Man Hand's

Instagram has become such a wonderful tool in my life. I can instantly share a picture of something that I am making, and I can get advice from knitters all over the world, helping me to create the best version of my project. Not only can I do that, but I can share pictures of myself and my life, to my friends and family across the world! Even better, though, just by sharing a few pictures, I have been able to make so many new friends around the globe!

One of those friends is Kevin. We became mutual friends on Instagram, and after a little while, he asked me if I wouldn't mind knitting him a pair of mittens in exchange for one of his wonderful paintings. Obviously I said yes!

Now, the funny thing is, I'be never knitted for a bloke before. So, when I logged into Ravelry to find a pattern, I was overwhelmed with the amount of mitten choices I had before me. I already owned a couple of patterns that were unisex, but I wasn't sure what would be deemed too feminine in the eyes of a man (as you can tell, I grew up in a house of all girls, where nothing is too feminine! xD). Fortunately, though, I discovered a pattern called Man Hands by Shireen Nadir. It looked quick, easy, cozy, and more importantly, manly.

Once I had settled on the pattern I had to decide which yarn I wanted to use. I ploughed through my stash, but I couldn't find any Worsted yarn that fitted the bill. So, I had to do a bit of yarn shopping - which is always a chore! ;)

I had recently discovered a new website (to me, anyway...) through Facebook called Love Knitting. Now, I am a Deramores girl, but I do find that they can be quite expensive sometimes (especially their P&P - yikes!), and also their range isn't always as broad as I would like. So, when I found out that Love Knitting was cheaper overall, as well as having an extensive catalogue of yarns, I had to check it out - and boy was that a mistake. Thirty minutes later I had about 5 yarns sitting in my basket waiting to be delivered to my front door. For the actual project, I ended up choosing Wendy Aran with Wool in 475 French Navy, it looked like a nice budget yarn in the manliest colour I could find - dark blue!

The following morning, my squishy parcel arrived. One lovely thing about Love Knitting is that they put your yarn into white draw-string bags, which keeps them clean and looking lovely. I've been keeping the little bags to use as project bags when I'm out and about. But I digress - we were talking about Kevin's mittens, weren't we?

I cast them on the same day, and boy did they work up fast! It used a waffle stitch for the mitten, which I hadn't used for years! It was nice to revisit this stitch, I'd forgotten how easy it was! The pattern itself was incredibly simple, although at first I did think it was going to be too small, but as soon as I tried on, I realised how stretchy it was! My little hands were lost in all that material!

Two days after cast on, I was finished! (I would have been finished sooner but you know me, I get distracted so easily!) I popped them in the post, and Kevin was chuffed with them - yay! I will definitely be keeping this pattern, I can see it becoming very useful in the future (since seeing my Instagram about these mitts, I've had a few requests from my male friends for knitted goodies...). I'll also be keeping an eye on Shireen Nadir's patterns in the future, as Man Hands was such an easy pattern to follow!

While we're on the subject of Instragram, you can find me over there as @roaritscharly, I'd love to get to know you all better - so please leave a little comment on one of my pictures to let me know that you read my blog, and I'll give you a follow! :)

Thanks for indulging me today, I'll be back tomorrow too! Why? I hear you mumble. Well, I am trying to get back into blogging by blogging everyday during March! I'll also be releasing two podcast episodes during the month, as well as churning out a few YouTube videos (if I can find my camera charger, that is!) - so if there's anything you'd like to see in particular (ex. Bringing back the Ravelry tutorial series, or "This Week in Knitting" series), please let me know in the comments below! :D 

Little Mitts for Little Hands

A few months ago my sister, Sara, asked me if I could make some red mittens for her eldest, Tilly. Obviously I said yes, and obviously I had to whip up a red pair for her youngest, Daisy, too!

I decided to start with Daisy's mittens, as they would only take me a couple of hours. I decided to use the pattern Easy Kids Hand Warmers by Samantha Goodin. They are only tiny, but I thought they'd be relatively easy for Daisy to put on herself when she gets ready to go to school. I knew that Daisy would want sparkly red mittens just like her big sister, but unfortunately I didn't have enough Galaxy DK for her mittens, so I decided to use Stylecraft Special DK in Red and Wendy Peter Pan DK in 3000 (white). Now she has sparkly Where's Wally mittens!

They were such a quick & easy knit, and I highly recommend them if you need a quick knit. Because they're so quick to make, it doesn't really matter if you lose a mitten, as you can make another one in about an hour! Yay! The best part of this project was that Daisy loved them! She put them on straight away and said: "Aunty Lolly (that's my cute little nickname), I love them. I never wanna take 'em off! I'm even going to wear them in bed!". She's just too cute!! :D 

If you would like to checkout my notes for this project, Click here!

