Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Seekrit Christmas Knitting

I am not a Christmas knitter. People in my family and friends have not received knitted gifts from me for Christmas and I don't know that they ever will. I do knit for them. But, I am not so disillusioned as to think that I would be able to hit a deadline, let alone Christmas, and have knitted items for everyone.

This year, however, I entered a swap on Ravelry. It's part of the "Super Swappers" group. You have to include yarn and the rest is up to you....value $30. The yarn is on it's way (to be sent out again, of course).

In the mean time, I knit up these Candy Cane Mitts. My own "made up as I went" pattern, and I like it.



The woman I am swapping with (it's a Secret Santa swap, so she doesn't know it's me) cannot actually eat candy canes, so I thought this would be a nice substitute.



Yes, there are two.

They came out pretty nice. I like the striping/spirally pattern. You just cast one less than [an even number] (in this case 6) x [your stripe repeat] (in this case 6, 3 red + 3 white)....35. Knit in the round, you will have a cute little spiral going up the arm/wrist/head/whatever you knit it for. I saw this originally on Ruth's blog in a hat (where she did a 4 one color, 4 another color repeat on 87 stitches I believe for a hat). Ruth is knittingbloggyblog. Can't link, but it's on the sidebar.





2 comments:

Candy Rant said...

OK, those rock. Furiously. What a cool present!!!

laurazim said...

Super cute. There is a name for these--"wristies". They are fantastic for anyone who tends to get cold hands, and who does tedious-type handiwork--typing, needlework, knitting, piano-playing, etc. The theory (and it's a correct one, by the way) is that if the blood flowing to the hands through the wrists is kept warm, then the hands will remain relatively warm.

There was a lady who worked in the Camp office where I worked as cook...the office there is a converted garage, and very poorly insulated. She'd whip out her wristies in about mid-November and wear them clear through April. Good thing, too, since that's when all the camper applications were processed!! Hers were made from very thin micro-fleece. I could see these in a very, very light-weight (but toasty warm) marino wool...they would be delicious.

My sister-in-law, infamous for her thriftiness of course, made some as a Christmas gift for me from felted cashmere sweater sleeves...she just cut a slit for the thumb in the side seam. Unfortunately, she also wrapped them in an antique soap box, which meant that although it made a very pretty package, three years later they still stink like an old lady with bad taste in perfume.