Knitting Daily : Knit Mittens

Knitting History Comes Alive

Kathleen Cubley — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 13:00:00 GMT


	Miss Pole's muffatees by Mary Lycan. Photograph by Joe Coca.

A note from Kathleen: The January/February issue of PieceWork magazine is on the horizon, and I've gotten a sneak peek. Knitters should be really excited for it, because it's the annual Historical Knitting issue. Full of fabulous patterns and articles about knitting through history, you'll find yourself drawn into the fascinating stories of knitters of the past. Here's editor Jeanne Hutchins to tell you all about it.

Connecting with Knitting History

This is our seventh annual Historical Knitting issue! It seems as though we were working on the first one just last year. Your enthusiastic response to the six previous issues is a testament to your appreciation of knitting's rich historical context.

A few of this issue's highlights:

Working with Priscilla Gibson-Roberts was a dream come true. Both of us are indebted to the Martin Fellows Hatch family for lending us the stunning Armenian sock (circa 1840–1860) for study and photography. Priscilla's colorful adaptation of the original graces our cover. Of the original sock she writes, "That it has survived and will continue to survive is testament to the original knitter's vision."


Lady's Claret Polka in Brioche Stitch by Carol Huebscher Rhoades. Photograph by Joe Coca.

I'd always wondered about polka jackets. Were they named for the dance? Who wore them? When? All these questions and more are answered in Helen Bonney's article. By 1849, a polka jacket, a tiny waist, and a voluminous skirt covering layers of crinolines were the pinnacle of fashion in England, America, and elsewhere. Helen transcribed instructions for a knitted polka jacket from a pattern designed by Mrs. Warren for The Family Friend, 1, July–December 1849, a London women's magazine. Carol Rhoades rewrote the instructions for today's knitters and knitted the example shown in the article.

No, it's not an ancient physician's manual. NATURA EXENTERATA: OR NATURE UNBOWELLED By the most Exquisite Anatomizers of Her. Wherein are contained, Her choicest SECRETS, digested into RECEIPTS, fitted for the Cure of all sorts of Infirmities, whether Internal or External, Acute or Chronical, that are Incident to the Body of Man is a thick compendium of household advice published in London in 1655. Among its "remedies for 'Soar Eyes' . . . recipes for marmalade, biscuits, broth, rosewater, and 'Washing Balls' (scented soap) . . . gardening advice, beauty tips, medicines for the plague, and guidelines for restoring wine that has become 'Sowre'" are instructions for knitting stockings: the earliest known printed knitting pattern! Author Chris Laning relates her efforts to knit from this pattern and offers her adaption for you to knit your own.


	1861 Cottage-Industry Mittens by Mary Lycan. Photograph by Joe Coca.

Frequent PieceWork contributor Galina Khmeleva once again shares her extensive knowledge of and love for Orenburg knitting, this time with traditional mittens for men and boys. And when we learned of the adventures of the English Captain Burnaby on his unauthorized trip to Russia and his encounter with Orenburg knitting in 1875, we knew we had to include it.

There's much more. Each article and project in this issue adds to knitting's illustrious history.

Have a glorious time discovering it. I certainly did!

And if you're not a PieceWork subscriber, what are you waiting for? Subscribe now so you don't miss a thing in our upcoming issues.

Learn Something New: Twined Knitting

Kathleen Cubley — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 12:00:00 GMT

There are so many little knitting techniques that can make a difference in the finished work. Twined knitting is one of those techniques.


*Freja Twined Scarf from Northern Knits Gifts* by Lucinda Guy**

In her new book Northern Knits Gifts, Lucinda Guy uses this technique in some of her designs. Here's a little history on twined knitting, followed by instructions about how to work the technique.

Twined Knitting

Although conventional knitting was practiced, the vast majority of early Swedish knitting, especially in the northern areas, was in fact twined knitting: Tvåändsstickat or two-ended knitting. This technique, in which the knitter uses both ends of the same ball of yarn and then twists the two yarns after each stitch, produces a uniform fabric of double thickness that is smooth, firm, warm, and hard wearing.

This style of knitting is ideally suited to mitten and sock making. Less elastic than conventional knitting, twined knitting is an ideal base for embroidery; there are many examples of beautiful, brightly embroidered twined knitted mittens and gloves from the Dalarna area of Sweden.


