Down The Rabbit Hole

Today I begin a series of posts about each design that shows up in Lit Knits. Within Lit Knits, the patterns appear in the same order that the book they are inspired by were published, starting with Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Published in 1865, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has inspired a great number of works, including the Disney movie. Unlike all the other little girls I knew who liked the Disney princesses, I loved Alice in Wonderland. I remember other little girls thinking I was strange for not having a favorite princess. Obviously I was ahead of my time... Alice in Wonderland became popular when I got to high school.

I've read the book several times, and as I began designing my own patterns, I thought about making White Rabbit-inspired mittens. The idea spanned across several years, 2 notebooks, and never really left my mind. Even before I officially started writing Lit Knits, I began to knit the mittens, as we can see in this 2011 post.

The mittens, called Down The Rabbit Hole, features a watch in the left hand. The White Rabbit is always late, so a pair of White Rabbit mittens had to include a watch. Although the chess game is featured in the sequel, Through The Looking Glass, I went ahead and chose a checkerboard pattern for the mitten palms. The thumbs are made to blend into the palms.

The front of the mittens have a silhouette of the White Rabbit rushing across the checkerboard pattern.

The photoshoot for Down The Rabbit Hole was the very last one to be completed. It was done the same day as the Robin Hoodie shoot and we were all starting to get tired and hungry. As walked through the arboretum, we spotted this patch of flowers. The lighting was absolutely perfect.

Oddly enough, in the middle of our shoot, two guys stopped just to the right of us. One guy immediately took his shirt off and posed a bit while his friend took pictures. I'm not really sure which group of people looked more weird. The one shirtless guy and his friend or the three of us with our White Rabbit themed shoot.

Druid Mittens

It's been a long time coming, but I finally finished my Druid Mittens! They've been on my needles since January. But I've been working on them longer than that as I actually had found the yarn for the mittens back in 2010. 

When I visited New Zealand last, I bought 2 balls of Zealana Kia Ora Kauri Fingering. The fiber content is 60% NZ Merino, 30% Possum, and 10% Silk. That great halo in the yarn comes from the possum. The thumbs are the prettiest I've ever seen on a mitten. I didn't even realize it until I had knit an entire mitten.

I modified the fit pretty heavily. I like my cuffs more snug. I also had some trouble getting the right gauge despite using size 0/ 2.0mm needles, so I subtracted some stitches out of the pattern and added some length. The details are on my ravelry project page. 

If I were to make these again, I wouldn't have gotten rid of the slip stitches on the side of the mittens. I didn't realize until the first mitten was done what the slip stitches added to the design.

Your Knitting Or Crochet Hero - 3KCBWDAY3

Today's topic for day two of the Third Annual Knitting And Crochet Blog Week is as follows:

Blog about someone in the fibre crafts who truly inspires you. There are not too many guidelines for this, it's really about introducing your readers to someone who they might not know who is an inspiration to you. It might be a family member or friend, a specific designer or writer, indie dyer or another blogger. If you are writing about a knitting designer and you have knitted some of their designs, don't forget to show them off. Remember to get permission from the owner if you wish to use another person's pictures.

This is a bit of a tough one because I truly am inspired by many people. But I will be talking about the person who inspired me to even pick up the needles: my Oma.

I didn't actually learn to knit from my Oma. She lived far away when I decided to learn. But it was the pair of mittens that she had made my Mum (when my Mum was in high school or junior college) that inspired me. I aspired to be able to knit a pair of mittens just as beautiful as her's. After about two years of knitting, I finally was able to do so. In the photo you can see the ones my Oma made on the left and the ones I made on the right.

I've Got The Blues

I've been feeling a little blue recently. Nothing serious. It just seems like there is a little cloud over my head. I know what caused it too and I'm a little embarrassed to admit the cause... since it's a bit stupid. But I was comparing myself to others again. I was looking at blogs, noting how long they've been going and how many people follow them. Perceiving other people as more successful is a recipe for depression, let me tell you. (It's silly because right now, there is nothing going wrong in my life. I'm following my passion, ie. writing knitting patterns, I'm not hungry, cold, or sick... etc.)

So I've spent the last two days trying every trick in the book to cheer myself up and then some. I had friends over for dinner, drinks, and a movie. My movie choice was praised by all as an great choice. (I'd watched the movie before, so I knew that already, but it was nice to hear it.)

I've been wearing cheerful socks.

I've gone for two bike rides, 16 miles each. I figured that maybe I could exercise the sadness out of me. It hasn't worked just yet, but I might try again tomorrow.

Last night I managed to figure out a pattern problem that has eluded me since January. (Of course a new problem materialized, but it was nice to get past the first problem.)

I finished my mitten design and even fixed the thumb problem I'd been having. (On a separate note, I've got some test knitters interested testing this pattern, but I'm always looking out for new test knitters to add to the pool... so if anyone is interested... I know the picture isn't terribly descriptive, but the mittens are based on the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland.)

Last night I even made cookies. A sure fire way to feel better. Usually.

So I'm out of ideas beyond just waiting for the feeling to pass. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm open to them.

Something to Aspire To - 2KCBWDAY6

Something to aspire to – 2KCBWDAY6

Is there a pattern or skill that you don’t yet feel ready to tackle but which you hope to (or think you can only dream of) tackling in the future, near or distant? Is there a skill or project that makes your mind boggle at the sheer time, dedication and mastery of the craft? Maybe the skill or pattern is one that you don’t even personally want to make but can stand back and admire those that do. Maybe it is something you think you will never be bothered to actually make bu can admire the result of those that have.

I have to say that there isn't much in knitting that intimidates me. There are plenty of techniques I haven't tried, but it isn't out of fear. I did quit a pattern once because I could never end with the correct number of stitches. It stopped being fun. (I still haven't found a good pattern to go with the avocado green yarn)

I do aspire to being able to design a wide range of garments. I feel very comfortable with hats, and pretty comfortable with mittens. But I feel out of my depth when it comes to designing sweaters and shawls. But I have plenty of ideas!

Felting

I've always admired Dadaya's felted and embroidered mittens. Although, I have no idea if they were knitted then felted or felted straight from wool batt. After finding an excellent tutorial on felting from batt I thought I'd give it a go. A friend let me know that I could easily find wool batt at the local farmer's market. (I conveniently live less than a block from it, but I usually spend the morning avoiding the crowd). So I bought a half a pound of the wool batt and got going.

Scooter is "helping" me by sitting on the batt.

I followed the instructions and made a resist out of foam. Then I put four layers of batt above and below it.

Ready to Felt

After two hours of struggling and making a giant lake in the kitchen, I had these.

Felted

I spent another hour felting them a bit better. Unfortunately they were a bit thin in places and a little tight around the wrists.

Thin Mitts

On my second attempt I made the resist bigger and used six layers of batt in order to rid myself of the pesky holes. The result is what I like to call the Oven Mitts.

Oven Mitts

Not quite as cute as the first pair.

I have decided to see if I can get a better result by knitting some mittens, then felting them. So today I bought some wool at the farmers market.

Corriedale Wool

I got the wool from the same vendor I got the batt from. Yolo Wool Mill. I hope this attempt goes a bit better.

Scooter hopes the felting goes well too.

Last Project of 2009

So my very last project of 2009 are these "Chameleon" mittens.

Modeled by the talented and slightly camera-shy Justin

They only took one ball of the Wisdom Yarn - Poems. I used color #473. They were a pretty quick knit. Only a thumb was left to knit on one mitten after watching two Bond films (Dr. No and From Russia With Love)

I thought I'd need skein of Poems, but I was very lucky to finish the mittens with only one skein.

The last of the yarn