I remembered I had a small amount of King Cole Galaxy in Red, so once I had found that in my stash (that was a job and a half, but that's another post for another day!), I headed over to Ravelry to try and find a suitable pattern. It took me about half an hour of searching, but I finally found the perfect pattern - Lina Mitts by Amber Bertram. "Lina" is a lovely little cabled mitt encased in twisted rib, which means it'll stretch to fit those growing hands!

The great thing about this pattern is that it fits ages 2-10, which means Tilly will get at a couple of years use out of them before she has to pass them down to her little sister. The pattern was written really well, and the mittens knitted up in no time at all! I started them late in the evening of the 16th of December, and by the morning of the 18th, I had two little sparkly mittens! 

I always enjoy using Galaxy yarn, it is so soft to work with (although I urge you to use bamboo needles when you knit with it, I found my stitches always slipped off when using metal needles, as the yarn is so soft), and it's always fun to watch how the sparkles are going to look against the different stitches. All in all, I really enjoyed this project, and I will definitely be using Lina as my go-to kiddie mitten pattern (I say "kiddie", but my hands actually fit into these mittens. When I say I have child-size hands, I actually mean it! I'm going to be making myself a pair of these for walking the dog!). If you would like to see my project notes for this pattern, please click this cute little link!

Tilly absolutely loved her mittens, yay! Unfortunately I didn't get chance to snap a pic of her wearing them, as she was playing Minecraft at the time (I have a sneaky suspicion that she's going to be an incredibly popular gaming YouTuber when she's older....), but I hear that both her & Daisy have been wearing them when they're out on their adventures! :)

Thanks for reading, I'll be back tomorrow to talk about the toys I knitted for them both! Have a lovely day x

Rainbow Through the Clouds

Lately I have had a flood of requests from friends and family (not that I'm complaining - I love it! It keeps me busy), most of them being for fingerless mittens. Although I do enjoy making them, sometimes I find the simplicity of them rather mind-numbing. So, when Mum asked me to make her a pair, I decided to test myself by trying a more complicated pattern. At first I chose Gabriella by Dana Berry, but as soon as I reached the cable chart I realised I was far too tired, or stupid (probably both) to understand it, so I quickly frogged it and had another dig through Ravelry. I then discovered one of the most beautiful patterns I had ever seen on Ravelry, IX Mitts by Rebecca Blair.

Colourwork has always had a soft spot in my heart, in fact a fair isle mug hug was one of the first "proper" projects I ever made when I started knitting (unfortunately I can't find any pictures...), so this project seemed like a lot of fun! My Mum asked for a pair of fingerless mittens because she suffers from arthritis, and as she has to do an awful lot of driving, her hands hurt a lot. I decided to make her a pair of convertible mitts, as this meant she could drive in them, and stay really warm when she's wandering around Plymouth.

I casted them on Sunday, November 22nd, using Sirdar Snuggly 3ply in 303 Cream, which was a really kind gift from my Nana. And boy is it soft! It's probably one of the softest, and coziest yarns I've ever tried! For the contrast colour, I decided to use a skein of Scheepjes Invicta Colour in Cold Fire (957), which I bought from Deramores just a couple of weeks before.

After a few inches of rib, I started on the fair isle pattern. Don't let looks fool you, the actual fair isle chart is very easy to follow. After a few repeats you then begin to work a thumb gusset chart as well, slowly increasing for the thumb while you maintain that lovely pattern. Once you put the thumb onto hold, you work a few more repeats of the main chart before you grab some waste yarn and knit some fake palm stitches. These "fake" stitches will later be pulled out, and you will be left with live stitches which you can then use to create the palm flap.



Once you had knitted the fake stitches, you then continue knitting to create the mitten top. After you have casted off, you then move onto the thumb. Fortunately I had remembered to save a few yards of the colour I was using when I put the thumb stitches on hold, this meant that the thumb stayed the same colours. After that, I knitted the palm flap, before finally reaching the last part of the pattern - the fingers. If you wanted just a normal pair of mittens, you could just leave out the fingers and finish knitting the thumb and the palm flap. However, I wanted the full convertible mitten experience, so I set to work on the fiddly fingers.

