M1R and M1L Gusset Increases

FINALLY!!!



Here is a close-up of the thumb gusset for the current mittens. Unfortunately this is the best I can do as my scanner is giving up the ghost. This photo shows the M1 Right increase on the right side and the M1 Left increase on the left side. It should be an almost invisible increase.




HERE's a good post that includes videos on how to do the Make One Left (M1L) and Make One Right (M1R) Increases. I know it is confusing because some knitting instructions call the backwards loop increase (seen HERE - I only use this one for casting on for glove fingers) an M1 and I've even seen the "Knit into the Front and Back of a Stitch" increase called an M1 but the M1Left and M1 Right increases I do on either side of a thumb gusset are different.

Here are the directions from Vogue Knitting.

Make One: Version A (Right Leaning) Insert the left needle from back to front into the horizontal strand between the last stitch worked and the next stitch on the left needle. Knit this strand through the front loop to twist the stitch.

Make One: Version B (Left Leaning) Insert the left needle from front to back into the horizontal strand between the last stitch worked and the first stitch on the left needle. Knit this strand through the back loop to twist it.

To help me remember the difference between the two increases I differentiate the left and right increases by "easy" and "hard". For some reason it is easier to do the Make One Left increase and it is more difficult to work your needle into the twisted loop for the Make One Right increase. I remember which one is which by always doing the "hard" (right-leaning) M1 first on the side of a gusset and the "easy" (left-leaning) one second. Nancie Wiseman's finishing book says you'll know if you did one of these two increases wrong if you make a little hole.

For stranded colorwork mittens or gloves, I always make the increases in the same color yarn - usually whatever the color is used for the outline of the gusset in the pattern chart. For the right leaning M1 on the right side of the gusset, I do the increase on the horizontal strand BEFORE the first stitch of the gusset. For the left leaning M1 on the left side of the gusset I do the increase on the horizontal strand AFTER the last stitch of the gusset. Use stitch markers on your needles to determine exactly where the gusset stitches are located.

There are a couple ways I've increased stitches for thumb gussets in mittens or gloves. The most unusual method I ever used it was for Nancy Bush's Vanalinn gloves in A Gathering of Lace. The pattern stated to do a YO just on the palm side of the gusset. To me it really looked like holes in my knitting.

For my most recent Selbu gloves I strayed from my usual method and used a M1 left leaning increase on the right side of the gusset and a M1 right leaning increase on the left side of the gusset. While it is more noticeable, I'm not sure that is an asset in a thumb gusset. M1 increases look best if done every three rows or more.



I'm back to my usual method which is to do a M1 that slants to the right on the right hand side of the gusset and a M1 that slants to the left on the left side of the gusset.



This is the Herrevott No. 4 mitten from the Norwegian Selbustrikk book done in Nature Spun sport weight and size 0 (US) dpns. This results in a snug knitted fabric which I prefer for mittens.

Here are my friend Joelle's horses waiting impatiently for someone to give them some sugar cubes. Yoshi, the leopard Appaloosa, actually came with their house when they bought it.

I've had questions in the comments about finding solid colored sock yarn. Once upon a time in a land far far away you could buy wonderful colors of sock and fingering weight yarns at many locations. Currently I can't think of a single sock yarn that comes in a lot of solid colors and good luck finding any other type of non-washable non-Shetland fingering weight wool yarn. (This is partly the reason I plan my designs in thicker weights of yarn.) Here's what I currently buy:

Worsted weight - I use Elann's Peruvian Highland Wool and Knitpick's Wool of the Andes because they're cheap. I especially stock up on neutral colors (black, white, gray, cream, etc.) in these two lines of yarn. I also need really bright colors so for that I buy the slightly more expensive Cascade 220. If I had an unlimited budget I'd probably just use Cascade 220 exclusively because I love the saturated colors and the softness. Alas, when you like to knit with many colors you end up buying more yarn than other types of knitters so I work to keep costs down.

Sport weight - I'm currently attempting to increase my sport weight stash. I still have quite a bit of Nature Spun in many colors but I need some new sources. I just bought some Knitpick's Telemark (I've read it can bleed) to test and am still searching for other lines in this weight.

Fingering weight/sock yarns - For sock yarns I've been buying Knitpicks Essentials in their limited colors - also the Calzinia Calzeterria from Smiley's (some colors do bleed). I also bought a ton of Kroy on sale in wonderful fluorescent colors at Herrschner's last year when those colors were being discontinued. For non-washable fingering weight wool yarn I can only think of Nature Spun. I just ordered some from Paradise Fibers (it was back-ordered) and I don't know where else to find all the colors.

