Christmas Craft 2007

on December 18, 2007

Oh, mushroom farmer gnome, how I love you! These wreaths were my non-knitting Christmas craft of the year, and since they’ve been received by friends already I can show them, because there have got to be more gnome/toadstool freaks out there who’ll love this.

And his closeup:

Links:
The gnomes and trees are from A. Bell Emporium. Amanda’s AWESOME.

Vintage spun cotton mushrooms from D. Blümchen & Company. This website has so much good stuff, I freak out a little.

I got my wreaths from Save-On-Crafts.com, but I suspect big craft stores would have them.

The snow is wool, of course!

Somehow, between finishing up the fiber club and Christmas, I have to make my usual hot chocolate mix (This is a new recipe, so no word on how good it is. I did make the vanilla sugar and we can’t stop putting it in our coffee, so I’ll have to make more. UPDATE: The hot chocolate is excellent- kind of Swiss Miss-y in a happy, cheesy way, but with the yummy vanilla flavor added.), marshmallows, and toffee, plus Parmesan Black Pepper biscotti. I’m totally making recipes I haven’t tried before to give away to people I like. I’m brave bonkers like that. It’s comforting to look back and realize I was this mental last year, as well, because I survived!

Fiber Club People:
Your packages will ship right after Christmas.

Everyone:
Happy holidays!!

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Selbuvotter

on December 11, 2007

I’ve been needing to knit something from Selbuvotter: Biography of a Knitting Tradition, Terri Shea’s fantastic book about these traditional Norwegian stranded mittens, since the day it came in the post months and months ago. It is filled with so many beautiful patterns. One pair, called NHM #10, are especially gorgeous and dainty. They are copied from a pair of mittens housed at the Nordic Heritage Museum in Seattle, WA that feature a lovely scroll on the back, as well as the date (1932) and someone’s initials. Resistance of knitted lettering is futile.

Here’s my start. The yarn is Harrisville New England Shetland, bought on cones at Webs, where they have giant racks of these seductive cones, in Red and Oatmeal. The pattern calls for a gauge of 9.5 sts. per inch, and the book sample was knit at 13 sts. per inch, but I’m going for 8.5 so that there’s some room for a lining.

The pattern has a short ribbed edging, but these mittens are so pretty, I felt they deserved a picot hemmed edge, non-traditional as that may be. I used to use a provisional cast-on for hems, but have been using the backwards loop cast on lately and it’s really nice and stretchy and works very well, all while being less fiddly than a provisional cast on. For this hem, I cast on, knit 9 rounds in oatmeal, one in red, did the *yo, k2tog* picot round in red, knit the next round in red, then 9 more rounds in oatmeal. Then, to knit the hem up, folded it so the cast on edge met the stitches on the needle, lining up the first cast on stitch with it’s corresponding first stitch of the round on the needle. I snagged the first cast on edge loop with the right needle, placed it on the left needle, and knit it together with the first stitch of the round. I then knit the second cast on stitch with the second stitch on the needle. Works great.

Here’s another way to do a picot edge.

This one’s especially happy-making with its red teeth, don’t you think? The inside of the hem is super neat and tidy, which is certainly pleasing, as well!

I got my book straight from Terri Shea’s Selbuvotter website and it came signed and numbered, which is so nice. Be sure to check the site for errata if you get this book, which I highly recommend!

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