Warmth Sent to Cheyenne River Reservation

One of the charities I support is the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Last year there was a mitten blitz challenge on our Native American Support Yahoo Group . We were challenged to make 8 pairs of mittens in 2008. I only managed to knit 7 pairs but I sent them off along with 3 hand knit wool hats and three hand made scarves. I also sent some warm clothing that was not handmade.

Some of the mittens are described here, here, here, and here but I never created an entry for the green felted mittens, the toddler mittens with the green stripes or the wool hats. The knitted red scarf is described here and the other two, crocheted by my mother, are almost identical to this one. They all have attached cards stating the fiber content and care instructions.

The mittens were especially fun to knit and I look forward to participating in this year's challenge.

Black Mittens

I'm finally posting about another pair of mittens I made for the Native American Support Mitten Challenge. These were knit from some wonderfully soft lambswool recycled from a Gap sweater.

Details
Yarn: 100% lambswool recycled from GAP sweater, two strands held together. The original yarn was fingering weight. Using two strands created worsted weight. Total for both mittens 52 g.
Needles: Inox 3.5 mm. (US 4) dpns
Gauge: 5 stitches per inch
Pattern: Ann Budd's marvelous The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns, yet again
Size: fourth largest size: child's large/woman's small
Begun: 9/14/07
Completed: late 2007
Notes: The pattern called for a c/o of 34 stitches but I increased it to 36 for K2 P2 ribbing. I picked up 3 stitches over the thumb gap rather than one and decreased these extra 2 stitches on the next round.

Seemingly Never Ending Mittens

Two pairs for the NAS Mitten challenge in Rowan Chunky Print. I enjoyed knitting with this yarn and think it made very pretty mittens. The yarn is soft, thick and sheepy scented and the colors are a delight. The actual color is midway between the light of the lower photo and the dark color in the upper photo. Unfortunately it has been discontinued. It seems to be my fate to fall in love with discontinued yarns/colors.

The suggested needle size of US 11 was too loose for a mitten so I felted the first pair a bit to tighten up the stitches. The second pair was knit using 4.5 mm. (US 7) and the fabric is just right.

Details:
Cuffless Pair
Yarn: Rowan Chunky Print in Girly Pink (no. 077) 52.7 g. total
Needles: U.S. 11
Pattern: Super Bulky Mittens for Women from Knitting Pure and Simple, felted down to a child's medium
Begun: 9/11/07
Completed: 10/10/07
Notes: I won't use this pattern again. Although it was quick (as promised by the designer), I didn't like the way the thumb gusset decreases were designed and the thumbs tend to twist. Also, I think cuffs are necessary in cold weather. I might have liked it better if I'd used a more bulky yarn, as called for in the pattern.



Cuffed Pair
Yarn: Rowan Chunky Print in Girly Pink (no. 077) 92.0 g. of yarn for both.
Needles: U.S. 7
Pattern: The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns by Ann Budd.
Size: women's medium, 7" around & 8.75" long
Begun and Completed: during 2007
Notes: I liked this pattern much better than the other one and have already made several other pairs of mittens using it.

A Change from Mittens

It can't be all mittens all the time so I made a scarf, which you can see here lounging among the peach blossoms in January. That peach tree produces terrible fruit but always bursts forth in beautiful flowers just after Christmas to brighten the new year.

Details
Yarn: 3 50 g. balls of Cascade Bollicine Maxi, which seems to be discontinued because I couldn't find it on the Cascade site with other Bollicine yarns.
Needles: Clover Bamboo 5.0 mm. (US 8) circs.
Pattern: my own using Mistake Rib on 31 stitches with an extra stitch cast on for a slipped stitch border for a total of 32 stitches.
Size: 5" by 54.5" after machine washing and machine drying.
Begun: 12/27/07
Completed: 1/30/08
Notes: I like the brioche scarf pattern better because it has more depth. I made this so narrow because I bought the last three balls available in this color and wanted it to be long enough. Made for Native American Support.

Helgi's Mittens in Gold & Brown

This is the beginning of Helgi's mittens from Folk Knitting in Estonia by Nancy Bush. I needed something for my trip to Texas in April and this fit the bill nicely. I'm not crazy about the color combination but it is what I had in my stash.

I'm using Dale of Norway Falk and size 2.5 dpns as usual. The white mark you see in the photo is the "thumb trick" waste thread.

I added a cuff because I can't imagine wearing mittens with no cuff. If someone from a cold climate can explain why so many mitten patterns have tiny cuffs I'd appreciate being enlightened.

These will probably be donated to Native American Support (see sidebar).

Toddler Mittens

This is the second pair of toddler mittens I made for the Native American Support Mitten Challenge. They appear in the photo to be different sizes but they match.
Yarn: Very Old Red Heart 100% wool worsted in peach
Needles: 3.5 mm., US 4
Pattern: Another from Ann Budd's pattern book
Completed: 11/07

Mini Mittens

These are from Ann Budd's The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns. I should have made all my mittens in this size because they worked up very quickly. These, too, were made for the Native American Support mitten challenge. They are posing next to a hand embroidered hot pad a friend bought me in Israel.

Details
Yarn: Spinnerin "4 ply Fisherman" (worsted weight, no longer produced) in natural, dyed by me with food coloring and Jacquard Acid dye, 27.3 g. for both mittens
Needles: Inox 3.5 mm.(US 4) dpns
Gauge: 5 stitches per inch
Size: 5.5" circum., 6.5" long (to fit a 2-4 year old child)
Begun 9/7/07, completed 9/14/07

Afghan Squares

Native American Support, one of the charities I knit for, collects 9" squares that are later made into colorful afghans. This is perfect knitting to do while reading blogs or watching movies on TV, I can use wool, I don't have to sew the squares together, and the cause is worthy--perfect! I've completed several but don't have photos to post yet.