Knitting

Extra big wool yarn for Wovember!!! Yes! From Wool And The Gang – those fashion forward makers of gigantic WOOL yarn. I mean…CRAZY SEXY WOOL…

I made the 1984 beanie in time for Halloween… and I’ve been admiring it all of Wovember perched upon my dress form, which she is very happy about. She’s been wondering where she was, and now she can see. I thought my perfect model for this beanie (you know who you are) would be visiting sooner so I’d have a fashiony photo for you… but I just could not wait…and so it will now be a gift for her for next month’s holiday season. Because…as you know…EYEBALLS ARE NOT JUST FOR HALLOWEEN. They are a year round sort of thing. Always welcome. Always enjoyable and always to be admired.

The 1984 Beanie comes ready made or as a kit for you to make your own, which I’m guessing you’d like to do. It comes with wool yarn, the pattern and a tapestry needle. You just need to have some broomsticks US17 (12mm) needles which you can get from Wool And The Gang too.

OK – I had a lot of fun knitting this even though I usually use much smaller needles and I usually knit in the round. Which I would have done if I had big enough circular needles, do they even come that large in hat-size? But I couldn’t wait. Too tempting.  That kit came in the mail and I had the hat done the very next day. Like I said. Fun quick knit. Just in time.

At long last the stand-alone pattern for North Coast Fingerless Mitts is available for all on Ravelry. They were originally designed for Our Back 40, purveyors of fine domestic alpaca yarns, as a kit which is still available.

Since this is WOVEMBER I decided to make a pair using sheep wool, because that is what Wovember is all about. Sheep wool. Alpaca isn’t wool, it is….alpaca. I decided to use Jani’s yarn, Starcroft Fiber Mill Nash Island Light named after the lighthouse not the weight, it is light worsted weight. I showed you the sheep in the last post (you can meet Jani there too, and hear about our Rhinebeck Sweaters).

What colors to choose. I have a lot of them. I chose Sea Glass, a pale turquoise and Raven, a black-navy. Beautiful….But in the morning, I realized that another pair of mitts that will be released later this month are those exact same colors, kind of sort of… and I thought, people will think I have no imagination and always choose the same colors…which might have just been an excuse I used to try another colorway. I’ve been wanting to use two colors that are closer in value…Whelk, which is purple which I usually hate…you know what I always say, get out of your comfort zone…but I like this purple, it leans towards red-violet and it looks smashing with the Raven. I also wanted to swap positions of the lighter color and the darker one. I really like how it is coming along.

Ok. I haven’t finished. Either pair. I would have had at least a single mitt done if I hadn’t changed my mind…but then you couldn’t see both colorways…maybe I’ll try Sea Glass and Whelk together….hahahaha… I’ll never finish a pair!

So….to compensate I offer you a sneak preview of a Travel Tale… The project bag from the cutest yarn shop in PARIS – and all of France I’m betting – L’Oisive Thé et Tricot.

And there’s still time to make a few! You probably have all the ingredients on hand. Get the free pattern here!

What you need for a life sized version:

1.5 yds [1.4m] black fingering weight yarn
1.5 yds [1.4m] iris color fingering weight yarn
2 yds [1.8m] white fingering weight yarn
1 set US2 [3.0] double pointed needles
Tapestry needle
Wool fleece for stuffing

You could use thicker yarn with matching needles for a large cyclopes eyeball.

These aren’t just for Halloween, stuff them with catnip for year round fun!