A tale of three mittens

Gifting a pair of fingerless mittens has to be something that most new knitters do, especially at Christmas time. After making my first pair of Virva fingerless mitts, requests came in thick and fast from the rest of the family. To be fair, I can see why, as they are useful in the winter. For me, it was a good opportunity to test out some different techniques and skills too. I chose three patterns, all in different weights of yarn, to see what works well for me as a maker, as well as a gift.

1 metre, 4 projects

Minerva Crafts sent me 1 metre of this cotton canvas and I did intend to make a knitter's project bag, similar to the one I made in the summer. What I didn't realise was the size of the matching set that I could get out of that amount of fabric! What made me particularly happy was that everything else I needed to make these projects was already in my stash so it was only the 1 metre of fabric that was new. If you want more details of the fabric and links to some of the tutorials I followed, head over to Minerva's blog here.

One Week One Pattern - Seamwork Astoria

It would be fair to say that the Seamwork Astoria is my most made and most worn pattern. Sometimes you find one that just works! This is also one of those that I turn to when I only have 1m of fabric to hand (sometimes even less!). I find that the Astoria works particularly well for my work wardrobe, which is also why it featured as my One Week One Pattern choice. I only posted two new versions on Instagram but I wore other versions throughout the week, as it really is a staple item for me. This time I did alter the pattern somewhat as well for a little more variety too....

Spector Sweater #jojifallkal2019

I've joined in with plenty of sewing challenges and sewalongs but this was my first knit a long. Knitting takes much longer than sewing so it's a real commitment. Luckily Joji's fall knit a long ran for a whole three months, giving me just enough time to complete the sweater project I had in mind. There were hundreds of people signed up this year, with different chatter threads for different types of projects on Ravelry. There were plenty of knitters who managed multiple projects which astounded me! 

Moneta top hack

I love a 1 metre make, especially when the fabric was good value in the first place. I bought this Liberty jersey at the Knitting and Stitching Show from the Sewbox stand. They have lots of packs of Liberty fabrics pre-cut into 1m, 2m and sometimes even 3m lengths. I picked this 1m pack up, thinking I might just get a long sleeved top out of it. It was tight but I managed it in the end!