It’s been a year since I’ve been blogging.  In the past year I’ve written 286 blog posts and 19 knitting patterns.  I’ve explored natural dyeing, handspinning, and lots of knitting.  This site has been seen by 19342 unique visitors from 110 countries.

I’ve made friends both near and far…I’ve tweeted, and joined up with several interesting blogging challenges (art every day month, best of 2009, tour de fleece, ravelympics).

And, what I’m most proud of is that I’ve been able to use this site to do some good, and donate $1600 (proceeds from the sales of Olympic Mitten Patterns)to the Penguins Can Fly swim team for disabled youth at our local YMCA.

As winter approaches, think about knitting a pair of Olympic mittens for yourself.

Would you like to add a little bit of colour to something that is already knit?  Duplicate stitch may be what you are looking for.  It can be used in the O Canada mittens (Olympic mittens) as an alternative to the stranded colourwork.  Follow the charts in duplicate stitch after the red mittens are completed.

You need:

• a darning needle, or a needle with an eye big enough for the yarn that you are using.
• yarn for duplicate stitch (contrasting colour to the original knit fabric)
• original knit fabric

What to do:

Step 1:  Thread your needle, and come up through a hole (at the bottom of a V) from the wrong side of the fabric.  The right side should be facing you.

insert needle through from the wrong side of the fabric to the right side.

Step 2: From the hole, follow the yarn upwards.  It will loop behind 2 strands of yarn and back down again.  That’s what you do with your yarn.  Trace the path with the needle!

insert the needle through both sides of a stitch one row up.

Step 3:  Pull the yarn through, you have now traced half a stitch.

Pull yarn through, you now have half a duplicate stitch!

Step 4:  Follow the other half of the stitch back down.  The needle will be inserted under 2 more strands of yarn.

Keep tracing the path of the yarn

Step 5: Pull the yarn tight and you can see one stitch, a little heart shape, in your contrasting colour.

One stitch has been duplicated!

With practice it gets pretty fast.  Just always remember to follow the path of the yarn and you’ll be fine.

several stitches complete (3 in the top row, 4 in the bottom row)

What other techniques would you like help with?

The torch is lit again, and red mittens are on hands everywhere.

Paralympic red mittens are similar to the Olympic red mittens, but with the Paralympic logo on the back of the hand.  Did you know that it is impossible to purchase a pair of these mittens?  HBC isn’t selling them.    Why not knit a pair of 2010 mittens, with proceeds going to the Penguins Can Fly swim team for disabled children.  Maybe sometime in the future, there will be Penguins in the summer Paralympic games!

The torch relay is continuing until the Paralympics start on March 12th.  I hope to catch some of the sports on TV.  I’m intrigued to learn more about the sports, and various adaptations that are incorporated to allow a great variety of athletes to participate.

An update on the Red Mitten fundraising….

thanks mom for the pizza!

We’re at the $1600 mark.  Thanks to the generous knitters out there who are supporting some very amazing children, and helping them achieve great things.

The Olympics are done.  The Knitting Olympics are done.  The Ravelympics are done.  Or……are they…..

Ceilidh and Eirinn (Photo credit: Mom)

I had such a good time, I think I will start up another Olympic challenge for the duration of the Paralympics later in March!  Who’s with me?

I’m happy to report that the sales of the Olympic Red Mitten Pattern have been rolling in, and are currently at the $1550 mark raised for the Penguins Can Fly swim team.  I hope that people continue to purchase patterns and knit these mittens through the end of the paralympics.  Maybe we can hit $2010…wouldn’t that be cool?

Who knows….one day maybe some of the Penguins will be swimming in the summer paralympics!

Tonight, during the closing ceremonies, after proudly modeling my gold-medal pattern creations Ceilidh and Eirinn, I sat with no knitting in my hands–for all of about 15 minutes.  It’s at times like this that I wonder if I do have a serious problem, but I was suddenly struck by inspiration to knit more cables for a baby sweater/vest of sorts that I can almost see in my mind.

The trouble with things in your mind is that it’s very difficult to make them appear just like you imagined they would.  I am doing my best though, keeping careful scrawly notes and math written down just in case this project ends up successful enough to share with other knitters out there.

I absolutely LOVE the yarn.  It’s Life DK by Stylecraft, a blend of acrylic and wool.  Easy to care for, and so soft.  I may need to go back to Wool Tyme to get more–there are so many babies to knit for this spring!

Are you gearing up for March 12th when the torch gets re-lit?  The Paralympics run from March 12th to 21st in Vancouver!!

It seems that these mittens are starting to come apart with a bit of wear.  I guess I have developed quite a reputation as a knitter, because people at work have started to bring me their mittens to fix.  Since I do have a soft spot for red mittens, even if they are machine knit from an inexpensive loosely spun acrylic fiber, I agreed to do what I could.  I fixed two different pairs of mittens today!

The most common issue seems to be stitches that are not knit into the next row, or stitches that break because the yarn has worn thin, or ends that were once woven in that are now coming loose.  To fix the problem of a loose stitch, sew a thread through the stitch, and tie a knot leaving a long tail at each end.

The thread will hold on to the stitch to make sure that it wont run.  Examine the stitches around the area.  Determine where the stitch “should” go, and insert the needle there.  Since the mitten is lined, the needle needs to stay between the knitted layer and the lining layer.  Bring the needle back up through the knitted layer a few inches away.  Pulling on the thread should tug on the loose stitch, which might need some gentle coaxing or directing with a knitting needle to fall into place.

