Christmas Knitted Up

                                

          This year I'm knitting everyone a gift. I started with my son's girlfriend Emily's gift- Maize Mittens figuring it would be the easiest.

                                                                         Emily enjoying a skate with her Maize Mittens.

Maize Mitts- Well it is my first mitten experience but it took me 2 weeks and so many rip outs I lost count! But it was worth it. The pattern is wonderful and is actually meant for a beginner in mittens. A lot of it is tutorials on how to do it. 

                                                      

                                                             

So in the end I was pleased  because when faced with my son's Fingerless Gloves with a Mitten Cap- I needed the experience- I kinda, sorted knew  what I was doing. His pattern for Urban Necessity Gloves: Subway Knitter- urban necessity pdf

A Ravelry member's version of The Urban Necessity Gloves:

Pictures on my son's Urban Necessity Fingerless Gloves with a Mitten Cover will come when I finish. Right now I'm figuring out a hole for the capped thumbs- my own addition.

OK- so I'm back. My son wanted these holes in the thumbs and I think I've got it figured out, but by the time I get to the other glove I might forget. So here are my adjustments to add an inside hole to the thumb:

After attaching the yarn to the open unfinished thumb hole, I did about two rows, connecting the 2 open ends with a cross-over of 2 stitches. I then turned my knitting around (I'm on 4 double pt. needles) and purled backwards the way I came- binding off a little loosely- 5 stitches (a hole!). Then I fudged things....I continued purling "backwards" (adding a complete row) and bringing my yarn back to the beginning. I then knit cast on 5 stitches onto my needle and started knitting these cast-on stitches in the correct direction. Some kinda fudged moves - there will be a dangling bottom half to the hole- I picked it up  by knitting the end stitch with the dangling end and the other end I did another crossover of stitches. So there are some gaps which I'll need to hand fix with yarn later. I think this will help me figure out the other glove- but I'm probably not clear enough for someone else. I'm sure there's a better way- but this will have to do.

Finished Mitt-Gloves: Perfect Mitt-Gloves (Ravelry site for more details & pattern).

Knitting On

     This blog has been temporarily on hiatus because of  having developed carpel tunnel in my wrists. So running an Etsy account is not possible. But I have had a lot of victory simply knitting for family. So eventually with time I'll post what I am knitting and my progress.
I am just happy to be able to knit- prayer and wrist exercises

and possibly just knitting a lot has strengthened my wrists and helped improve my dexterity and I have less numbness now.

So as of now I keep on knitting!

1/19/16- A quick update to say my wrists are sooooooo much better. Some numbness is there, but I am able to knit almost all day- well it's more like-  read-go do a chore- knit-read-bake (like homemade Whole Wheat Raisin Walnut Sourdough)- knit-read some more-take my daily walk, do dishes, and after dinner, knit some more while watching Arrow or Flash!  And lately you can add blogging about knitting. But the more I knit the better it's been. I think it's prayer & more strength from knitting. My hubby thinks it's my blood pressure finally down. So whatever the reason I'm thankful and I'm going to try and go forward with my Knitting Etsy store in the Fall selling cowls- hopefully of my own designs. So that's where I'm at. I'll keep hoping and praying my hands keep working and perhaps make sure I pace myself- even if it is a baking-walk-clean-read book-blog break!