Nona's Arm Warmers - a foray into mitten flaps!
Good morning!
It's very cold here in Pittsburgh! When I left for work this morning my car read 0 degrees! The news said there is a -14 degree wind chill that is supposed to bump up to -11 by this afternoon! Needless to say, I will be skipping my training run for today! I'll get back out there tomorrow afternoon when its (barely) warmer!
I started work on Nona's Arm Warmers yesterday. Nona is my friends grandmother. She is 100% Italian and simply adorable! I have known her since I was little. She recently began dialysis as she has some kidney problems. She can't have the portion of arm from the elbow to the shoulder covered during treatment, but her arms and hands get very cold, so her daughter (my friends mother) asked me to make her some arm warmers.
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They are taking a little longer than expected because the cable pattern takes a while to do. Mostly because I don't have the short hand memorized. I'm hoping to have the first one done by this weekend so I can work on the second one this weekend. I am knitting them out of Malabrigo worsted weight in a lovely color called Pollen on a size 7. The yarn is super soft and warm so it works well for arm warmers. I also plan on making a mitten flap for her fingers so she can have those covered if she wants to as well. I think that these will be perfect for her as she undergoes treatment! The pattern is Vancouver Fog and is available for free on Ravelry. I am making the pattern longer and also adding a mitten flap, but I loved the cable pattern. It seems very Irish inspired, which I love!
The mitten flap is a new thing for me. I have read a few different tutorials and they all seem to do it the same way:
After completing fingerless mitt, with main size needles, pick up 15-20 stitches along the top of the hand, about an inch or so back from the top of the mitten. (this is usually the row just before the start of ribbing). To pick up these stitches, you use a crochet hook and lift the purl part that is behind the knitting through to the front.
Put these stitches on your needle to knit. Then backward loop cast on the amount of stitches it would take to get to the same amount you used for the main part of the mitt. For example, if I ended up with 40 stitches for the mitt when I bound off, and picked up 18 stitches, I would cast on an additional 22 stitches to get me to 40 total stitches for the flap.
Then you knit the picked up stitches, and do a rib pattern for the cast on stitches for about 1" or the same length as the rib on your mitt.
From there you just knit the flap like the top of a mitten! It really isn't that difficult!
I'll post my notes and tutorial with pictures as soon as I get to that point.
Another technique I used for this project is a circular-tubular cast on. The best tutorial I have found for this is found on The Purl Bee. This tutorial, however, is not complete because it is used for a k1, p1 rib, and I was doing a k2, p2 rib. Also, it wasn't done in the round, which frustrated me since I had to knit the mitt in the round! After some research, I found a great way to do a very stretchy tubular cast on, in the round, for 2x2 rib! It is appropriately titled Italian Tubular Cast On! It worked perfectly! I will post a tutorial when I begin my next mitt so I can attach pictures.
Because of this project, I have put my sweater on hold. I can come back to it as a mindless knit when I get tired of thinking about the arm warmers!
Happy Knitting!
It's very cold here in Pittsburgh! When I left for work this morning my car read 0 degrees! The news said there is a -14 degree wind chill that is supposed to bump up to -11 by this afternoon! Needless to say, I will be skipping my training run for today! I'll get back out there tomorrow afternoon when its (barely) warmer!
I started work on Nona's Arm Warmers yesterday. Nona is my friends grandmother. She is 100% Italian and simply adorable! I have known her since I was little. She recently began dialysis as she has some kidney problems. She can't have the portion of arm from the elbow to the shoulder covered during treatment, but her arms and hands get very cold, so her daughter (my friends mother) asked me to make her some arm warmers.
.jpg)
The mitten flap is a new thing for me. I have read a few different tutorials and they all seem to do it the same way:
After completing fingerless mitt, with main size needles, pick up 15-20 stitches along the top of the hand, about an inch or so back from the top of the mitten. (this is usually the row just before the start of ribbing). To pick up these stitches, you use a crochet hook and lift the purl part that is behind the knitting through to the front.
Put these stitches on your needle to knit. Then backward loop cast on the amount of stitches it would take to get to the same amount you used for the main part of the mitt. For example, if I ended up with 40 stitches for the mitt when I bound off, and picked up 18 stitches, I would cast on an additional 22 stitches to get me to 40 total stitches for the flap.
Then you knit the picked up stitches, and do a rib pattern for the cast on stitches for about 1" or the same length as the rib on your mitt.
From there you just knit the flap like the top of a mitten! It really isn't that difficult!
I'll post my notes and tutorial with pictures as soon as I get to that point.
Another technique I used for this project is a circular-tubular cast on. The best tutorial I have found for this is found on The Purl Bee. This tutorial, however, is not complete because it is used for a k1, p1 rib, and I was doing a k2, p2 rib. Also, it wasn't done in the round, which frustrated me since I had to knit the mitt in the round! After some research, I found a great way to do a very stretchy tubular cast on, in the round, for 2x2 rib! It is appropriately titled Italian Tubular Cast On! It worked perfectly! I will post a tutorial when I begin my next mitt so I can attach pictures.
Because of this project, I have put my sweater on hold. I can come back to it as a mindless knit when I get tired of thinking about the arm warmers!
Happy Knitting!
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