Work in the ends of the thread as you’d usually work in the ends of your yarn when you knit.

You can hardly tell which mitten was fixed!

Are your red mittens falling apart?

thanks for the cupcakes mom!

The Olympics have started, and red mittens became the must-have of the season!  Orders have been rolling in and the dollars have been adding up for the Penguins Can Fly swim team.  We’re now at $1110, and that will only go up over the course of the next week.

Thank you to all the generous knitters who have purchased patterns, and spread the word about the mittens, and the Penguins.  So many children will benefit as a result of your purchases.

In Olympic Knitting News….

Today I was made aware (from an NBC Olympics news story) that German Olympic Gold Medalist in the Biathlon, Magdalena Neuner is a knitter.  Knitting and rifles and skis…sounds interesting!  She has a knitting blog which is in German….which I’ve had very little luck reading (since I know no German).

As for my own Olympic knitting…I carded and spun enough white yarn to knit the second mitten, and today I started the cuff of mitten #2.  It’s slow going as I’m writing out pattern notes as I go, just in case anyone wants to make their own pair to match!

Meet little Laila, daughter of friends of mine.  At 2.5 weeks old she’s sporting her very own pair of Olympic Mittens, and the matching ensemble I knit over the last few weeks.  She’s such a cute girl, making all sorts of faces and noises as she gets used to the big bright world.

I hope everyone in Ontario has a Happy Family Day weekend!!  I know I’ll enjoy an extra day to relax, and catch up on my sleep (and knitting).

I’d like to thank all the fantastic, generous knitters out there who have purchased the pattern for 2010 mittens.

As of today, $800 has been raised for the Penguins Can Fly Swim Team at my local YMCA.  It is a swim team for disabled youth, and their siblings that encourages active participation, hard work, and personal growth.

There’s still time to cast on and knit yourself a pair during the Olympics!

100% of the purchase price ($5.00 CAD) is donated to the Penguins

As for my own Olympic knitting projects, this is the before picture…..

A bag of washed fleece (from Serbian sheep of unknown breed), and my trusted spinning wheel.

Statement of Goals

At 7:00PM on Feb.12th I will begin to card this fleece while watching the Opening Ceremonies for the Olympics!

I’ll experiment with microwave kool-aid and food colouring as dyes on the weekend, and start spinning when the fleece is dry.

My goal is to knit a pair of socks from my handspun before the torch is extinguished.

I’m competing in several categories for the Ravelympics (team Canada of course), and also in the Knitting Olympics  hosted by our very famous Canadian Knitter, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee the Yarn Harlot.

I know that a pair of socks is not a “Epic” project, but because I’m starting from scratch, and that I am working full time and volunteering so much (helping kids build robots), I think it will be a challenge to complete this project in the 17 days allowed.

This whole process is bringing back memories of  the 2008 summer ravelympics when I started from fleece, and made a hat and mittens.  Back then I wasn’t working though, so I was fully devoted to my event.

You can bet that I’ll be blogging my progress this time round so check back frequently for updates!

What Knitting Olympic event are you participating in?  I’m eager to follow your blogs, leave info in the comments.

]]> http://www.swatchless.com/2010/02/count-down-to-cast-on/feed/ 2 http://www.swatchless.com/2010/01/surprises-in-the-mail/ http://www.swatchless.com/2010/01/surprises-in-the-mail/#comments Fri, 22 Jan 2010 02:43:57 +0000 swatchless http://www.swatchless.com/?p=910

No….I didn’t get death socks in the mail (thank goodness!)

Good Luck to the Mighty Flying Penguins!

Today I was thrilled to receive an envelope from the USA, with a cash donation for the Penguins Can Fly Swim Team.  Thanks to Raveller Oonagh who contacted me earlier this month with the following message:

“I found the money in a pair of pants at the Salvation Army where I work. So, it is only fair that I put the money to good use and send it back to the Mother Land ”

Thanks so much!!  This brings the red mitten cash total to…. $635

I also received confirmation today that the red mittens arrival in Kandahar!  I’m sure they will be waving with the rest of us over here during the Olympics.

The “Small Fox Socks” have also made their way to Ossama in Jordan, thanks in part to Jane.  Ossama let me know that he is wearing them in his hiking boots as he shows tourists all the beautiful sights in Jordan.

Whats on my needles now?  Here’s a hint…..

What do you think it is???

A few days ago, before the nonsense of sock wars took over my life (causing me to spend a weekend knitting a pair of death socks), I went to a wonderful evening of amateur musical theater.  As usual, I had several balls of yarn in my knitting bag purse, and I was planning to rid myself of knitting withdrawl.

Have I mentioned lately how much I LOVE knitting with bulky yarn??  This project was almost done by the end of the evening!

These mittens came together really quickly.  But…they are more than just mittens…

They are also fingerless gloves!!

The mitten top folds back neatly so fingers can write, type, text, or play the piano.

I made up the pattern as I went along, following what the yarn seemed to want to become.  I need to make the other one soon before I forget what I did.  I will write up my pattern and post it shortly, so you can make your own cozy pair.

RED MITTEN NEWS:  Today the 120th red mitten pattern was sold bringing us to $600 raised for the Penguins Can Fly swim team for disabled children.  Thanks to everyone who has bought this pattern and supported these deserving athletes.

SOCKWARS NEWS:  My death socks have been mailed to Florida, and as of today I’ve received no death socks in the mail.  Fingers crossed!!