Tuesday, January 13, 2009 

The world's most beautiful mittens

Put your needles down, ladies, no point in trying anymore, The most beautiful mittens in the world have just been knit. By me.

These are Postwar mittens but with a "manlier" cuff, knit for the person I want to warm most in the world. They are knit in "Shetland wool" bought at Yll & Tyll in Uppsala (in the reciever's presence, but he totally bought the "this could be good to have in the future"-excuse), in navy, a blueish green and honey yellow.



Instead of a picot edge I made a simple purl fold
edge (again the manliness).












And instead of knitting only the year on the inside of one of the thumbs, I also knit the full initials of the receiver on the inside of the other one.











I love the yellow dots and how they light up the mittens, I love how much they feel like artwork rather than knitwear, and I love how much the receiver loves them.










Thanks to Fi for helping me invent the cuff pattern.

Thursday, January 08, 2009 

Happy 2009!

The most difficult thing about blogging so unfrequently is that I cannot remember what I've already posted about. The easy fix is to read my blog before posting, but then on the other hand I can't really expect you readers to remember what I've written if I can't even remember it myself...

Anyhow. I went to Nystas yarn sale today, and I thought I was clever going there during my lunch hour, but eleven other clever knitters had just done the same and the place was actually crowded (since we all know the average size of a yarn store). I had a vibrating moment with another woman when she had picked two of the three hanks of Ranco in a dark pink and I just realized it might be perfect for the hat for my mum I had in mind, so I grabbed the last hank and tried to pair it with a sale hank of Parisienne, but then I tried to imagine my mum in that colour and it wasn't a too pretty a sight so I went for this instead:
(Ten seconds later the other knitting lady had all three hanks in her arms. All is well that ends well.)

It's one hank of Malabrigo lace (bottom) and one hank of Colinette Parisienne (top). The story is that when my mother saw my new Simple pleasures hat when I was home for Christmas, she wanted one too, and since it's her birthday in a few weeks I obviously have to knit one for her. She wanted white, but that's too boring for me so I went for this pale gray/pastel composition instead. How very thoughtful of me.




Anyhow, this is how my own hat looks like:
I have this quest for the perfect hat, which makes me knit one or two each winter. I had already knit one (a great one) this fall, but since it despite my efforts to make it different looked a whole lot like the one I had knit for my boyfriend a few months earlier I can't wear it when I'm with him, which is quite often.

This hat is knit with Malabrigo lace, kindly given to me by Fi in our Forever Swap, and Kidsilk Haze in a shade I ordered online and thought would be more like the Malabrigo in colour than it is. The hat is super cozy but I don't like how it's not solid in colour. My quest for the perfect hat continues.

The Forever Swap (which is a name I just invented) is one of the best things ever invented by Fi and myself (and that's saying a lot). It began this summer when I was about to order some yarn from Garnkorgen, and I asked her if she wanted to order something too. She did, and after delivery she asked me, clever girl, if I wanted to be paid in money or in yarn. What a question. She paid me the amount she owed me plus some more in yarn, so I suddenly owed her. A few weeks later it was my turn, so I got her yarn worth more than I owed her, and so it continues beautifully forever. Last time I got the Malabrigo lace from her, and a hank of purple Pälsullgarn from Östergötlands ullspinneri. For your viewing pleasure:

It's wool, and it's super shiny. Perfect for a lace shawl. I also got matching glass beads, so this could be a super luxurious/glamorous shawl. When I get the time and stumble upon the perfect pattern.





I hope to get back shortly (yeah right...) with pics of the prettiest mittens ever knit. I just have to find my darning needles first.

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