Knitting on the Road

A quick post from the suburbs of Houston. Both my hotel and the facility where my course is being held are located in Katy Mills, which is essentially an enormous shopping mall surrounded by big-box stores, chain restaurants, and Interstate 10. Needless to say, this is a purpose-driven visit, not a vacation!

As the neighbourhood does not offer much in the way of culture to take in, there has been significant knitting progress.

This is my Trellis baby cardigan in progress:


It's just zipping along. Luckily I brought along JoJo too, in case I get this finished before my return home. I can't imagine anything worse than a full day of flying with nothing to knit!

Last evening I went exploring the enormous shopping mall next door. In a store called Books-A-Million (How could I not check that out?!), I found this little gem:


I don't know why I've never heard of this book before, other than perhaps that it's very new (published in 2008). I haven't examined it in too much detail yet, but it appears to have very clear diagrammatic instructions for toe-up socks, including multiple cast-ons, and both short-row and flap heels, and a handful of patterns at the back. As I have struggled with my couple of attempts at toe-up socks thus far, I think this may be a useful little addition to my collection.

Mitts and Books

Those of you who have been reading for a while might remember my plans last year to research and document the traditional Newfoundland finger mitt. Well, I've been working on it slowly. I spent a wonderful day buried in historical newspapers and magazines at the Centre for Newfoundland studies at Memorial University when I was home at Christmas. I found very little in the way of written patterns, and those that do exist are very informal. One small-town newspaper printed a pattern in the 1970's, but forgot to print the chart for the pattern part of the mitt. The next issue ran the correction, and a cute little letter from the lady who submitted the pattern, correcting the mistake, because of course you couldn't expect the men who ran newspapers to know anything about knitting!

One book that I have found very helpful is this one:


Robin Hansen has collected a bunch of mitten patterns from eastern Canada and Maine. The mittens I have been looking for are in here, but they're still not exactly the same pattern knit in the area where I grew up. The book does have a lot of great tips on techniques for stranded mittens though, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who's interested in really warm wooly mittens.

So using the references I've collected, and deconstructing several mittens knit by others, I have started putting togehter a pattern. Here's my first pair:

Traditional Newfoundland Mittens, in Briggs and Little Heritage (blue) and Briggs and Little Tuffy (white). Knit on 3.75 mm dpns. (Shown prior to blocking)

These aren't actually finger mitts, but regular mitts. I thought I'd try to learn the technique in its simplest form to start. Here's what the palm looks like:


Figuring out the thumb gore was interesting, but I finally got the increases to work and the dark stripe to stay where I wanted it. They got progressively better as I worked through them. There are a lot of things to think about, especially preventing ladders in the middle of the palm, always keeping the darker colour "ahead", and keeping the tension even. These are really tightly knit, for a very dense fabric. I started out making them for me, but the gauge was all wrong, so they turned out husband-sized. (Which is fine and makes a husband very happy.) I am going to experiment some more with finer yarn and different decrease methods at the top, and eventually write a formal pattern.

And while I'm talking about books, I spent some gift cards this week that were burning a hole in my pocket:


I want one of these.

Stich and Kitch

I wasn't planning to post today, since I haven't got a lot to show. My Swallowtail shawl is nearly done, but it just looks like a pile of unblocked lace. Hopefully I'll be able to share fun blocking photos soon.

But then I dropped into my neighbourhood thrift shop this afternoon. I love browsing the clothes there, and I usually find something fun every time I go. They have a great selection of books too. I've never found much in the crafts section before, but today I couldn't resist these two.


The Family Knits book is typical 80's style, complete with headbands and legwarmers. But some of the designs might be adaptable, and if nothing else, there are great Scandanavian colourwork charts.

But here's the real find. Royal Knits: Designer Kntting for the Monarchy and Monarchists, by Nicolette McGuire is a piece of work. It totally cracks me up. Besides the full royal uniform on the cover (and several other replica military uniforms), there are patterns for crown jewels:

(the crown doubles as a tea cozy!); "at home" outfits for the royals:


The "twinset" is a one piece sweater with fake cardigan fronts! Check out the corgi slippers! Even the pearls are knitted!; and of course, a complete royal breakfast:


(yes, the egg, bacon and sausage are all knit too!). There are also patterns for the "throne room" (toilet seat cover and floor mat), a sweater, cushion, collar, and booties for the royal corgi, several QEII-style hats, aNnd other treasures.

I can't imagine a use for any of this, but oh my gosh, is it ever hilarious! I will treasure this one in my collection forever.