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November 30, 2006

John's finished mittens

John told me there is a price for receiving a hand knitted item: you have to model it before you're allowed to use it. How right he is. He also thought it was a pretty small price to pay. Look at the happy young man:

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Serious, who, me?

The mittens fit very well, and the thinness of the yarn in combination with the thin needles produced a quite firm fabric. The cuff could have been a bit longer, and could have been knitted on one number smaller needles. The rib is 1 knit, 3 purl, and there is not very much elasticity in the cuff, and I suspect it can even be wider when in use. The top decreases are made as a three stitch band, where the middle stitch is throughout knitted in grey, and the edge stitches in blue. The thumbs are finished with a single stitch band, very much like what I made on the Paistu mittens. The pattern goes up in the thumb, and on the back of the thumb is the same pattern.

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The pattern is from Eeva Haavisto's book, and is according to her notes from Kotka, a city on the coast east of Helsinki. The mitten patterns found in this area are very often in style similar to the Estonian mittens, and it hardly comes as a surprise, taking into consideration the ancient commercial contacts between Estonia and this area. The pattern is also one I think can be found in several other areas around the Baltic see. But I think it is very pretty in it's simple lines, and John is very pleased.

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Project details:
Pattern: Eeva Haavisto's, from the book Sata Kansanomaista kuviokudinmallia.
Yarn: Isager Tvinni, a 100 % 2 ply merino wool.
Needles: 2mm dpn.

November 24, 2006

Belated update

Okay, time for a belated update. I know I promised this for last weekend, but sometimes are your plans not working out as they should, and, well what do you do. And then when I found the time to sit down and write, well then did the darn net act up, and I couldn’t get the thing posted. Grrr… But her it is. Knitting time has been a bit spare, but I have managed to finish as well the Fifi shawl as my fathers scarf. Both receivers were very pleased, even if Sofia’s shawl was found the next day tied on her big softie dog…

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Project details
Pattern: Fifi shawl by Johanna Pajakoski for Ulla nettineulelehti.
Yarn: Rowan Linen Drape, 100 grams.
Needles: Addi circular needles, 3,5 mm.

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Project details:
Pattern: Sharfik by Grumperina.
Yarn: Jaeger Extrafine Merino, 150 grams.
Needles: Addi circular needles 4 mm.

And here is one more finished pair of mittens. These were actually knitted back in September, but they were intended for my Secret Pal, so I couldn’t post about them. Here they are, together with some yarns that also were sent to my pal. The yarn is Rowan WoolCotton, and chosen with dry skin in mind. It’s fabulously soft on the hands.

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Project details:
Pattern: Cabled mittens from Sarah Dallas’ book Vintage knits.
Yarn: Rowan WoolCotton, a bit more than one ball.
Needles: 3,5 mm.
Alterations: The pattern was knitted on two needles, something I refuse to do, I knitted them on four dpns. The thumb was a new one for me, and was as well easy as giving a nice fit.

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And I have made progress on John’s mittens: both mittens are knitted, and only lacking the thumbs. He is getting impatient. A friend of his had said about the mittens with the hole that he doesn’t believe that John’s mum has knitted them, they must be store bought since they are so great. John was pretty pleased, I can tell you, when he told this story, and eager to get the new mittens to show. And I’m so proud of my 14 years old, who is happy to wear hand-knitted mittens to school.

The rest of the WIPs will have to wait until next post. See you then!

November 05, 2006

Who needs new mittens?

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Click for a picture of the newly knitted Marko's mittens

The next pair of mittens in the line is for my younger son. John had last winter a pair of Marko’s mittens from Folk knitting in Estonia, but, alas, they need to be replaced as first mittens. And then darned of course!

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Click for close up

When I was I Copenhagen earlier this year I bought some soft Isager Tvinni yarns, a 2 ply 100 % merino wool yarn, with mittens for my sons in mind. But I hadn’t said what intentions I had of the yarn, so you can guess I was surprised when we discussed patterns and colours, and John did pick exactly the two colours of Isager yarn that I had bought with him in mind! He wanted a fairly simple pattern, a choice that also made me pretty happy. Mindless mitten knitting is exactly what I need right now. You almost get a zen feeling out of knitting these mittens, and I have, after two days of not too much mitten knitting already passed the thumb. The cuff is ribbed with 1 knit 3 purls. The colour pattern is again* from Eeva Haavisto’s book, and the mitten construction my basic. The Isager yarn is quite thin, and my tension on 2 mm needles is 42 stitches to 10 cm. But it's soo soft! It's heaven to knit with it, and you forget how many stitches there really are.
The pattern has no name, and I haven't come up with anything good yet. So they will for now be John's unnamed mittens.

* My good intensions of doing lot of research for the mitten project seams to be dream intentions. I have so much to do this autumn that all my Finnish mittens seams to be picked from Eeva Haavisto’s book Sata kansanomaista kuviokudinmallia. Perhaps the spring will be more suited for researching what the museums do have among their knitted treasures, and to try to find more literature about mittens and mitten traditions in Finland. Mittens where given at weddings here too, like in Estonia and Latvia.

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Welcome to my blog! My name is Maud, and I spend my free hours grooming Afghan hounds, knitting, cooking, and growing bonsai trees. I am since the summer of 2012 reporting from Stockholm Sweden, entries before that are from Esbo, Finland.

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