I'm very worried Nature Spun is also going to be discontinued and I have no clue what I'd use for finer gloves in colorwork other than sock yarn. I have a stash of Shetland yarns in this weight but it is pretty scratchy and I can't personally wear it without itching. Knitpick's Palette seems a bit softer than Shetland and I just bought some to try for a pair of men's gloves.

Let me know if you have any other suggestions for yarn brands that come in a lot of (more than 40) colors. I regularly do a visual check of my stash of yarns to see if there are any basic colors I need in each weight and then try to stock up. Web's big year-end sale is coming up soon so I will probably see what they have to offer and stock up there. They always have Cascade 220 in limited colors on sale and hopefully this year they'll have some sock yarns I like.

Herrevante, No. 13

Unfortunately this outdoor photo of the gloves turned out somewhat ghostly due to the time of day.


These are the Herrevante No. 13 from the Norwegian Rauma Selbustrikk booklet (available through Arnhild ) knitted using size 2 dpns and some of my vintage Nylamb yarn. I really love Nylamb for gloves.




If you have the booklet, there is a tiny chart error. On Handleadd alt 5, the chart on the bottom of page 13, go to the far right of the chart and count up 10 squares and color in the square. The charts are clear and well marked and you really don't need to know Norwegian to knit these items.

If you've been saying to yourself, "Why doesn't she ever have any photos of horses on her blog?", you'll be in luck this weekend. We're spending Thanksgiving with our friends who have three photogenic horses (and a psychotic woman-hating rooster). I promise to risk my life and take some photos. The Norwegian gloves are finished and I'll have DH take some photos of my hands modeling the gloves as well.

I'm thankful all I had to do for a wonderful Thanksgiving feast was bake some bread.



Peaches is thankful the photo below was selected for the 2007 Colorado House Rabbit Society calendar. She is Miss August.



She is also thankful that there are some delicious items in our CSA box this week from Farmer Monte.



HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

I recently purchased some knitting booklets from Iva Rose Vintage Reproductions. These patterns are absolutely fascinating - they have hats you can knit for your Air Raid Warden, mittens for bicycling????!!, and even Puritan Socks. Iva Rose doesn't just focus on knitting - you can even find such titles as "Scientific Hat Finishing and Renovating." All Iva Rose pattern books are 50% off until November 30, 2006.

Here's my favorite pattern find so far. Can you spot anything interesting about these gloves? Can those of you who've made Sanquhar gloves spot it?



Yes, these gloves from 1902 have individual triangular gussets between each finger. (You can kind of tell by looking at the lumps of knitted fabric between each finger - Sanquhar gloves also have these gussets in much finer fabric.)

I may make these for DH as I think he'll appreciate the extra movement the finger gussets give his hand. The instructions call for "medium-sized steel needles and Dexter cotton no. 10". The gloves start with 48 stitches so I'll probably do these in a sport or DK weight wool.

My dpns were overflowing my Circular Solution container so I moved some of them to the wider storage sections for needle sizes higher than 8. You can also see my three needle gauges - I have another one but I can't find it. I don't have any needle gauges smaller than size 0 US unfortunately.

Not all needle gauges are trustworthy so I generally measure needles twice in two different needle gauges. I've learned not to assume needles are a specific size when I buy them. I measure them when they arrive and occasionally I've found one needle that is a smaller or a larger size in the package especially in the really small sizes.




I don't usually use wood or bamboo dpns. I have a death grip on the needles and I wouldn't trust them in really small sizes anyway. From bottom to top on the photo:

1. Bernat Aero - by far my favorite dpn and circular needles. Yes the smaller dpns can bend and eventually the grayish coating wears off in places but they are lighter weight and a bit warmer in the hands than other metal dpns. They're only sold through Canadian sources and they're the most inexpensive dpns currently available. They come in sets of four in 6" and 8" lengths at Spin Blessing, Wool-Tyme, and Yarn Forward.

2.Balene - These are very old and I've already broken one unfortunately. I love the tips. Boye currently makes a Balene II version sold in larger sizes by Patternworks but I've never tried them.

3. Some bent Brittany Birches. I gave away all my other wood and bamboo needles to a 13 year old knitter in need of needles.

4. Knitpicks 6" dpns are similar to the Inox steel needles. They are apparently nickel-plated hollow brass. Their web site says they're made to be lighter but they seem heavier than Bernat Aeros. I bought all four sizes and will test them out in my next project.

5. Rhodo-Crystal Nacres are made from plastic coated steel in different colors for each size. They stopped selling them years ago but I'm glad I bought an entire set at Patternworks back then.

6. Pony Pearls are exactly the same as RCN needles except the tip is blunter. Perhaps it isn't so noticeable in the photo but it definitely is when you're trying to do a K2TOG. Patternworks sells Pony Pearls in two lengths - 5 3/4" and 7 3/4".

