Friday, June 12, 2009

Houston, We Have Liftoff!

Well, let the mitten knitting begin!

Here is my first attempt at Latvian mittens.




I am really liking the color combination!

The cast on wasn't difficult. It's just the long-tail cast on using two yarns. One color goes around the thumb and the other around the index finger.

The fringe sort of threw me for a loop for a little while. I tried and ripped 3 times before the lightbulb went off on what the directions were saying. Once I figured it out, it went ok. I'm sure mine is too tight and I didn't get it all pulled evenly before securing the stitches in the next round, but what do you expect from a first attempt?!

The braid section was easy, fun and produced a cool result IMHO.

I am actually knitting the colorwork section using two hands, holding the blue in my left hand and knitting it Continental and carrying the cream in my right and knitting it English style. I can see I need to work on making sure my strands aren't too tight so that it doesn't pucker. But I think I'm doing pretting darn good for my first attempt ever.....!

I really like the challege and I'm glad I've set myself the goal of doing these for Christmas.

If there are any female relatives reading this who would like to put in a color request, please leave a comment!!!!!!

Happy Knitting!

3 comments:

McVal said...

wow those are gorgeous! Those Latvians are very stylish! :)

Unknown said...

I love the patterns on these mittens they remind me of a winter coat I have (the woman I bought it from said I was the bohemian type :) and it was perfect for me) It is black wool and has a strip of that really long fir/wool? around the neck and down the front and cuffs, then there is a thin braid of red white and blue pattern running along that. (is that hint subtle enough?)
Hope you take blue for the lot at the Fair!
Ann

JJ said...

Howdy... thought I would drop in after reading all the posts I hadn't read yet and let you know that the coat Sara wears the most is an all black button down coat. I know last year she was searching for mittens in blacks and charcoal colors. Love you so much. Talk to you soon.
Love,
JJ