Maple Leaf Mittens
For those who don’t know, the 2010 Winter Olympics are coming to Vancouver! I’m excited to see my country and my city on the world stage and to be here during the excitement (chaos) of that time. Commuting anywhere will be a nightmare and I’m not really all that big on crowds (a bit of claustrophobia) but I’m excited anyways. I haven’t managed to get any tickets but my lucky mother did. I wanted her to have something to keep her hands warm as she watches speed skaters race around the track and hockey players putting the puck in the net. Not only are the Olympics coming to town but Canada day is coming too. These mittens are slightly unseasonal but this is Vancouver, it still gets cold at night in July.
The flip side
You may be aware of my slight (complete) mitten obsession. I have knit many pairs and even taught a couple of classes on Fair Isle mittens. I decided I would try my hand at designing a patriotic pair of my own. The front features the Canadian Maple Leaf and the palms have some cute red snowflakes on them. I have combined some of my favorite mitten features including the i-chord cast on and the corrugated cuff. Of course, if you desire a shorter mitten, the cuff is optional.
These mittens were made using 2 skeins of Blue Sky Alpacas Sport in white and one in red. They are super soft and cozy. I used US 4 (3.5mm) needles for the pair pictured here but I used US 3 (3mm) needles for my Mom’s pair (she has much littler hands than I).
To purchase this pattern for $6 please click here. Patterns are emailed in PDF format.
Gail
One of my favorite things about working at a yarn shop (I work at Urban Yarns, in case I forgot to mention it) is the creative energy that flows around the place. There are always new patterns and yarns and colourways to inspire you and creative individuals working and shopping there. They can be a bit of a bad influence when I am trying to be good and knit from the stash but it is an easily forgivable offence as I am guilty of the same thing.
I had often considered knitting a lace shawl but felt that it was a bit of a ‘knit it becuase I can’ kind of endeavour. What does a 25 year old need with a shawl except for fancy occasions? I don’t even really have fancy occasions. I’m not really a fancy person. I knit a Rectangle Shawl in black Alpaca Silk from Blue Sky Alpacas and although it is lovely it quite frankly doesn’t get much wardrobe play. I had done some feather and fan and a little eyelet work before but nothing that was seriously lace. Then I met Emily. Emily recently started at Urban Yarns and she knits the most amazing lace shawls. The first time I met her she was wearing an amazing blue lace shawl about her neck and I thought to myself: now that is how you wear a lace shawl and remain hip. Not only was it well knit in a lovely lacy pattern (Laminaria) but it was also made of super soft cashmere yarn she recycled from a thrift store sweater and she had dyed it herself. So cool.
Emily was working on a Gail (aka Nightson) shawl in the shops newest beautiful yarn Alchemy Juniper. She used 2 skeins and did 6 repeats. I had to copy cat and she promised she didn’t mind. I had a skein of SweetGeorgia’s Cashsilk Lace in pistachio on hand and I didn’t stop knitting until it was done! I used every last drop of one skein to do 6 repeats of the pattern as well. It’s great! It’s just cool enough here this week to wear it too (last week, not so much). Thanks for the inspiration Em!
The Great Craft Swap: Check!
In my great desire to check things off my never ending list of crafts to finish/start/create I have completed another long standing project. A while ago (I just checked, it was September of 2008) my lovely mother and I decided to swap projects. I would finish knitting her blanket and she would do the hand sewing of the binding on 2 of my quilts.
The blanket was the first major project I started my mother on. She knew how to knit a bit (she knit me a cute yellow sweater when I was a baby) but I had learned to knit from the books she got me. She went with me to the yarn shop a few years ago when I wanted to start my first sweater and picked out some beautiful self striping yarn in warm browns, reds, and oranges (is it sad that I can’t even remember what kind of yarn it was it was so long ago? I didn’t even know to keep the ball band yet!). She decided she would knit a blanket. I set her up with what I thought was an easy enough pattern. A simple basket weave with a garter stitch border. I did the math, chose the needles, and wrote out the pattern. It seemed simple enough, it was just knitting and purling right? Wrong. The pattern wasn’t difficult but it was an 8 row repeat that was difficult to memorize and hard to identify for a newish knitter. Is it a purl 3, knit 5 row or vice versa? Do I start with a knit 11 or a knit 12 or a knit 8? Thus my mother became slightly frustrated and, as somewhat of a perfectionist, did not wish to continue each time a stitch or two was out of place. This led to a problem because each time she made an error she would need me to fix it. She also couldn’t start in the middle of a row. She would have to go all the way across before she could put it down. These were rather long rows so this also became a bit of a problem.
Seeing that the blanket had been put aside, as had my almost finished quilts, I devised the Great Project Swap. This blanked was clearly a poor choice and had been pushed by the wayside. My quilts were so close but I couldn’t quite bring myself to do it. We swapped. Mom finished my brown quilt in a weekend and I chugged along on the last 7 balls for the knitted blanket.
I had one more problem with the quilt. I had finished the piecing and even sandwiched it but I wasn’t sure how to actually quilt it. My lines are never as exact as I want them to be and my corners do not always meet in a typical quilting perfect fashion. I’m really more interested in blocks of beautiful fabrics in beautiful colours and a simple design. I really love Bella Moon quilt patterns for this. They are great patterns for the ‘non-quilter’-quilter. I was discussing this issue with my mom when she suggested I find someone who quilts for hire.
I inquired at The Cloth Shop (my local quilt shop) and they had a couple of names for me. I sent my quilt out to Jackee and it came back absolutely stunning! She machine quilted it in a free form with lovely green leaves. The quilting matched the fabric and style of the quilt perfectly and I could not have been happier with her work.
Quite reasonably priced too! Since the actual quilting is not my favorite part it was great to have someone with expertise give it that finishing touch. I gave my mummy the binding and the quilt and she finished it off. I love it.
It was then that I realized I really had to finish that knitted blanket! I powered through the last 4 balls last weekend and it is finito! I’m glad my mom still has the same colour scheme, it took so long to finish. It is lovely though, and will be used by my mom, dad, and brothers on cool evenings curled up on the couch. The great project swap was a smashing success!