Just like I did for the thumb, I saved a few yards of yarn from the colour I was using underneath the fingers, this meant that that same colour flowed from the palm, up through the fingers and then into the mitten top. When I knitted the fake stitches on the palm of the mitt, half of them were used for the palm flap, and the other half were the base for the fingers. I transferred the new live stitches onto my needles, then using the cable cast-on method, I added an extra 29sts. After a couple rounds of simple knit, I had created the foundation for the fingers, and it was time to split the stitches. After putting a bunch of stitches on hold, I slowly made my way round knitting each finger. It was very fiddly, but I managed it!

After a week long hiatus (I had to whip up a pair of mittens for my friend, and I also had a couple of no knitting days), I picked up my project again and knitted the left mitten. I have to say, I am really chuffed with how they turned out!

Would I knit them again? Probably not in a hurry... but I would definitely like to make myself a pair at some stage! I really love how the yarn pooled, it looks like they were painted (which is a happy coincidence, as my Mum is an artist)! Mum is over the moon with them - hooray!

So, that is what I've been up to since I last wrote you. I do have some more projects to show you, but they'll have to wait 'til later in the week. Until then, take care, and happy knitting!

Gloves for Genevieve

I really hate the fact that my blog has been so neglected over the past few months. I'm not going to promise any over night miracles, where I blog every single day, and I finish projects every week etc etc... all I'll promise is that I'll try to get it all back on track. My depression has been getting worse since June, and now it is very bad indeed, so I've lost interest in absolutely everything. Knitting? meh.... Blogging? certainly not. Spending time with my friends? hmm if I have to.

And I hate that I feel that way. Just this spring I was so excited about casting on new projects, finishing and gifting projects, and writing all my escapades down on this blog so you could share my joy and excitement. I want that feeling back, so I thought if I sink my teeth into blogging again, perhaps the constant writing about knitting will get me excited about the craft again.

So, today I am going to tell you all about a pair of lacy mittens. Ooooooooh!

My friend, Gene (Genevieve - such a beautiful name!), has been such a lovely friend to me over the past year. So, to say thank you, I am making her a little parcel of goodies. In that parcel is going to be a pair of mittens, as not only is the cold weather on its way, but she also suffers with quite severe arthritis so keeping her hands warm is very important!

I found a pattern called Della Mitts by Holly Terrell, which is a really cute mitten with a variety of stitches. If I tell you the honest truth, I was originally making these for my friend Sarah, for the Hand Warming Swap I am hosting over on the Ravelry group Wish Upon a Star, but I then decided perhaps they weren't for her, and continued them for my friend Gene.

I'm using two yarns: Life 4ply by Stylecraft in Melon, and Sirdar Town & Country 4ply Sock Yarn. The former is leftovers from the Delicate socks and Horseshoe Lace Cowl projects I made last year, and the latter yarn is a very small skein that my Nan gifted me from her stash. I thought these two yarns complemented each other well, and gave this pattern a bit of a 'twist'.

The pattern is very simple, and the only modifications I've made is that I accidentally did two garter ridges rather than three, when separating the lace cuff and the lace hand, and that I used two colours rather than one. Other than that, I have been following the instructions to the letter. I'm now onto the body of the second mitten, and I'm hoping that I'll have them finished by the weekend! :D

 Until tomorrow, dear friends. Until then, why don't you check out some wonderful posts by the rest of the WIP Wednesday gang? I promise you won't regret it!!

Zarah's Cotton Candy Swirl Set

Quite a late update from me today, but I've finally been able to steal away some time to show you all this weeks FOs!

So, this week is all about the baby knit. I've not only been knitting them, I've been thinking up new designs too, which I can't wait to work on. Due to me being very up and down with my M.E this week, I've been working on very simple knits. My first project was the Basic Baby Hat by Heather Tucker. Now, this pattern calls for DK yarn & 4mm needles, but as my friend has just had a baby girl I decided to use my leftovers of Yummy Worsted in Cotton Candy Swirl by (the awesome) Candy Skein. As I was using worsted I dropped to 3.75mm needles, although in retrospect perhaps I should have used  3.5mm DPNs.

The project was lovely and simple, and the pattern was perfect :) I knitted the newborn size, although I believe it is more towards the 6 month size. Enough chat though, here it is!

I love the starfish decrease!

I thought I'd give baby Zarah a pair of mittens as well, so I chose the pattern Fast Baby Mittens by Lucy H. Lee. I used some pink DK Rizzle found in the bottom of her drawer, I am hazarding a guess that it is Stylecraft Special DK in Fondant, but don't hold me to that. The mittens didn't knit up as fast as I'd like, but that might be due to the fact I was knitting at a snail's pace. When I did finish though, I added an i-cord to keep them both together.

