Monday 22 December 2008

Montreal Habs Mittens

I wanted to post AFTER Christmas, on the off-chance that the people that I knitted for read this... but I was just so excited about this latest pattern that I couldn't wait! I knitted up some Montreal Canadiens mittens for a friend:


I got a lot of positive responses from Ravelry, so I decided to write up the pattern on how I made the C:

You will need: Red, blue, and white yarn, size 3.00 crochet hook, sewing needle

If you have your own favourite basic mittens pattern, you can follow those, and just include the coloured stripes in the appropriate places (wrist and palm). The only thing that really matters for the "C" pattern is the gauge, because the “C” involves a certain number of stitches.

My gauge for these mittens was approximately 22 st for 4’’, and I used size 4 needles. The yarn I chose was Patons Classic Wool Merino (approx. 170 yds of red, and 50 yds of white), and Cascade 220 (approx. 80 yds of blue). I made this as a size large men’s mitt (finished length was around 8.5’’, minus length of the cuff), and I lined them with fleece to make them extra warm. I worked 2 rows in a K2P2 ribbing for the blue, then 3 rows of K2P2 in white, then switched to the red until the striping for the "C" pattern.

Montreal Canadiens “C” chart:

You can either:

- carry the red yarn through your stripe and try the colourwork, but it might be tricky and really ugly in the back because the red yarn has to travel across several stitches

or

- Do a duplicate stitch overtop of your blue stripe (this is what I recommend). If you need a tutorial on how to do a duplicate stitch, please refer to a Duplicate Stitch- How-To .


Tips:

-if you DO decide to do the duplicate stitch method, I would recommend finishing the stripe, but don’t close the top of the mitten until you’ve stitched on the entire C pattern (its easier, trust me).

-The crochet edge might seem a little tricky at first and you might want to practice it on a scrap square (or search the internet for instructions on how-to)

Instructions:

1. Complete the stripes on your mitt like the chart says (3 rows of white, 7 rows of blue, and 3 rows of white).

2. Start the chart by cutting a length of red yarn (you will need enough for all the red C stitches). Follow the pattern for the duplicate stitch of the C:



3. Once you are done the C, cut a long length of white to do the H in the middle. You should cut a long amount of white yarn, because you will use this to do a crochet stitch around the C after (to neaten it up).

4. Take your size 3.00 crochet hook (or something similar in size) and crochet around the edge of the C. Be careful not to cover up too much red (but don’t leave gaps between the C and the blue stripe).


Just hook the white yarn from the bottom of the mitten and pull up a small loop. (Make sure the loop isn’t too small or tight, or else your C will not sit flat). With the stitch on the hook, insert the hook into the C and catch the white yarn on the underside and pull this loop through the first one. Continue around the C.

Your finished white C should look something like this:


5. Finally, cut a long length of blue yarn so you can complete the blue outside of the C. I put the blue crochet edge on the outside of the C only:


Thanks for reading!

If there are any problems please let me know! My name is knittypie on Ravelry

All pictures copyright 2008 Corina Irvine (all rights reserved).

Sunday 7 December 2008

I'm sorry I neglected my blog-posting!

So I've been busy... clearly I've neglected this blog because I haven't posted since August (sorry)! Well that is going to change. So maybe you're wondering what have I been up to? Well I went on holidays in September, and I was away for work for a month in October. So you can see how it would be hard to make things... but that is all going to change. Sadly, I'm not taking holidays for a while, and I have no plans to leave for a month with work anytime soon.

Lets get to the crafts! I spent a lot of time sewing up some cute little bags for my first-ever craft sale on Nov 29th. It was a good experience, but little disappointing because the sale was *really* slow. The community centre didn't advertise like I thought, and I didn't sell out of my bags (which I thought would happen. Better luck next year? I was thinking of selling the rest of them on etsy, but that requires a lot of setup! Anyways, this is a sample of what they looked like:



I also made some awesome mittens, called "Bird in Hand" mittens (Designed by Kate Gilbert)
(Ravelry Link)





I'll post sometime next week!
~knittypie