7. Bryspun have the same lovely tip as my old Balene needles and are made from plastic. I only have this one pair because they're a bit too flexible for my tastes. Patternworks also sells these.

8. Inox Steel - These are the only dpns I can find in sizes smaller than size 0 US (necessary if you're making the Sanquhar gloves). Lacis sells them in an 8" length and they are a bit heavy for my preferences. They're also quite sharp which is great for lace but I make sure I always put them away when not in use for safety reasons. Inox also sells coated gray dpns in the larger sizes.

Socks inspired by a Catalog, No. 2

Here's another pair of socks I did inspired by some Eddie Bauer socks. I couldn't do the nifty snowflakes because I used thicker yarn but I do like the colors I used, especially my favorite yarn color of all time, Nature Spun Butterfly Blue (the periwinkle color next to the heel).

All this knitting apparently bores Peaches to death. She sleeps with her eyes open but you can tell she's snoozing because her ears are back. The only time I ever see her close her eyes is when she's in a bright patch of sunlight.

Socks Inspired by a Catalog, No. 1

Last year I found some cute colorwork socks in an Eddie Bauer catalog. They had a short row heel which never fits me well so I decided to knit them myself from the photo in the catalog. Mine are slightly different because I changed some of the patterns. I also used sport weight yarn (I have many many more colors in sport weight since sock yarn manufacturers stopped making many solid colors.) instead of the finer yarn used in the original socks. Interestingly enough, I found it a LOT easier to knit a charted pattern from a photo than from a chart. It must be a different form of eye/hand coordination or something.



This year I found these interesting asymmetrical socks in the North Style catalog. Alas, they also use a short row heel so I'm going to knit myself a pair using the photo. Here are the colors I found in the sport weight stash for the purple pair. All the patterns look easy - my biggest challenge will be to actually make each sock different. I have a strong desire for symmetry so it will be a good test.

Knitting in the Nordic Tradition

One of my top five knitting books of all time is Knitting in the Nordic Tradition by Vibeke Lind. Elizabeth Zimmermann reviewed it by saying, "One is strongly tempted to call this all-embracing book the ultimate in historic Northern knitting." It really is that good and although long out-of-print, you can still occasionally find inexpensive copies via Bookfinder .



This pair of men's Selbu gloves was done using a pattern from the book. You can see the dark spots at the base of the fingers where I added rows to make the fingers more anatomical. Not so attractive but they fit DH very well.



The book has several pages discussing thumb gussets and she calls thumb gussets which start on the back of the hand "Norwegian gussets" as opposed to the sore thumb gussets which stick straight out of the side of the hand. What really intrigues me though is this diagram of an unusual crooked thumb gusset - it only has increases on the inside of the hand. I definitely have to try that one out in my glove research.

I finished a simple pair of two-strand Cormo socks for myself. I've been saving this "special" yarn up too long and am now determined to use it all up. Peaches is unimpressed with anything she can't eat.



Despite the fact that it is November and all the leaves have fallen from the trees here, I'm still running the air conditioner in the afternoon.



I don't have time to do a post on thumbs today so how about a glove in progress photo instead?

My Mitten Collection

Happily my copy of Hafte Selbustrikk arrived yesterday and I'm already to the midpoint of the main motif in the hand of the gloves I picked out. (Herrevante alt. 5). The gloves have a rose-like motif and I could have sworn I've knit something like it before. First I thought it was the Rosebord mittens from Nordic Fiber Arts but that motif was very different. The Rosebord are the red mittens in the center.




I'm using red, pink, and white to emphasize the girlishness of the patterns used for the gloves. These gloves also have my favorite type of thumb where the thumb increases are all done on the back side of the glove. I'll talk a bit about thumbs tomorrow.

I just realized I already have one of the glove patterns from Hafte Selbustrikk with an English translation. I purchased it as a kit from Arnhild a few years ago. I even started it but decided to switch yarns. (She sells a couple of translated patterns from the book along with the Rauma yarn if you scroll down HERE.) If the book doesn't arrive before I finish my current project then I'll get started on these gloves. The specific glove pattern I have is 16. Alternativ 1 on the book site but isn't listed on Arnhild's site anymore. The yarn used for my glove pattern is Rauma Gammelserie with a gauge of 34-35 sts = 10 cm. The needles listed are size 2mm (Size 0 US) dpns.

Hege, who I just found out is Norwegian, has offered to help with any translations from the book. Saartje in the Netherlands has also offered her assistance with translations and wrote me that the woman who wrote up the traditional patterns in Hafte Selbustrikk, Helene, has a blog which is partially in English. Scroll down on her blog to check out Helene's lovely twined mittens (aka tvaandstickning).