	Freja Scarf closeup

Extra time and effort was afforded to the making and decoration of mittens for festive and special occasions. These were not only heavily embroidered with various stylized flowers, leaves, and hearts, but also had colorful tufted borders and edgings. Crook stitches, distinctive raised patterning effects achieved only with twined knitting, were used as decoration, either in conjunction with embroidery or on their own.

How to Work Twined Stitches
Knitting: *With both strands in back, insert right needle into next st on left needle as if to knit, bring the strand farthest from the tip of the right needle over the other strand, and use it to knit the stitch: rep from * alternating the two strands and bringing each strand over the one used before.

Purling: *With both strands in back, insert right needle into next st on left needle as if to purl, bring the strand farthest from the tip of the right needle under the other strand, and use it to purl the stitch: rep from * alternating the two strands and bringing each strand under the one used before.

—Lucinda Guy, from Northern Knits Gifts

This stitch seems like a lot of fun to work, and the result is beautiful. Just look at the Freja Scarf, shown above. The two-color repeat used in the Freja Scarf are perfectly suited to twined knitting, which uses both outer and inner ends of the same ball of yarn at the same time, as you can divide your ball of yarn into two separate colors by winding the first half of the ball in one color and the second half in a contrasting color. Then, when you start knitting, you will be using one end of each color; the pattern and twined knitting will work hand in hand.

There are so many great gift ideas and fun knitting techniques in Northern Knits Gifts, so pre-order your copy today, or download the eBook version if you just can't wait!

Cheers,

P.S. Have you started knitting gifts for the holidays, yet? Leave a comment and let us know what you're working on!

Knit Gloves: 7 Free Knitting Patterns for Fingerless Gloves, Knit Mittens, and Other Glove Knitting Patterns

Kathleen Cubley — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 13:00:00 GMT

Knitted gloves are so special; they're at once utilitarian and extravagant.


Clockwise from upper left: Lace and Twist Gloves; Layered Turkish Gloves Two-Color Norwegian Gloves; Mittens, Interrupted; Motley Mitts; Winter Twilight Mitts; Uncommon Gardening Gloves (middle)

Here at Knitting Daily, we want your hands to be warm and toasty, so we've gathered 7 free glove and fingerless mitt patterns for you in our new eBook, Knit Gloves: 7 Free Knitting Patterns for Fingerless Gloves, Knit Mittens, and Other Glove Knitting Patterns!

Lace and Twist Gloves by Silka Borgoyne are worked in a beautiful lace and twist cable pattern. Features like twisted rib, shaped fingers, and a wool/bamboo yarn make these knit gloves the perfect luxurious gift.

Layered Turkish Gloves by Mari Lynn Patrick is actually a glove pattern for two pairs: solid color undergloves and Turkish patterned over-gloves. They're also designed to be worn on either hand. Fun!

Uncommon Gardening Gloves by Donna Druchunas were invented out of necessity. Donna couldn't find a pair of gardening gloves that fit comfortably, so she designed her own! These knit gloves are equally at home in the garden and the tea shoppe.

Two-Color Norwegian Gloves by Nancy Bush were inspired by a pair with similar patterning in the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum's textile collection. This color knitting pattern is a fun challenge.

Motley Mitts by Lisa Shroyer are a celebration of the knit stitch. The fabric is shaped into a subtle hourglass with short-rows, which folds over the hand and wrist and is seamed up one side, creating a tailored fit.

Winter Twilight Mitts by Laura Rintala were inspired by a purple overcast sky showing through the black silhouettes of winter trees. Knit in cashmere, both the knitting and wearing is sheer indulgence. This is a stunning fingerless gloves knitting pattern.

Mittens, Interrupted by Eunny Jang pair a dark solid with a bright variegated yarn, worked in a woven-look slip-stitch pattern. This is some truly simple knitting: There are only two pattern rows and no hand shaping.

Download your copy of Knit Gloves: 7 Free Knitting Patterns for Fingerless Gloves, Knit Mittens, and Other Glove Knitting Patterns today!

We hope you'll enjoy making these knit gloves and fingerless mittens.

Cheers,

Summer knitting for kids!

