Tag: mittens

Seaglass Convertible Mittens

Posted on by Alice Neal

I have a second passion: I collect seaglass and make silver jewellery with it (which, incidentally, you can find here).

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But the fingers get a little chilly when you’re hunting through the briny waves in the winter.

So: I give you Seaglass Mittens. Decorated with waves and sparkles, with tops to keep the fingers warm, which flip back when you’ve spotted something special in the sand.

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They are long enough to keep the wrists warm under jumper and coat sleeves, too. I do like to keep my wrists warm.

If you fancy a go at them yourself, the pattern can be found here

 

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In other news, having fallen out of the woolly groove towards the end of the year, I set myself a challenge: a jumper between Boxing Day and New Year’s Day. I had something very specific in mind. Something in chunky cream wool, with a wide roll neck, and a boxy shape. Not too long so I could wear it with my favourite denim mini skirt.

Here it is:

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Aaaaaaaaaand… while I’m here…

This last summer, when my gorgeous gaggle of boys, my husband and I went hiking on Mull and visited the Isle of Iona, I picked up some beautiful yarn.

I’m combining it with a grey Cascade and have just the sleeves left to knit:

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So with a little luck, I’ll have more to show you very soon.

TTFN <3

Getting all your cats in a row

Posted on by Alice Neal

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I’ve used Millamia naturally soft merino quite a bit of late, so it seemed the natural choice when I wanted to design a jumper for my youngest, little Teddy. He’s quite a sweaty little beast so I didn’t want anything too chunky, after all.

I have begun to love developing charts for intarsia and fairisle. I consider myself a relative novice, but a very enthusiastic one, and I was especially pleased with the rows of stripy cats.

With raglan sleeves and a rolling edge neck, the ‘Kitty Cat’ pattern is now available over on loveknitting.com AND if you’re quick, the Kitten Mitten pattern is free for the rest of this month.

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Mutton Mittens

Posted on by Alice Neal

I was asked via my facebook page to make a pair of mittens – something to keep the fingers toasty whilst cheering on the footballer / hockey player in my customer’s family.

Not too pale, because they’re likely to get grubby. Not brown. And the rest was up to me.

Thus were born the Mutton Mittens (*snort*)

In Drops Nepal pure wool, in dark and light grey, on 5mm needles. Chunky and with the added warmth provided by the layers from the fairisle. I’m plotting many more…

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Chunky FTW! (a free pattern)

Posted on by Alice Neal

I have made (it’s official) the chunkiest hat in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD.

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I wanted to make a hat for my Beloved. He feels the cold a bit more than he used to, and of all the hats I have made, none is quite right.

I have a micro-stash of the chunkiest wool on the planet. Well…. it’s not. But it’s very chunky and it’s in my possession, and frankly, anything that needs knitting up on 15mm needles is pretty goshdarned chunky in my humble.

I’ve uploaded quite a few patterns for sale recently, so I thought I’d give the readers of my blog this piece of squishiness as a token of my appreciation.

Here’s what you need.
(Click the name at the top for a printable download)

The Chunk

2 x 100g balls Drops Polaris
15mm circular needles
A tapestry needle for weaving in ends
A large pompom maker (it’s so much less fiddly than all that faffing around with cardboard doughnuts!)

Method:
(This makes an adult-sized hat, which fits my 15 year old son rather too well. I may have to hide it).

Cast on 36 stitches and place marker for the beginning of the round.

Knit 1 Purl 1 rib for 14 rows. This gives a really chunky squishy turn-up around the base of your hat.

Knit 5 rows.

Make your decreases as follows:

[Knit 5, K2tog] around. (36 remaining)

[Knit 4, K2tog] around. (30)

[Knit 3, K2tog] around. (24)

[Knit 2, K2tog] around. (18)

[Knit1, K2tog] around. (12)

K2tog around. (6)

K2tog around. (3)

Cut the tail long enough to thread through the last 3 stitches, pull tight and weave in.

Make a large pompom, leaving the ends long enough to thread through the top of the hat and tie in a tight double knot underneath, inside the top of the hat.

Weave in all ends.

Ta-dah!

Enjoy keeping warm <3

In the meantime, if you’re looking for other patterns, you can now find these ones both in my Etsy shop and on the loveknitting.com website:

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The Ponchette pattern can be found here.
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The Juno Jumper pattern can be found here.
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The Ssssidney Snake pattern can be found here.
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The Snuggly Slippers pattern can be found here.
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The Simon Cowell Yorkie Christmas Jumper pattern can be found here.

 

PS I have always wanted a really chunky hat. Apparently, this one is a bit ‘too girly’ for my beloved. Imagine my chagrin… 😉