Traditional style colourwork mittens

These mittens were made during the coldest time of the winter, which means too late. I was hoping to take some nice snowy pictures of them, but it's raining instead.




The main stitch pattern is from the recently published book of Estonian mittens from the collections of Estonian National Museum. There are more than 300 examples of old mittens in the book, accompanied by colourwork patterns (stitch patterns only, no full instructions).
Mittens with this particular pattern found their way into the museum in 1920.




These thumbs are not traditional, but have a gusset like fingered gloves. I think they are more comfortable and easier to make. I wanted to use these yarns, although the brown and dark grey stripes should have more contrast. Colours from the wider stripes in just a slightly lighter shade would probably work best for this pattern.




This kind of zigzag wrist section is also quite traditional and widely used. The mittens are incredibly warm because of the stranded colourwork. Don't think I've had a pair since childhood, had completely forgotten about that. Next winter, used they will be.

Fireside socks

Since I bought a load of sock yarn last year, I have to make some socks every now and then. Otherwise there will be no new yarn, no matter how pretty the colour.




This is an improvised pair of socks, worked from top down. The heel is a classical one with picked up stitches, the strongest and most comfortable, in my opinion. But I do prefer starting from the toe, as that is so much less stressful - no fear of running out of yarn or having leftovers. The latter is what happened this time.




The socks are made of Admiral Bambus by Schoppel-Wolle, with 75 per cent wool and 25 per cent bamboo content. While working, the yarn seems somewhat like cotton, but becomes much softer after washing. In the end, it has a really nice natural feel, like it should be. Just love this warm colour scheme.




After a long search, I found these lovely sheepish wooden sock blockers on Whorl Drop Spindle, a great place for handmade spindles and other wooden wool tools. (One day I will try spinning.)

Narkissa gloves

The fabulous winter issue of Clotheshorse Magazine is out now and I am delighted to have one of my designs included, the Narkissa gloves. Clotheshorse is a trendy webzine published three times a year, featuring knitting and crochet patterns in several themed collections with each issue.

© Clotheshorse Magazine

These are opera length fingerless gloves in wide ribbing (for a perfect fit), decorated with lace insertions at both ends. The gloves are knitted starting from the fingers' end, so it is very convenient to try them on while working.

© Clotheshorse Magazine

Argyle Autumn

Classic argyle pattern can be seen on all sorts of knitwear and hosiery, but it is always more fun to find things in a little unexpected places. I used the repeating pattern in a scarf that is basically a closed loop tube worked in the round, as this seemed like the best way to incorporate stranded colourwork.

The pattern for this scarf can be found in the newly published Knit Now, Issue 13.
Knit Now is a terrific UK based magazine, concentrating mainly on trendy accessories and quick little knits.

© Practical Publishing

Choosing, which colours to use in this scarf, was quite easy: something blue to go well with denim and something contrasting like the autumn sun. It would be really exciting to see the scarf in other colour combinations.

© Practical Publishing

The styling and setting is just lovely. I do hope to visit the English countryside someday - some autumn, preferably.

© Practical Publishing

This sample scarf was knitted using the wonderfully soft Artesano Superwash Merino yarn in shades Navy, Sand Yellow and Grey.

Plum and olive mixture

Just accomplished my first yarn painting experiment with purple and green textile dyes. That seems like a dangerously addictive activity, no need to look for that perfect shade of yarn again.




As there were no better vessels for this operation to be found in the household, a cake tin had to be sacrificed, and it worked out very well.




The colours came out really bright, except for some parts of yarn inside the hank, that remained unintentionally a bit too light.




This is how the yarn looks after knitting:




Leftover dye made it into more experiments, a painted piece of lace




and plain cotton fabric (so many new ideas for making a matching wardrobe instantly coming up):

Lacy days

No time for a shawl, but the lace bug still needs feeding from time to time. These are simple tube shaped lace cuffs, with nupps, of course.




The stitch pattern used is the third lace edging in the pink Haapsalu Shawl book (page 172), with some improvised rounds added to form the diamond shapes.

