This stranded knitting is addicting! I’m really having a great time learning the technique. I have a new book on stranded mittens, Selbuvotter by Terri Shea. It’s a fantastic book which gives lots of history regarding the patterns. Here’s an in-progress shot of my first pair from the book.

 

These mittens are child sized and I’m using some KnitPicks Palette yarn from the stash. The pattern is grafted and very easy to follow. The only problem is that I don’t seem to be able to achieve gauge on this project. It should be knitted at 8 stitches/inch. In order to get that I had to use US#4 needles and the resulting fabric is way too loose. Right now I’m using US#2.5 needles and getting 9 stitches/inch. It’s a bit small, but as the mitten will be for charity there is bound to be some child who can use the pair. Next time I’ll try some sport weight yarn, or just throw in a few extra stitches to get the correct size.

 

Here’s a pair of children’s socks knitted with some of my handspun yarn. I just LOVE using my handspun!!!

 

And some spinning too. This was spun with two different colored singles, superwash merino. I wanted to see how the barber pole effect would turn out. I started with 2 oz of each color. I like the finished yarn and will probably do some more like this one. There are 185 yards of 2 ply, 11 WPI yarn in the skein.