"Sweet Fern Mitts" by Clara Parkes FO

Pattern: "Sweet Fern Mitts" by Clara Parkes

Source: Knitter's Book of Wool

Yarn: Berroco Ultra Alpaca Worsted

Source: Eweknit Toronto

Colour: Winter White #6201 Lot: 2K6492

Needles: 3.75mm dpn's

Start: December 10 Finish: December 21, 2014

Modifications: Made full mittens from this fingerless mitt pattern.

"Sweet Fern Mitts" for this friend of Number One Son who is herself sweet enough to show interest in my knitting whether she sees me at it or picks it up herself from my omnipresent knitting basket. 

The yarn, "Ultra Alpaca" by Berroco makes meltingly soft, cozy yet somehow crisp cables surrounded with a gently "sweet" halo. I've used it before and I'll surely use it again!

The Sweet Fern Mitts as written are fingerless so I had to make up finger tip decreases that would work with the cable pattern and the 2x2 ribbing flanking the cable and on the palms of the mitts.

Rather than being strictly mathematical or symmetrical about it, I decreased according to what looked "right" without being tied to decreasing either side of a marker or at a pre-determined point each round.

I wonder how many commercially available patterns would benefit from such an approach but don't attempt to offer one because the verbage required by such manipulations yield something too unwieldy publish.

As for my own manipulations, it took a few runs it took to get something suitable but surprisingly that was much easier than getting the second mitten to match the first! 

I've never given this girl any kind of gift before in the four years or so she's been visiting the house so there was great surprise when she was told Christmas Eve there might be something under our tree with her name on it.

She loved them, they fit her petite hands perfectly and were with her every time she visited over the remainder of the holiday break.

I don't often knit gifts but I enjoyed every aspect of working these up and giving them away from being inspired to knit the pattern after seeing it on Needles' Blog, heading to the library for the book, dashing off to Eweknit to pick up the yarn after conferring with Number One on colour and size right through the knitting and sorting out the fingertip decreases. Now, they're in their new home and I couldn't be happier with the outcome. Not many of my knitted gift experiences have ended as well as this one!

Tomorrow, more FO's from under the Sel and Poivre Christmas tree. Thanks for dropping by today!

Double Knit Mat (Dog bed) by Elizabeth Zimmerman FO

Pattern: Double Knit Mat

Source: Knitter's Almanac by Elizabeth Zimmerman

Yarn: All of 8 Skeins Briggs and Little Super yielding a 40"x 30" mat

Colour: Khaki

Needles: 10mm circular

Start: June 7 Finish: November 1, 2014

Modifications: None

Not sure if this was firstly a double knitting project or demonstration on the importance of a single dye lot. What a difference between the two I had to use. Maybe its mostly a lesson in buying all the yarn you need at once rather than going back at the half way point for more.

I do find it oddly satisfying that by knitting all of the four skeins I bought each time the dye lot change appears almost planned as it cuts across the dead centre of the piece. Hudson hasn't mentioned how he feels about it one way or another!

Now I did need an insulating pad for the dog to use in cold weather on the floor at the cottage and this project, in this nifty technique, were just the ticket. 'Amazing how tough it is to remember to slip every other stitch rather than purling once the knitting gets automatic.  I made the error a few times but its of no consequence for this project and again the dog doesn't mind. You can see a couple of spots in the shot below - the stitches that appear larger than the others.

Just as EZ promises I got a remarkably light, soft and warm pad out of my double knitting efforts. But more than that he likes it! He really, really likes it. The first time I put it down after casting off Hudson marched right over and lay down across the middle of it. He likes it so much I brought it home from the cottage for him to use here over the winter. In our room at home we have a carpet on the floor. The mat sits atop the carpet and he sleeps the majority of every night on it. The same could not be said of the mat he used prior to having this one.

To produce a garter "frame" for the pad that will lie flat despite differing row gauges between the double knitting and garter stitch edging EZ instructs the knitter to work to the edge only 4 out of every 6 rows (turning back before the edging on the other other two) The result is a truly flat edge without the slightest wave to it - even without blocking the edge is as flat as the wood floor 

Not sure who finds that more satisfying - me or Hudson!

And Then It Was Done

A month of hard core domestic festivity has come to a close.

This morning the house is silent

The corporate types are headed back to their desks, the creative type, back to London.

The poodle went back to sleep after the last departure sensing the significant return from "that" to "this". No need to watch from the front window to monitor impending arrivals - better to catch a few more "zzzz's" he no doubt thought, before our usual walking schedule resumed.

Today I'm "going" to my desk. I've got a DSLR full of wooly photos and holiday memories, drafted posts awaiting "illustration" and various jammed in boxes to sort through.

I'll also go to the ironing board. There are more men's dress shirts and blouses than I care to count that need going over and a mountain of table and kitchen linens that saw service over the holidays also awaiting the attention of some hot steam.

I love the potential in these post Christmas weeks of winter for so many things and I'll use the time at the ironing board to ruminate on just where to focus first.

Happy New Year! 'Hope you had a great holiday!