Peruvian Pure Alpaca Fina

The Tijeras Mitten pattern is now available HERE on Patternfish (I'm working on uploading all of my single patterns there) and HERE on Lulu.

I received an email from Elann that they are discontinuing the Peruvian Pure Alpaca Fina due to lack of sales. I'm bummed because I have lots of colors and now I can't design any more projects with it. (HERE are the Arctic Spring Mittens I designed with this pretty yarn.) In fact I'm using the Alpaca Fina right now for the Selbu Modern hat seen below. We extended the Selbu Modern KAL on Ravelry's Stranded forum through the end of December so if  you still want to get involved, go HERE.

Fortunately Elann's thicker Peruvian Pure Alpaca is still in production. I've chosen these colors to make a hat for DH. He requested a pointy hat with ear flaps but I'm not sure that is what I'll do.

The next KAL for Ravelry's Stranded Forum will be an accessory using the massive Drops free pattern archive. Go HERE to vote for which pattern - the Drops KAL will begin Dec 1 and run through the end of January.

Tijeras Mittens

These soft and warm mittens are knit from four new colors of Vermont O~Wool which is a lovely organic merino yarn. The pattern is currently available HERE on Ravelry and it will be up on Patternfish and in my Lulu store soon. I thought the color patterns reminded me of cut-outs so I named them Tijeras which means scissors in Spanish.

The mittens are knit from cuff to tip and feature a peasant thumb and a ribbed cuff. Because O~Wool Classic 2-ply is so thick and springy, consider using a sport weight yarn if you're going to substitute. The pattern is 56 sts around. I included separate charts for each hand to keep the row join on the outside of the mitten.

MATERIALS:

One (1.75 oz/50 g) skein O~Wool Classic 2 ply organic merino wool yarn (198 yards) in each of four colors: Plum (Color A), Evergreen (Color B), Lilac (Color C), and Mulberry (Color D)

A set of 4 or 5 size 3/3.00 mm dpns or 2 size 3/3.00 mm circs or size needed to get gauge

SIZE: Women’s Small. Width - 8“/20 cm, Length from cuff to tip - 11”/28 cm


GAUGE: 14 sts = 2"/5 cm, 20 rows = 2"/5 cm To save time, take time to check gauge.

Inside Out Sweater

I will have a finished mitten design to show you this weekend when DH is available to take photographs. I used Vermont O~Wool's Classic-2 ply which is an organic merino wool. Every time I knit with merino I get so thrilled with the softness and elasticity that I declare I will only knit with merino wool from here on out. Of course I make the same ridiculous pronouncements whenever I knit with cashmere as well!

To my knitter's eye there was something weird about this sweater when I first saw it in the Territory Ahead catalog. On second viewing I realized half of it is inside out so the floats are on the front. What do you think? They call it a mixed-knit sweater and the upper sleeves are lower torso are inside out.

Here's a view of storm clouds approaching the Sandia Mountains. This is actually the other side of the Sandia Mountains that you usually see in my photos and was taken in Bernalillo, NM. They call my side of the mountains the green side so I guess this is the dry side of the mountains. Some say the mountains are named Sandia (watermelon in Spanish) because of the gorgeous rosy color they turn in a sunset but I've also heard that the early Native American settlers actually grew watermelon.

Today's Color Knitting Links:

Check out Mary Ann's gorgeous Polar Bear Chullo pattern in the winter Twist Collective. If I wasn't still laboring to finish another fine gauge hat (Selbu Modern) I'd cast on for this one immediately. Mary Ann also is offering yarn kits for the pattern HERE. Also in Twist Collective is the Frost Tapestry pattern - you get the pattern for the hat, mittens, and neckwarmer that calls for Elann's Peruvian Pure Alpaca.

Mitten knitter extraordinaire Ann (pinneguri on Ravelry) offers some beautiful free colorwork patterns - I just love her Latvian mitten pattern.

Here's another tutorial on How To Catch Floats in Fair Isle Knitting.

Bea Ellis Knitwear is having a 20% off sale on Dale of Norway's Baby Ull yarn. Would you believe that I've never knit with it? I even have some in my stash. I'm going to pick out some colors to design a pair of colorwork gloves.

Here's an apron useful for color knitters to help keep track of all the balls of yarn while you're knitting. I like that they mention it helps you avoid tripping over a strand of yarn when you get up to answer the door. Been there, done that a million times!

For those of you who love traditional Fair Isle knitting in naturally-colored wool, check out the always-amazing Ron Schweitzer. It looks like his newest collection is called Shetland Lighthouses.

Dale of Norway now sells directly to the public. Check out their close-out pattern and book shop to grab all the booklets before they disappear forever.

I just found these gorgeous hats on the Virtual Yarns web site. It sounds like you get enough Hebridean 2-ply yarn in 10 colors and the patterns from Ms. Starmore to make all three hats for around $60 US. HERE's a larger view. Breathtaking!!