Shark Fin Mittens

When the winter time is here it is neccessary to have great mittens to warm your frozen hands during the chilly evening walk with the dog, or bear, or whatever... If you are going to have mittens, why don't you spice them up with some cool shark fins! :) Well, that was the question I asked myself and then I came up with these cuties!

The pattern for these mittens is actually a combination of two patterns which is a bit strange, well... that is the way I am really... mixing and matching freely between patterns to make my "own thing". I don't know why I can't just let it be, it happens only sometimes when I really like a full pattern and then I can use is like crazy haha! The patterns is from Drops Design Studio's website where you can find many many free patterns - a treasure of creativity!

The idea with the sharkfins is my own idea, I have not seen it anywere else. Since I think it it terribly hard to work intarsia knitting I decided to sew these shark fins with stitches after I finished the mittens so it will look like I have knitted them :) Why make things the hard way when you can make it the easy way, right?

Happy knitting everyone!

Purple Knitted Mittens

In Sweden we are starting to get closer to winter time, and this morning we had -11 degrees Celsius. It is the perfect time to curl up in the armchair under a cozy warm blanket and knit mittens.
This model is borrowed from Drops Design Studio's homepage and you can choose your language in the menu at the right under the picture in the pattern.

If the thought of making your own mittens have crossed your mind once or twice my advise is "Go for it!", because it really is easy once you understand the pattern instructions and it really feels great to put the finished mittens on your hands and be able to say "I made these" to all of your friends and family :) Maybe you even surprise someone with a great homemade christmas gift <3

Since I always do "my own thing" with patterns I find, I just made stocking stitch for these mittens and used two purple colors to lighten things up a bit. I really like the type of ending in the top, it turned out very good. I hope my friend feels warm this winter when she gets this gift :)
Happy knitting everyone!

Blue Knitted Mittens

I took a glance into my basket of yarns and found some unfinished business. A half-finished sad little mitten was hanging around with the yarn balls thinking about if it ever would be a real mitten someday. Actually that mitten has been laying around ever since last winter when I thought it would be nice to knit mittens for my husband for Chrismas. However, I had too little time back then and I decided to give him something else.
Well now the half-finished mitten is finished and so is his brother :)

I combined two patterns for these mittens and that is because I started making a model were every finger is individual but I found that it was too hard for me so I found a pattern with only the individual thumb. Here is the free pattern for mittens with individual fingers and here you find the free pattern for the mittens with only individual thumb.

The yarn I used is acrylic and it has its positive and negative features for sure. The positive features are the strong bright colors that is not very common in cotton yarns or wool, at least not where I live. The negative features are that the garment you make will almost always get uneven on the knitted surface unlike wool or cotton who will stay firm amd smooth.

Knitted mittens and cap

About three years ago I made these mittens and cap as a first Christmas gift for my boyfriend, now husband. It was the first knitting project I had ever done and I remember knitting on the bus every morning on my way to work to get it finished in time. My mother, who has knitted and sewn ever since I can remember, helped me understand the knitting pattern and I think it took about two months to finish both mittens and cap. I really don't know what type of yarn it is (it is actually three different yarns I found in my mothers basket full of mixed residual yarns). Later on I sew a fleece lining which was very appreciated during the really cold days.

I am glad to say that my husband has used them very much - I actually had to mend (sadly it was impossible to make it nice and neat because of the damage) two big holes on each thumb just a week ago, but now he can use them again :) or perhaps they have to wait in the drawer until next winter since the spring is coming with big steps...!