• be felted so that they’re thick and somewhat wind-proof.
• be a little loose to fit over her fingerless gloves.
• be fingerless with one flap over the fingers and one flap over the thumb.
• have a credit card sized pocket on the back

She decided that she wants them to be purple, which is great because I just so happen to have some purple worsted weight 100% wool yarn in my stash. I’ve found patterns for felted mittens and I’ve found patterns for unfelted fingerless mittens made with sport weight yarn, but I have not found a pattern that meets this list of demands. So, it seems, I will have to venture into the world of pattern writing. Up until now, I have been more than content to follow other people’s patterns, but if anyone was going to push me to the next level it would be Katian.

Since it’s my first time making up a pattern and I’ve never really made mittens before I’m going to take elements that I need from several different patterns and mash them up. I’m hopeful that I can properly synthesize everything into a working mitten the first time around if I really plan everything well. Here are my preliminary ideas (yes, I enjoy bulleted lists whenever possible):

• This set of patterns from the purl bee gives the basic construction of flip-top fingerless mittens, but they’re made out of sport weight and DK yarns. I might be able to use the same number of stitches with my worsted weight yarn and have it come out big enough to felt down to the right size or I might have to increase the number of stitches… or decrease the number of stitches…
• This pattern has the pocket, but it’s not free. I think I could pretty easily make up my own pocket.
• This pattern might be a good reference for how large I need to make the mittens before felting.
• I’m going to have to invent a thumb flap. What I’ve seen on some gloves in stores is a hole in the thumb instead of a flip-top. The only thing is that the edges of the hole overlap and I’m not sure how I could knit it that way.

I’m going to work on the math and see what I come up with.

im not sure he understood i was asking him to take pictures of the embroidery

Originally uploaded by katian

This is a hat made for Katian. I used the rangoli hat pattern by desi knitter and Moda Dea silk ‘n wool blend yarn. I also made one in purple because she loved it so much.

sock

Originally uploaded by bonbon16_98

This was the very first pair of socks that I knit. I used Miss Bab’s yummy sock yarn (100% superwash merino wool) and the Berry Season pattern from 2-at-a-time Socks by Melissa Morgan-Oakes. I learned the magic loop method from this book and I have been using it for every circular project since. I’ve never been a fan of dpn’s and have mostly used two circulars in the past, so I like this method because you only need one needle. I have also found that it’s easier to teach beginners how to use the magic loop rather than dpn’s or two circulars.

Unfortunately, these socks turned out a bit too small. You can see in the pic that they do go on my foot but they are so stretched my big toe is peeking out the top. Part of the reason they ended up small was that I was so eager to be done that I started the toe decreases too early, so the length is a bit short. They are also a bit lacking in width because I tend to knit tight. I know for my next pair of socks that I need to be patient and probably make the next size up.

cloche hat

Originally uploaded by bonbon16_98

This is a felted cloche hat I made from this this pattern by f.pea. I used Lion Brand wool in cadet blue and pumpkin. I didn’t intend for the colors to turn out so garish, but there weren’t very many options of colors that made a nice contrast with the blue.

On a serious note, I just learned how to knit a few years and after learning all the basics am starting to develop my own ideas and patterns. I will keep a log here of my knitting projects, pictures of completed things, links to others designs and patterns and instructions for my own designs. Please feel free to comment!

Thanks, Bonnie