Jobo Designs

After seeing my Fiddle Head Mittens, my father asked if I could make him a pair of colorwork mittens... but perhaps something less girly looking.

Dad so rarely asks me to do anything for him, especially knit anything, that I set out on the design process right away and placed an order for some Knit Picks Palette in more manly colors (Cream and Asphalt Black) 

I decided to try and come up with my own mish-mash of a pattern instead of knitting one directly from a book.  It seems that many of the Norwegian style mittens feature different motifs with different meanings - so I thought it would be fun to incorporate symbols with some meaning to dad.  In particular, he is a sport fisherman who spends as much time as possible in the springtime sitting in a boat hunting for that elusive granddaddy rainbow trout.  So obviously, this mitten needs a fish of some sort on it, and I will probably use a motif for the palm of the hand that looks like fish scales.  Also, Dad is a big fan of his dogs (2 adorable shih tzus - Molly and Sophie) so I hope to be able to add in a small dog motif for them too.

Here is the first cuff underway.  I have charted out the wrists, but am having a hard time putting on paper the thumb gusset...  My plan is to just wing it for the gusset and then continue on with my fishy idea for the back of the hands and the fish scales for the palms.  The other big unknown - He wants mittens with separate "pointer" fingers and the other three fingers together... like Newfoundland Mittens.  Apparently he finds that mittens shaped that way (while a little "live-long-and-prosper-ish" Mr. Spock!) more utilitarian and easier to maneuver around with.  So the end result will be kind of like a glove, but with one finger by itself, and the rest like a mitten.  I might have bitten off more than I can chew?

Here is a sneak peak of the Fish motif (modified from Fisherman's Friend Mittens by Jorid Linvik to be a single fish, and to look more like trout and less like Koi)  and some of the other motifs I plan on incorporating!  The little dog pattern is from Traditional Scandinavian Knitting by Sheila McGregor.

the battle for the title of Iron Knitter is RAGING on... round 3 began after an unexpected delay on Sunday morning.  The "Supreme Commander" had been injured in a car accident, but is recovering, and her lovely husband managed to keep us all in line and forwarded us the pattern as soon as the emergency cooled off.  Helen - Glad you're ok, and on the mend!

The Round 3 challenge is Colorwork... also known as knitting a design using alternating stitches of 2 or more different colors and following a chart.  Usually this kind of design features intricate patterns, geometric designs, and sometimes detailed pictures or graphics

There are many different techniques to handle the two different yarns.  Some knitters simply knit stitches with one yarn, and then drop it, pick up the other color, and continue on going back and forth that way.  Other knitters use a fancy yarn-holding thimble that allows you to keep both yarns wrapped on the same finger and alternate your stitches by angling the thimble finger forward and back.  Myself, I prefer to do my colorwork holding one color in each hand.  For one color you basically work your knit stitches as always before - with yarn held in the right hand.  The other color gets held in the left hand in a similar manner as when knitting continental style, and stitches are "picked" through in the same manner.  This took me quite a while to master, but I find it does a really good job, and I can just fly along at it. 

If you are interested in learning this "two-handed" technique, check out the Philosopher's Wool Company - they have a little video excerpt available streaming on the site, and they sell really neat fair-isle patterns and kits.  You should see this woman knit fair-isle.  Must be seen to be believed!  (linky here!)

Shop Around the Corner Socks, by Helen Waittes, feature some standard style fair-isle diamonds and diagonals-and-boxes and also some little 'buildings' laid out like a city block.  Generally, I am not attracted to patterns (either knitting or quilting) that feature country-style motifs like little houses, but I still think this project will have value for me... pushing me to really focus on my tension and even stitches for colorwork technique.  I also plan to challenge myself and work an "afterthought" heel (see tutorial coming tomorrow!)

I currently have one sock completed, and have used the following modifications: 

- toe up!

- contrasting color heels and toes

- plain foot

- required chart section with a few added plain rows to help balance the chart

- 2x2 rib cuff in main color instead of Contrasting color

I didn't want to give away too much until I get the pair completed... I'll keep you posted!

folks... I've knit entire lace shawls that didn't have this much lace!  I'm not sure which part of these socks made them so challenging, but they were certainly not the sort of knit that you could drop and pick up haphazardly!

When I started out on this lacy journey, many of my fellow iron knitters were having issues with gauge and size problems.  There were many complaints of XLL cuffs and socks... but for some reason, I got great results with the exact needles called for (2.25 mm) and my first purchase of Araucania Ranco.  Maybe my results had something to do with the fact that the pattern was actually test knit with that yarn (something I discovered while browsing through the completed projects on Ravelry)

Either way, these babies fit fantastically.  The heel fits very nicely, and the teeny little cables on the side seem to just hug the right places.  The foot length was just right after 2 repeats of the chart pattern, so I did not need to fudge anything to add in the little leaf-motif for the toe.  I opted to continue the diamond pattern down the foot as well, because I liked it so much. 

Of the two lace panels, the diamond based one was by far my favorite.  I think it's because I have a thing for geometrics.  I like rounded, curly, leafy type patterns, but always seem to go back to angular, pointy, lattice-like types of motifs.  I guess everyone has a style.  I did really enjoy the contrast between the rounded and angular panels though, and I really got to practice my "cabling with no cable needle" technique on the little cables.  I will definitely try more teensy cables in future socks.

Oh.... and I made the cutoff!  I'm still in the competition... Onto pattern 3!