Next time I knit this pattern (and I will I assure you) I will make a longer i-cord, but other than that I wouldn't change a thing! :)

I've set aside baby Jack's footie set the moment, as my Knit Pro Spectra Flair tips arrived today so I am finaaaaaaaaaally able to get some work on the Seven Seas Blanket. But I will be taking the hat with me when I go away next weekend (allll by myself - so excited!) so I should get it finished then! :)

For now though, head on over to Tami's to check out more FOs for this week! I hope you all have a lovely weekend x

R is for... Rush!

With my niece/nephew-to-be arriving in a couple of weeks, everyone is rushing around to get everything sorted. With the baby blanket just squares away from being finished, I ran out of yarn. Typical! Instead of just twiddling my thumbs at home while I wait on more yarn, I decided to whip up a few baby booties and mittens.

I don't know about you, but I love baby knits. Quick, easy and ever so cute. I went a little mad with the baby booties and mittens...

Almost finished with the matching booties!

So yes. As you can see I went a little mad. The purple set are going to my friend Jo, who has a gorgeous little girl. And the rest are off to my sister. 

So, time to check out the rest of the ABC Bloggers, click on the links below to find out what R meant to them!

FO Friday: Aneeta Patel Fever!

As I eagerly await Mr.Postman to deliver my soft and squishy parcel, here are my Finished Objects of the week! Alright so I'm cheating, I didn't finish them this week, they were finished about 2 weeks ago when I fled the blogging scene.

Enough with the chit chat, here they are! (The pictures are really bad today, sorry. Camera was being a naughty boy)

First up is a pair of Liquorice Alsorts Baby Mitts. The pattern is by Aneeta Patel, although she just does plain mittens, I decided to spice it up my doing two! They don't look that great in the photograph, but they are very cute in real life.

Next up is another pair of mitts from the same pattern, but this time in plain red! 

I decided to make a matching pair of booties! The pattern is by Aneeta Patel, and she has the pattern for free here if you'd like to give it a bash! I decided to do the last few rows in stocking stitch, for a cute rolled edge! 

And the last FO from when I was sick with Aneeta Patel fever is my Phone Cover, which she calls a Phone Home. Although I like to call it my iTee! I'm not that pleased with it, but it does what its meant to so I can't really complain.

Want to thank you all for the lovely comments you left me on Wednesday, I'm very pleased so many people share the Moss Stitch love! I did finish my headband, but if you want to see that one and others I've been working on, you'll have to pop over on Monday, when H is for... Headbands! I'll be posting again tomorrow with a brand new meme I'm taking part in, so don't forget to come and pay a visit!

For now though, go get your weekly FO fix over at Tami's Amis! 

FO Friday: Running Late

I'm sorry I'm late to the party everyone - but I brought chips and dip!

This week I've stuck to small projects, as I've been busy writing, thrashing my mates at Mario Kart (20-1, who said girls were lame at driving?!) and being sick. Not that I'm giving you excuses or anything...

So this week I have four items to show you. Small, yes, but finished objects nonetheless.

The first is a pair of mittens for my friend Jo, who just had her first child, a beautiful baby girl called Emelia. I thought I would knit little Em her first Hat, Booties & Mittens. The two latter are done, and the hat is ready to be sewn up. So I will be able to give them to Jo on Sunday as planned, HURRAH!

Second, Third AND Fourth are mug hugs. Groan if you will, but I am practising knitting them, as hopefully in the summer I'll be able to start selling them! (Well, I need some income for my yarn addiction, don't I?)

The first one I'd like to show you is the cable mug hug I started last week. I finally finished on Wednesday, while watching Megamind for the upteenth time. I love it. It's so soft and squishy. And because the cables are so thick, it means the tea stays extra hot. Perfect.

My second mug hug is actually another trial run for the pattern I made, just to check it wasn't a fluke. Fortunately it worked out fine. If you would like to try the Simple Mug Hug out for yourself, you can download the pattern for free on Ravely. 

Lastly, is my favourite mug hug of all. It's called Spring Burst. It was initally made for my Mum, but as I write this I'm thinking of giving it to my older sister Sara. Hopefully Mum isn't too emotinally attached yet. This was again using my pattern, all I did was change the colour every 9 rows. 

The colours are so bright and happy, perfect to cheer you up in the morning!

Thought a contrasting button would work well - and it does!

So that's my post for today, hope you weren't too bored. Check back on Monday, where 'C is for... Cables'. Don't miss out!