It appears Stranded Color Knitting has been reviewed in the current issue of Interweave Knits. I'll have to go find a copy tomorrow and see what they say.

I found a new book of knitting patterns and I don't think I've been this excited about a fiber book in a decade or so. Yes, it is in Norwegian but I can figure things out from the charts or by asking for translations on Norgeknit.

I ordered mine via email from Arnhild - it isn't listed on the web site but you can email her for it. It was $17 plus $3.50 S&H. The title is Hafte Selbustrikk and you can see all the photos of the patterns if you scroll down HERE. I briefly considered making every single item from the book but there are quite a few children's items. I may just make all the adult patterns though with the exception of the moose/deer mittens and one of the sock patterns which look like there might be excessively long floats. Arnhild also stocks the Rauma yarn if you need it.

While impatiently waiting for it the book to arrive, I have been looking through all the patterns and deciding which items I'll knit first. My first choice is probably these gloves which look so wonderfully girly although I think it is a men's pattern. I love the cuff pattern and the lovely flower and the back of the hand pattern and even that the fingers use two different motifs.



Looking through the patterns reminds me of the Selbu mittens I knit last year with all the dancers on them. (I mixed charts from a couple of Norwegian knitting books.) They were so much fun to knit although too boring on the back side.

Glove Knitting Booklet Progress

To those of you who are reading this on Bloglines and just catching up, I'm currently doing a little booklet about glove knitting with three to four colorful women's and men's patterns and as much technique info as I can gather.



Gloves are like socks in that not every pair will fit every hand well. There really are two issues in glove knitting to consider - the thumb gusset (if any) and where the other fingers start. I'll talk about thumbs next week.
I prefer glove patterns where all the fingers do NOT start on the same row. Nancy Bush wrote a great glove article in an old issue of Interweave Knits ("Gloves Galore", Fall 96 IK) and she recommends starting the little finger 1/4" lower than the other fingers.




My little finger starts 1/2" lower than my other fingers so I prefer to start the little finger and the fourth finger on different rows for the best fit. (DH, on the other hand, has fingers that start pretty much at the same point so I do things differently for his gloves.)

Another thing I like in a glove pattern is when each finger has a different amount of stitches. Everyone's fingers aren't usually the same exact width. My little finger is 2" wide at the base while my index finger is 2 1/2" wide. This adjustment in the number of stitches for each finger of course makes a color pattern on the fingers a complete pain but well-fitting gloves are worth it. Gloves aren't exactly the speediest thing to knit so you might as well take the time to make them fit perfectly.

I have future glove recipients trace their hands (like children do when drawing turkeys) in my knitting notebook and I keep those tracings to help me when it is time to fit their gloves.




I'm ready to start on my first pair of gloves for the booklet. It is going to have a patterned cuff but have a plain hand in a lighter color which will be easier to photograph and knit for those new to glove knitting.

I purchased some of Elann's Devon sport weight wool which is about as thick as I think I can go for gloves with the extra thickeness of the floats for colorwork. I think the Devon is a good choice and depending on my color needs, I may use this yarn for all the gloves in the booklet. (I also looked into the Knitpicks Telemark sport weight yarn but some of the stuff I read about it says it bleeds and that isn't acceptable if you're doing colorwork.) In my efforts to be better organized and provide exact yarn and color info in my patterns, I cut a small piece of each color of Devon yarn and taped it next to the color and number on the Elann receipt.

For needles for the glove project, I bought some metal 6" dpns in 3 sizes at Spin Blessing for around $3 each. I'd prefer 4" dpns for the fingers but 6" dpns should do pretty well for both the glove fingers and the hand. 8" dpns are really just too long for doing tiny glove fingers. I may buy more dpns at some point to check them out - look for a later post on all the glove needle/short dpn online sources I could find.

A quick update - now the first, main, feed (http://knittingpatternfree.blogspot.com/atom.xml ) is updating but the second smaller feed http://knittingpatternfree.blogspot.com/atom.xml?bsuser=knittingincolor is not.

Perhaps this is Peaches' way of getting revenge for having to be on a diet?

Hege let me know that my main Bloglines feed isn't updating. I contacted Bloglines and they said it hasn't updated since September 2 even though I'm updating my blog. They told me to contact Blogger. The smaller Atom feed is updating so if you subscribe to the blog make sure you subscribe the the feed with the smaller number of subscribers at http://knittingpatternfree.blogspot.com/atom.xml/bsuser=knittingincolor
I'll keep trying to fix this and am waiting to see if Blogger might respond to my questions. If anyone out there knows what I can do to fix this please let me know.