, artfully modelled or otherwise, just any photo anybody sent to me with their mitt project.

If you have not yet, please email me your latest photos ~~ finished or unfinished ~~ to jenjoycedesign AT gmail DOT com or my other email address many of you have already by ~~  Monday April 8 ~~  so that I may include your project(s) in my little Mitt Fiesta Slideshow & Gallery !

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I’ve been busy lately with some knitting deadlines, but in between moments of ‘deadline’ equinox tees & birthday knitting, I have finished off a couple more mitts, testing the size ranges.  My Pin-Striped Fingerless Mitts were written ‘one-size’ with suggestions to use smaller/bigger yarn and needles to achieve different sizes .  I’ve since discovered Mini Mitts for a small child are achieved well  with  sock fingering yarn and size US#0 needles , shown here in blue next to the 7″ prototype mitt knit with Superwash DK yarn on size US#3 needles  ~~~

 Now I’ve got evidence that the pattern made with worsted weight wool and size US#5 needles, knit up nicely to a large-size  mitt.  I’ve made a pair !

Here they are, and they have been already sent off  to Argentina where they are in the onset of the Autumn season, and my professor friend Alejandro can work his equations in his frigid cold study now, wearing  ” professor mitts ” . . .

jenjoycedesign©professor-mitts

Here they are in contrast to my original one-size 7″ circumference mitt prototype…

jenjoycedesign©large-fingerless-mitts

I blundered badly and FAILED to measure them before sending them off to Alejandro, and he won’t be getting them for weeks .  I’d say that they are a good deal bigger in circumference and all around ‘bigger’ knit up with worsted weight yarn. They fit Jeff, who’s got big hands.

jenjoycedesign©contrast

Both of these mitts were knit up with Knit Picks Superwash Merino “Swish” and are oh-so-soft.

((note of the mini-mitt, and this larger test-knit will be made soon on pattern page))

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So that’s business I just wanted to get out of the way so I can get on with my frivolous projects at hand , and post in continueing flurry of excitement.  I’ve got quite a few new ideas bursting out of my head !

Tartan & Tweed

jenjoycedesign©tartan-mitt

Folks, I’ve just finished my latest design concept to date. It is  tartan-inspired, Fair Isle knitted, and I am naming it  “Tartan & Tweed” !

… and  here is a pair of Tartan & Tweed Mitts . . .

jenjoycedesign©tartan-side

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 nearly done with the pattern for it, and will be directing you very soon as to how you may get started on your very own Tartan & Tweed knitted mitts !!!

Project details on Ravelry HERE

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

jenjoycedesign©coiled-mitsjenjoycedesign©sprung-mitsjenjoycedesign©liz-mits

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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

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((( Now these wee mits are somewhere in the air between here and Kelso.)))

:: giggles like a 10 year old ::

Mit Mania

jenjoycedesign©finished
Finished.

Another  two pairs of pin-striped fingerless mits !

Aren’t they lovely ?

jenjoycedesign©pin-striped

These are for  Molly & Maya, belated xmas presents.

jenjoycedesign©dos-mits
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 . . .

jenjoycedesign©plum
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

jenjoycedesign©fingerless-mits
One pair of  fingerless mits for Christmas !

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 . One pair done, now to cast on for another !

Details on Ravelry here