Kathleen Cubley — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 21:17:00 GMT

Do you want some quick knits to work on this summer? Well we have eight free kids' knitting patterns for you, there's sure to be one for each little one in your life.

There's nothing more satisfying than knitting something special for a child, and seeing their face light up with excitement! How proud you'll be, and how special they'll feel as they try on the sweater you made, slip on those hand knit mittens, or make goofy faces at themselves while admiring their new hat in the mirror.

Here at Knitting Daily we want to help you capture that joy by offering you eight free children's knitting patterns in one easy download. With something special for every child in your life, these free knitting patterns will have you turning to Free Children's Knitting Patterns from Knitting Daily: 8 FREE Knitting Patterns for Children again and again.

If you have been searching the internet for fun free knitting patterns, children of all ages will treasure those found in this eBook. And because kids knitting patterns are so much smaller than those for adults, you'll love how quickly you'll see results and have a finished product in hand.

Download your free eBook, and get started knitting for children today!

Cheers,

The Ola Placket Pullover (Plus the Twined Cast-On!)

Kathleen Cubley — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:00:00 GMT

I've long been a fan of Lucinda Guy's designs, especially her patterns for children, and I've just finished looking at an advance copy of her new book of grown-up designs, Northern Knits; it's fabulous!

Lucinda focuses on the diversity of knitting in the northern European countries of the Shetland Islands, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. Each of these countries has a rich heritage of unique knitted art— Fair Isle sweaters, Shetland lace shawls, Icelandic Lopi sweaters, Norwegian black-and-white Selbu mittens, and Swedish twined knitted mittens.

There are so many excellent patterns in this book, it was hard to choose just one on which to focus, but I finally did it (such a hard job I have!). The design I kept coming back to was the Ola Placket Pullover. It truly is a mix of old and new and I love the casual, robust beauty of the sweater.

Lucinda was inspired by simple, embroidered white linen work shirts and shifts that she saw in the Nordiska Museet (Nordic Museum) in Stockholm, Sweden. The beautiful garments were embroidered with hearts, stylized flowers, and birds at the neckline and sleeves.

About the project, Lucinda says, "The shortish and loose-fitting Ola sweater is a knitted version of those embroidered shirts. Using pure two-strand white Swedish wool, both the sleeves and the main body are knitted in the round, then embellished with simple cross-stitches and French knots. The three-quarter-length sleeves begin with a lovely red and white twined knitted cast-on. This sweater is ideal for layering."

Indeed! I love to wear long-sleeved tee-shirts, and this pullover is perfect over those tees. I can see myself wearing Ola a bunch! It would look great with jeans, chords, black pants, and even ski pants! I really like the modern look that the cropped design gives this sweater, don't you? (And if you don't, Lucinda shows you how to lengthen the pullover, too.)

The placket detail is done with simple embroidery stitches and the drawstring is made up of three strands of yarn that you braid—that red and white yarn is so cute (and eye-catching) braided together!

One of the most interesting details of this sweater is the Twined Cast-On, which makes the contrasting red bead on the sleeve cuff. This is a unique technique, and one that I thought you might like to learn! So here goes:

		Leaving long tails for braiding later, make a slipknot with 2 strands of A and 1 strand of B, and place the slipknot on the needle; the slipknot does not count as a CO st. Hold B in your left hand and the needle and 2 strands of A in your right hand (Figure 1).
Figure 1
		Loop B around the left thumb. Slip the needle tip underneath both strands of the loop, between the loop and the web of your thumb (and not into the loop itself yet). Next, insert the right needle tip down into the thumb loop from top to bottom (Figure 2) and rotate the needle so its tip is pointing upward again—the thumb loop now forms a figure-eight, with the thumb and needle in separate compartments of the eight (Figure 3).
Figure 2 Figure 3
		Wrap one strand of A around the needle as if to knit. Insert the needle tip up into the thumb loop from bottom to top (Figure 4; this will undo the twist of the figure-eight), drop the B loop from the left thumb, and tighten the new st.Loop B around left thumb again, slip needle tip underneath both strands of the loop, then insert it down into the thumb loop from top to bottom. Rotate the needle so its tip is pointing upward again, bring the strand of A farthest from the needle tip over the previous strand of A used, and wrap it around the needle as if to knit. Insert the needle tip up into the thumb loop from bottom to top, drop the B loop from the left thumb, and tighten the new st; rep from until the required number of sts are CO, alternating strands of A and bringing each strand over the one used before. Break off B. Drop the slipknot from the needle before joining in the rnd but do not untie it yet.
Figure 4

