Stashbusting: Pink Edition

For some reason, this has been a year of pink for me.  Two lovely soft pink sweaters and a whole bunch of leftovers.  Here are some of those leftovers:

Because Charlotte was so helpful to me with setting up the Etsy shop, I made her this pair of mittens to keep her hands warm in the cold winters of NYC.

The pattern was written by goldenknits and were inspired by Eunny Jang's Anemoi Mitts, but fortunately this pattern was free (and more elegant in my opinion).  For materials I used leftover angora from my Arisaig Cardi and some leftover Palette from the Ivy League Vest (colorway Bison).  The cuffs are folded over for extra warmth and I made sure to put the angora on the inside to it'll nestle next to her wrists.


Here's a shot of the palm side:

What made it difficult (besides stranding on teeny tiny needles) was that the pattern felt more like a recipe, plus charts, so that the knitter is kind of on their own for the cuff and the thumb.  Since the cuff was meant to be straight stockinette, I didn't have much of a problem with that.  But every attempt I made at a stranded thumb came out much too tight, so I gave up and Charlotte will just have to have brown thumbs.

At least I didn't make the mistake of knitting two right-handed mittens this time...


I'm a little jealous of Ysolda Teague's talent.  She's only 25, but she's already published dozens of beautiful patterns.  Just a little bit humbling...

One of her loveliest patterns (in my opinion) is her Gretel Beret.  I'd been eying it for a while and decided that the leftover alpaca from the Fitted February Sweater was just the perfect material for a slouchy cabled beret.  I don't have a modeled shot for you, but I made this in the slouchiest size. Check Ravelry in the fall/winter and I may model it for you.  Ysolda's photos really do the hat justice, though.

With Ysolda's suggestion, I used this project to learn how to cable without a cable needle--so liberating!  Where has this technique been all my life?  My cabling is now so much faster and I don't have to worry about losing the extra needle!  The tutorial she recommends is by Grumperina and you can find it here.  The idea of switching the stitches by taking them off the needle is a little scary at first, but it's so, so much easier!  I would not otherwise have been able to finish this lattice cable hat so quickly.

Here's a detail shot of the cables:  

Sorry it's so dark.  I was trying to get some pictures up quickly and it was dark out.  The color is truer in the first photograph.  I'm so looking forward to fall when I can start wearing my knits again!


Plans are also underway to get the Etsy shop moving again in the fall--you may have noticed that there hasn't been much movement, but come Septemberish, I plan to have a bunch of fall harvest items--flowers, pumpkins, squash, etc to welcome the cooler weather.  It's just been much to hot to market mittens...

Next time: Finished Leopard Print Vest and its Aftermath

Cheers,

-Allie