Saturday, March 13, 2010

Alpaca, knitting and felting~ Mittens!

Well, we had a very blustery day, Pooh, and since JDP1 is such a sicky boy, we aren't at the planned birthday party. This means that I've had a little gift of unexpected "Free" time today to take some pictures of past projects to share~




These are some mittens that I made last year and the year before. The tiny felted red mittens were made originally for JDP1~ he used them a LOT and they felted down tiny~ now JDP2 gets to use them.

The long red mittens are the pair that I knit for JDP1 last winter, but didn't get around to felting~ you can see the huge size differential from knit to felted... ;)

The purple and blue mittens are a combo of wool and alpaca~ the alpaca portions are the more pinky stripes~ These I knit for RJP last winter. She LOVES them still, and with good reason, I think~ Even though snow sticks to them, and they get wet, when everyone else's fingers are freezing, hers are toasty warm! Oh, and the alpaca is sooooooo soft! NICE!

Sorry that I didn't take pictures in process~ I knit them on circular knitting looms. It's been long enough that I don't recall if I used the knifty knitter or one of the wooden sock looms I got for my birthday a couple of years ago. I used this pattern but felted them down, and there are some other interesting patterns on this site.

Just thought you might be interested! :)
Blessings~

5 comments:

Debbie said...

They look so cozy! I wish I could knit!

Tim said...

I thought, "Oh Cool! You can make these on a knitting loom!" I bought my wife a knitting loom a couple of years ago and actually learned how to make a stocking cap with one. I looked at the instructions for the mittens and completely got confused. This is one for my wife! I love the idea though. We are like the three little kittens and we lose our mittens all of the time. Making a few extra pairs sounds great.

purple squirrel said...

Debbie~ Thanks! The knitting looms really do make it so much easier!

Tim~ Sorry 'bout that.... I looked it up, and the pattern I actually used is here http://luvtoloom.wordpress.com/2006/03/23/one-loom-mitten/ I'll add it to the body of my post as well... ;) check that one and tell me if it is better?

Tim said...

Now that looks doable. I'll have to look up the different terms since it's been a year or so since I've made something, but those instructions look much easier.

Thanks Lis!

Since we run a ministry to the low income housing folks in our small town, we are always looking for things for my wife's "ladies" to do. She has a cooking and craft class for them so I'm going to show this to them. We want to get them involved in ministry and outreach, and making mittens and stocking hats and giving them away in the winter would be great.

Susan said...

Love the mittens...we could use about 20 pairs around here the way the kiddos misplace their gloves and mittens. I had to give up knitting (carpal tunnel syndrome), but a pair of mittens might be doable in the fall.