Friday, November 6, 2009

Knitting Nights

Yesterday it flurried off and on for most of the day here in Maine. By late afternoon it was snowing more heavily, and this was the landscape this morning when I woke up--about three inches of snow on the ground. The leaves haven't even finished falling off the trees yet. In the seven years we've lived up here, I can't remember that it ever snowed this early in the season, and I sure hope this isn't a precursor of what winter is going to be like this year.

I haven't worked on my September Sun any more this week, but I have been doing some knitting. November marks the beginning of a new challenge in my Knitting Nights class--mittens. We are making two styles, mittens with thrums and felted mittens. For those who may not know, thrums are tufts of unspun wool that are knit into the mitten. On the outside they look like little colored V's in the pattern. On the inside, all the fluffy bits of wool are exposed, and eventually they'll all mat together and make a nice thick cozy mitten. This is the beginning of what will be a thrummed mitten. ......Actually I suppose this looks like the beginning of a sock too.

October was more a month of knitting rather than quilting finishes. I finished up this little yellow sweater from the September class, size 1T. We've done baby sweaters before, but this was knit from the top down, all in one piece, all on a circular needle. The idea behind the top down sweater is that when you're done knitting, you're done. No seams to sew up. I LOVED this method.

I also finished the fishtail lace scarf I started in class several months ago, made a nice thick scarf for one of my sons, and made a beanie for the other one. Now I'm working on a beanie for my husband along with the mittens.

The burgundy scarf was a trip to make. My son wanted it really long so he could wrap it around his neck, so I used a super bulky yarn and size 13 (big) needles in a K1, P1 pattern. The fishtail lace scarf took weeks for me to finish. I knitted 6 feet of the burgundy scarf in 4 days. I had so much fun with it I may have to make one for myself.

Who'd have thought I'd be needing hats, scarves, and mittens in the beginning of November?


















Did you know you can wind a whole ball of yarn on your thumb? As a beginning knitter, I recognized that I couldn't knit from a hank because it would get tangled, but I had no idea how to wind a ball of yarn. The automatic winders are silly expensive to me, so I googled it and discovered several methods for accomplishing the task. My favorite was this one. The idea here is to wind it in such a way that you can pull from the center of the ball when you're knitting, which I think is just so cool.

7 comments:

Lurline said...

Oh, it all so so cold, but pretty! It is so long since I visited, I hope you haven't forgotten me, Sue, LOL! Love your progress with knitting!
Hugs - Lurline♥

Apple Avenue Quilts said...

Beautiful knitting!

Patchmaker said...

So glad to hear you're knitting thrummed mittens too! Looks like you're using bamboo needles too. Thanks for the tip about winding yarn balls; I'll check the net for methods!

Maggie

Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson said...

We have had early snows some years but this year we are getting our warm weather in Nov. It is supposed to be 70 today.

The "thrums" is interesting. I had never heard of it.

Knitting from the neck down would be the only way I would stick with it. I hated sewing the pieces of the sweater together.

Judy S. said...

Brrrr! Those mittens will come in handy, I think. Thrums sound very interesting as does your thumb ball winding. Could you share the link for that?

Margo in Maine said...

Oh my you are really into knitting...looks great...snow pics just a reminder of what is to come...I was up early taking pics for my son in Tn and sending so his 5th grade class could see them..until....

Jackie's Stitches said...

I've never heard of thrums before! Good to learn something new.

I had my fingerless mitts on last week. It's wonderful to have a hand knit to wear when you need one!