This pattern also offers gives a nice variety of sizing, from 35¾" bust to 51" bust. And it's designed for sport weight yarn, so if you need it to be bigger than 51", you can use a DK weight yarn—just be sure to swatch and check your gauge with the schematic to make sure you don't make the sweater too big! I'll probably do this to get about a 53" bust so I can wear Ola over a couple of layers. After looking at the pattern and the schematic, I think I'll do size 47" with DK yarn and that'll give me the roominess I want. (But I'll have to swatch to make sure that's correct, you know!)

So reserve yourself a copy of Northern Knits! I know it's one of those books you'll take from the shelf again and again.

Cheers,

Here Come the Poetry Mittens!

KD Sandi — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 13:33:00 GMT

Such a treat I have for you today... are you ready?

Last fall, we had a knitting poetry contest. It wasn't your average poetry contest, mind you, because where would the fun in average be? It was a poetry magnet contest, where we challenged you marvelously clever folks to take the words on the Interweave Press Magnetized Poetry Panel (we're sadly out of stock now, sorry!) and make some pretty poetry with them.

We announced the winner--Angela Lane of Vidalia, Georgia--and showed off her winning entry, which appears in the photo above.

There were second, third, and fourth place winning poems as well. See them here.

The prize? The prize was to have Angela's poem knitted into a poetry mitten. She gets the mittens (they're in the mail, Angela!) and the pattern would go into the Knitting Daily pattern store with nifty photos of her mittens and a full-color chart so you can make your very own versions of these cheerful knitting mittens.

Today, after weeks of getting the mittens ready, and getting the chart ready, the pattern is finally ready for you to purchase from our store: Angela's Poetry Mittens.

What's a poetry mitten?

In the January/February 2008 issue of PieceWork magazine, Veronica Patterson told us about a fascinating knitting tradition in early America: Women would choose a favorite poem, and knit the text into their mittens. There are several examples of these charming mittens in the Smithsonian, and so Veronica and Jane Fournier decided to knit up a modern version for the PieceWork audience. That mitten pattern made that issue one of our most popular back-issues ever.

That's when we decided to have the poetry contest, so we could have a pattern inspired by YOU.

Our newly updated pattern PDF contains the full instructions and charts for the 2008 PieceWork mittens, as well as an all-new chart for Anglea's winning poem-knit-into-mittens. We've also included Veronica's article on the history (and the mystery!) of poetry mittens, plus photos of everything because photos are the best part!

From Sandi's Bookshelf:
The Knitting Treasures in PieceWork magazine

See that? That's a photo of my actual bookshelf in my actual office. (I may have tidied it up a bit, removed the dirty coffee cups and peeled the kitten off the yarn ball, but that's all.) On the left is my collection of Interweave Knits magazines, and on the right, a thirteen-year set of my beloved PieceWork magazines.

And the more I wander through those lovely pages, the more knitting goodies I discover! Just to prove the point, I grabbed a random handful of issues and here's a few of the knitting patterns I found there: a lace sampler, a knitted Father Christmas doll (free pattern!), miniature stockings, vintage-inspired booties, Nordic flower sachets, and more--many of them inspired by historical or vintage patterns. The stories behind the patterns are there, too; illustrated with photos from museums all over the world.

As knitters, we are deeply connected not only to each other, but to those who have knitted in years gone by, often out of necessity, or to feed their families. Their stories are our stories; and now their knitting is our knitting too, in the pages of PieceWork magazine.

I know money is tight these days. But if you are considering treating yourself or someone you love with a magazine subscription, and you want something special, try PieceWork magazine. It's unlike any other magazine out there, and I think it's well worth every penny.

Click here to subscribe to PieceWork.

Sandi Wiseheart is the editor of Knitting Daily.

What's on Sandi's needles? I've been finishing up things this week--seaming sweaters that had long languished in my knitting closet, for one thing--and now I have to decide: do I start the Central Park Hoodie my sister asked for, work on baby gifts for all the new members of my family, or start another lace shawl that is a gift for (shhh) someone else? Choices, choices.