Teddy ready to sail

A little playtime in summer is allowed, I hope. After all, the yarn stash is all sorted out and detangled and ready for the autumn season. Some leftovers found their way to this seaman's sweater, teddy can now enjoy the summer and the sea.
The naked glass buoy got a rope net around it and does not roll off anymore.

Cosy needles

In order to make the finding of double pointed needle sets easier, I made some special cosies for them. Although I liked the look of them all together in a jar, this way the sets are always handy and any member less likely to be misplaced.




The cosies are simple tubes worked in the round and embellished with a tiny crochet flower.

Cotton baskets to put things in

There can never be too many vessels at home, where to put smalls things in. These white baskets with 'woven' pattern are knitted in the round almost like hats. Firmness is not their strongest quality, when empty, so all the more reason to fill them up.

Takeaway knitting sack

To make knitting projects portable and take them outside now that the weather is warming up, one needs a suitable bag that would blend in with the natural environment.
This drawstring bag is made of linen fabric and cotton yarn, the knitted embellishment, of course, is essential to show that this is a knitting and not sewing bag in question.




The drawing strings are made as knitted i-cord. They end with vintage wooden beads that are attached using yarn tails.

Easter eggs and chirpy chicks

My first food post: the Easter eggs have not been dyed yet, instead this year's chicks are extremely bright and colourful. And absolutely non-angry. On the contrary, they have very soft characters and big warm hearts inside.
Have a happy Easter!

Between the Lines fingerless gloves pattern

These gloves feature simple vertical stripes with a twist: easy colourwork and a few cable crossings on thumb and at the back of the hand. Thumb gusset shaping ensures a good fit and knitting with two yarns makes the gloves wonderfully warm.

The fingerless gloves fit an average woman's hand and are approximately 19 cm (7.5'') long. Only 25 g (100 yds) of fingering weight yarn in each colour is required.

The pattern is available on Ravelry and on my pattern page.










The sample gloves are knitted with Garnstudio DROPS BabyAlpaca Silk, shades No. 5670 (brown) and No. 7820 (green).

Half a day sweater

Winter meets spring - woollen turtle neck sweater with snowdrops, completed in just a few hours. The lower body part and neck are worked in the round, sleeves are knitted flat and sewn on.




The sweater is in medium ladies' size in 1:12 scale: the body part measures 5 cm in height and 4 cm in width. It is knitted using lace weight merino wool (1400 meters per 100 g) and needles 1.5 mm (US size 000 apparently and not -1 as I first thought). Knitting tension is 60 stitches and 70 rows to 10 cm.




Here is the colour chart for snowdrops and grass, would probably pass for crocuses and cyclamens just as well.

When out of yarn...

When I was a child, old ladies used to crochet bathroom floor mats out of strips of white plastic milk bags. I found these really ugly. Nowadays the selection of plastic bags has increased tremendously, all sorts of colours and qualities are available, even bags with colour blends.




I cut some bags to spiral strips 10-15 mm wide and used 4 mm metallic needles for knitting. Not hard at all. The most useful know-how learned, was to hold the strip folded in double, if the bag's inside colour would not fit the project. Some sample swatches:








Floor mats for bathroom or mud room would probably still be the best usage for plastic knits. Perhaps a shopping tote or swimsuit bag for a hiking trip? But seriously, nothing really pretty and cosy can hardly be brought about.

Linen table linen

It had never occurred to me to knit a doily before, but it did now. Probably because of this one lonely skein of thin linen yarn calling out from the stash and the curiosity to see this material in a finished form.
My dream is to knit a large tablecloth designed by Herbert Niebling one day, for testing purposes, this small round doily with 40 cm diameter should be sufficient, though.




The pattern is from Burda Stricklehrbuch and the doily was small enough to be knitted on double pointed needles (2 mm). Knitting was quite easy and I managed to learn a couple of new tricks on the way, e.g. circle cast on, crochet bind-off, how to handle double yarn overs.


The yarn used is a lace weight linen named Midara Linas, shade No. 650. Approximately half a skein required, only 23 grams.