Fingerless Mitts

So I finally finished my fingerless mitts! Check them out...













You can see the colors pretty well in these photos. The pinks, blue, and green really stand out, along with the blue.

These colors really pop! I was hoping that they would not run together too much in the drum carder. I ran them through three times.






I managed to keep the cuffs four inches. I totally lucked out! I was worried that I was going to have to make them shorter and have to rip out everything and start over, but I managed to have enough!









So, what do you think?

I know I'm going to make another pair. I have some Polwarth/Silk in my fiber stash that I might spin up.

I am loving this!

Homework

My last class is this week and I'm almost done with my homework. I never thought that I would actually enjoy having homework, but tell me that I have to knit two cuffs (or anything for that matter) by next class, and I'll be on it!

I started cuff #2 last night after winding up the lovely ball of my handspun yesterday. It's looking good! I wasn't knitting as tight as I did the first one, so I had to start adjusting my tension a wee bit so that it will somewhat match. Usually I don't have an issue with my tension, but seeing that I wasn't the happiest person due to the talking back/argumentative teenager in my house, I was off and frustrated and managed to take it out on cuff #1.

According to the pattern that I'm loosely following, the cuff should be a minimum of three inches... I like them longer since my coat has larger sleeves that allow the cold air to flow right up my arm. I purposely made some fancy wrist warmers (initially they were ankle warmers) that tucked up into the sleeves and flared out over my hands to keep the wind from flowing in. They've been wonderful. I'm hoping I'll be able to wear the fingerless mitts without these wrist warmers, hence the extra inch.

So, I have probably an inch and a half done on cuff #2, with two and a half inches left...

Do you think I'll have it finished tonight?

Spin those samples

...and then start your project.

I picked up some fiber from Shuttles, Spindles, and Skeins a while back. They started carrying a new line of fiber from a local dyer, MJ Yarns. It's an 80/20 blend of merino/silk and it spun up nicely. The color is called Cerulean Twilight. There are different hues of blues and green along with some hints of purple.

Since this is for a hat, I wanted the yarn to be nice and warm, so I spun it up woolen. It's a close to worsted weight yarn for the hat Karenin by Woolly Wormhead. I already started knitting the hat and it's looking good! I love how the color changes throughout the knitted fabric. The hat is going to be so pretty!

I've also been busy doing my homework for a Spin to Knit class that I am taking. We are learning the step by step process for spinning for a project. The project we're making are some fingerless mitts by Roxana Designs.

The first class was a blast! We practiced spinning woolen, figured out the number of plies we wanted for our mitts and determined the WPI. I decided make mine a two ply.

For colors, I picked out a bright blue, pink, purple, and green. I wanted the blue to be the main color with more pink and purple and then the green as an accent color in the mix. Once I picked them out, I ran them through the drum carder (note that the use of the drum carder was a first for me... I've seen them used in videos and in person at a fiber festival, but never used one). Can you say WOW?! Oh my, this was such a wonderful and exciting first for me! I had the best time running all of those pieces of roving through the drum carder. The blending that took place and just watching all of the colors come together so beautifully was so cool! I didn't think it would be that much fun, but it was such a treat! Now I want a drum carder, well, actually, I need a drum carder.

The end result was a beautiful batt that I spun up, plied, and drooled over during the entire process. The fiber prep made an immense difference when spinning the fiber. The carded fiber was so airy, it practically spun itself.

The first skein has already been knit up into a cuff, waiting to transform into a mitt. The second skein was plied and washed yesterday. I hung it up to dry last night, so it should be ready to go today so I can start knitting the second cuff.
 What do you think of these colors? I really like the way this skein turned out.

I can't wait to finish these fingerless mitts!