Peerie Flooers Hat

The Peerie Flooers hat is done, to match the mittens I finished a couple weeks ago.  It's amazing how much faster the knitting went on a circular needle, and having memorized the pattern.  I also added a soft merino hem lining, as in the mittens, since my forehead is sensitive to itchy wool.

I made a tiny alteration to the last two rounds of the crown: instead of k2tog around I worked *k1, sl2 k1 psso* leaving 6 sts.  This continued the lines of the centered double decreases.  I'm quite pleased with myself, even though very few people will be tall enough to notice, lol.

In a future post I'll explain how I solved--in this case at least--the problem of the end of round jog.

Mittens in June

I finished the Peerie Flooers mittens and finally took some photos of them.  There were lots of ends to weave in!  I'm now working on the matching hat.

Ta da!

The thumbs are quite fancy.  There's a neat blue floral design under the red flower.


I redesigned the top of the mittens: the pattern as written would have been 1" too long.  This is the result:
(it looks better in person)

I was able to squeeze out both mittens and the hat with one ball of light blue, but needed two balls of natural.

Super soft merino cuff lining :)

In real life, I've had a couple weeks of daily migraines.  Most days it's an all-day thing so I've gotten very little done.

Easy (Almost) Invisible Fair Isle Increase

I wanted to share a simple increase for colorwork knitting.  When used on the thumb gussets of the Peerie Flooers Mittens the result is practically invisible.

Knit to your increase point, knit the stitch with both colors, and you've worked the increase!  For the gusset I increased after the first marker and before the second marker every round.  I really like that it doesn't draw pull the work vertically like a lifted increase.

One downside: both colors of yarn are slightly visible at the base of each stitch, especially before blocking.  Your increase also cannot be the same color as the stitches on both sides.

Insert needle to knit

Wrap both colors of yarn around the needle

Pull both strands through and one stitch has become two

After working 3 inc's on each side

Other side of gusset

The finished gusset

One Mitten Down...

Or almost.  I'm waiting to finish the thumbs until I've knit the matching hat: changes can be made if I run low on certain colors of yarn.

The mittens were going to turn out a little big as written so I removed one row of red flowers and charted two blue flowers for the tip.  I like the result.  The tip will be seamlessly grafted with matching yarn, I wanted to try them on first though.

Unfortunately I cut myself making dinner on Fri so knitting is on hold.  It's looking much better by today and I know from experience that sharp knife cuts heal quickly.  Stabbings really hurt!

Oww

Mitten Progress

I'm sick this weekend so will show photos of my in-progress mitten. I was getting very excited about this mitten being close to finished, then I remembered it's only one of a pair ;)  Plus a hat!

Flower pattern

For the non-knitters, the fabric is a little rumply until you steam or wash it.  The final product will be gorgeous.

Knitting Flowers

A few days ago I started the Peerie Flooers mittens, an amazing colorwork pattern that's fun to knit.  The cuffs are done in corrugated ribbing which leaves strands of yarn across the back, so they're lined with soft merino.  The cuff edge will be covered in I-cord, a 3st tube.

I'd started the second flower repeat, they're in dark green and red, but didn't like my thumb gusset so ripped back.  I then found a cool way to increase, the tutorial is here.

Mitten so far

Lining

I knit "inside out" in the round, which has the benefit of keeping the floats (strands of unused yarn) loose.

Mitten in progress

I have a new header in honor of spring :)  North of Seattle are amazing tulip fields started by Dutch immigrants who found the area very similar to their homeland.  It's a beautiful place to visit this time of year.