My mittens history. Ready for winter now? + Hyrna Herborgar KAL: Pictures.

As I advanced in my last post I have been working on a pair of mittens to have a full set of new "winter accessories".

I haven't knitted to many mittens since I began knitting at the end of 2008. I have made only three pairs plus a pair of wristwarmers (that I made to learn how to make a gusset for the thumb).

So going back a little bit on time, my mittens history would look like this:

My first finished project almost three years ago was actually a pair of mittens!

I made them with Álafoss lopi on 6mm needles. I made the design... well, if this can be called a design. It is just a few stripes :)

They came out quite ok. It wasn't so bad to be my first real project. I struggled a little bit making the decreases on top of the mittens. I think that by then I didn't even understand well how decreases slant. 

I have worn them A LOT. And they are still in very good conditions. In this picture it is possible to see better the decreases mess I made on top of the mittens :)

Then I made the wrist warmers as an exercise to learn how to make a gusset. I used pretty much the same stripe idea that I used on my first mittens.

I made these ones with létt lopi on 4mm needles.

When my sister saw them she waned them... so they flew all the way to Chile :)

The gusset was no problem, it was much easier that I thought and the result was quite OK :)

The third pair I made was a Christmas present for my dear friend Kristina who really likes to take pictures. To make this ones I followed the pattern that Bea Aarebrot shares for free in her blog and added the colorwork to it. 

Made with Aslan Trends Del Cerro, 100% Merino on needles 3.5mm for the ribbing and 4.5 for the rest.

And the third pair: I used stripes, many colors and made them with a thumb gusset. The idea was to make the mittens different from each other by using different colors and different stripes pattern.

Made with Hjertegarn vital using needles 3.5 and 4.5mm. These were a present for my niece when she came to visit me.

As you can probably see, I have only knitted one pair of mittens for myself. So it was already time to get a new pair.

Searching on Ravelry I found a very nice pattern. I liked it so much that I casted my stitches on immediately!

The result:

Details:

* Pattern: Houndstooth Check Mittens by Sarah H. Arnold.

* Yarn: Létt lopi. One skein of each color.

* Needles: 3.5mm for the ribbing and 4.5mm for the rest.

Notes:

* The pattern is very well written and the charts are easy to follow.

* I made some changes to the pattern because I used a yarn that is bulkier than the one than the pattern calls for.

* Casted on 36 stitches (instead of 40) for the ribbing and then increased 8 stitches evenly to knit the body of the mitten.So, I worked with 42 stitches (instead of 50 as the pattern calls for).

* I didn't knit the thumb gusset all the way to row 26, instead I made it shorter. I knitted it to row 21 and then put the 18 stitches in a scrap or yarn. 

* I began the decreases earlier that the pattern calls for because of the yarn I used. 

* I LOVED knitting these mittens. It was absolutely FUN. I am actually thinking about making another pair but this time using white as a contrasting color, instead of very light brown (oatmeal?).

* I have always liked this kind of patterned fabric but I had NO IDEA it was called Houndstooth! It looks so classy and elegant!

* Lopi works amazingly well for mittens. It is sturdy, somehow "all-terrain", durable and warm. 

* I strongly recommend this pattern. The result is very nice and SUPER warn since it is knitted using two strands of yarn all the way!

Remember the KAL with Kristín Hrund, Gummi, Jóhanna and me?

We met Kristín a couple of weeks ago to take the pictures. Unfortunately the light was not very good. It was very cloudy and pretty late as well.

Here they are:

KAL: Hyrna Herborgar... one more time.

It has been quite a while since my last post!

As I said in the last post I am taking part of a new KAL. We are the same again: Kristín Hrund, Gummi, me and a little later Jóhanna joined us.

After having knitted the Aeolian the three of us together we definetely wanted to repeat the experience. The original idea was to knit a shawl called Laminaria but under my request we changed plans and started with the beautiful Hyrna Herborgar.

I have already made two of those (but neither Gummi, Kristín nor Jóhanna have knitted it before). I just love, love, love, love this shawl. It is incredibly fun to knit, it is not as complicated as it looks and the result is always WONDERFULLY beautiful.

For those who don't know this shawl, these are the two previous one that I have already made:

Hyrna Herborgar I

Hyrna Herborgar II

To make the new one I am using a mix of wool and linen from Evilla. I have used this yarn only once before. It is really nice and it comes in very pretty colors.

My only criticism to this yarn is the fact that since it is made of one thread of wool and two threads of linen it is very insert the needle between the threads and slip the linen and knit only the wool thread. It has happened to me a couple of times.

I remember when I was knitting Maikell and I had to cross stitches I promised to myself never to use this mix again... and here I am, hehe, using it again! It is just that the colors are so cool that I couldn't resist it!!

Maikell: blocking (and very serious me)

Yes, it is the pattern I put as a background for the blog :)

So, the yarn and new Hyrna look like this:

In this picture is easy to see the threads: pink is wool and white is linen.

Looking good :) I think that the colors is very nice. It is a very soft and soothing pink.

I chose pink because, I think I have mentioned this before, I don't know what is happening in my brain that everytime I go to the wool store PINK is the first color that catches my attention. I wasn't like this before! hehe. So here I am... using pink again.

The other two projects I have already began are in stand-by:

The lopapeysa that I am designing: I am waiting for the people of the Spanish Swap group to get the lopi they bought online so we can begin all together to knit our lopapeysa (even though I have already begun, hehe.)

And the green shawl, Leaves and Nupps, is waiting until I finish this one.

The other thing I promised was to show was pictures of the Aeolians that Gummi, Kristín and I knitted. It was a little bit difficult to take a good picture because the shawls were so big! (especially Kirstín's and Gummi's!) and because of the light... we met in the evening so no natural light now.

Anyways, here they go:

Three together.

The knitters with their shawls (I hate being in front of the camera!!!)
Gummi used wool+linen Evilla. I used Artyarn Evilla. Kristín used einband that she dyed herself!

And to finish, I wanted to share a couple of funny pictures of some funny sheeps we found on our way when we were driving in a remote corner of the island:

Most of the bridges in Iceland are very narrow and have only one lace... we wanted to cross this one but three girls were standing there... It is not uncommon to see LOTS of sheep everywhere (and I mean everywhere!) around. They are free in the mountains during the summer, eating grass and mountain herbs... and that is why they say the the icelandic lamb tastes so good :)

A little closer... It seems that they are thinking "well, we were here first and we are NOT moving". Well, it took just one honk on the horn to make them run scared! ha!

Oh, and now this is the last, last picture. This is bird that in icelandic is called Rjúpa (Rock ptarmigan in english). I took the first picture at the end of winter and the second one in summer... as you can see the change their feathers... cute, isn't it?

Winter and summer clothes.