What the Heck is a Thrummed Mitten?

Well let me tell you, they are wooly wonderfully warm mittens. They are made with extra wool, called thrums, that are wrapped around the stitches at regular intervals as you knit along. That provides extra fiber inside the mittens to keep fingers warm and toasty.

I haven't started knitting Lil' Farm Gal's thrummed mittens yet, bit I did spend the better part of the day rolling thrums.

Essentially rolling thrums is a two handed operation, but since I was trying to take pictures of the operation, I tried to still capture the procedure one handed. Here I had a section of wool top, about 6 to 8 inches that I peeled off a strip about a quarter inch wide or so. Wool top is wool prepared for spinning in such a way that all the fibers are pretty much parallel. You can see here that the fibers are aligned quite nicely. Roving, where the fibers are more jumbled up is my preferred preparation for spinning, but nothing beats top for thrums.

Next I may slightly pull the fibers, if the strip is too thick.

This one above is pretty good and just folded for the photo. After the length of fiber is separated and straight, I tuck in the ends as shown below I want the finished bundle about four inches long.

Then you need to roll your little bundle of wool between your palms.

You basically want to slightly felt the wool, so it will hold its shape. This one below is nicely rolled. I need both hands to roll the bundle, so I had no camera hand left over.

When knitting the body of the mitten, about every third or fourth stitch will have a thrum wrapped around the needle and pulled through your stitch with the yarn.

The little ends will float inside the mitten, providing padding and extra insulation. Eventually all the ends will mat (felt) together inside the mitten, making it extra warm. Even warm when wet, because, hey, that's the way wool rolls.

I need to get started and maybe I can finish by Christmas.

I have enough thrums to last a while I think.

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Knitting Diligently

With all the baby excitement going on around here (yippee!), I have still been getting some knitting done.

Yesterday, I and Lil' Farm Gal did some non-hectic Black Friday shopping. We had already made plans for that, since it was going to be Cow Girl's last day of work. Little Farmer, however had other plans as far as that last day of work went, deciding he was ready to be born. But since Cow Girl and Little Farmer were in hospital yet, Lil' Farm Gal and I were able to continue with our plans.

We did get a lot of shopping done with a minimum of lines. Staying local and starting after 9:30 helped keep it peaceful too. She got a lot of her shopping done, and just following her around, I got shopping ideas. Useful because she also has an approaching birthday, besides Christmas. We also went to the local yarn shop so she could pick out the yarn for her thrummed mittens I promised to make.

Even with another visit to her mom and baby brother, we made it home for a few chores before Older Son arrived. When I got home, I worked on the back of the Green Flowy Cardigan. The same back that went from three inches to one inch the other day. After more time with it today, I am back past the spot I frogged from and only have about 6 rows or so before switching to stockinette stitch. Gauge looks better this time too.

After all this seed stitch, that will be a piece of cake. Simple mindless knitting for about 130 rows before starting the arm hole shaping.

I may need to intersperse some thrummed mittens to keep my sanity.

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And a Child is Born, My Little Thanksgiving Turkey

Shortly after midnight last night, Little Farmer made his appearance.  Just over two weeks early officially, but with all the threats he made to come early, I was pretty sure he would be here before December.  Cow Girl was supposed to go back to work one day yet, tomorrow.   She had to cancel, needless to say.
I posted some pictures earlier on Facebook so I will just show a few from our visit.

Little Farmer was clocked in at 12:27am today, Thanksgiving Nov 27, 2014, 6 pounds, 5.3 ounces and 18 inches long.  Hubby and I arrived just as Older Son (Daddy) and Lil' Farm Gal were leaving.  He had to take her to meet her dad for the second half of Thanksgiving.  Lil'Farm Gal was not happy to be leaving her baby brother either. 

But, with them leaving, that left Grandpa and Grammy free rein to cuddle baby.

Just the right size for snuggles. And even Grandpa got into the act.

Oops, his face is covered a bit.

There that is better.

Grammy has to work on her selfies. Darn short arms anyway.

While Cow Girl is in the hospital for a few more days, and Little Farmers works on his breathing, I will be staying with Lil' Farm Gal tomorrow.  We are going to hit up some stores locally, to avoid the big crowds.  And just probably a visit to see Little Farmer will be on the schedule as well. 

Three Steps Forward, Two Steps Back

Or if not steps, at least inches.
After measuring the three inches I had knit of the seed stitch bottom band, I spread out on the needle and measured.  Using my before washing gauge, I realized that I was knitting too loose.  Drat. As I knit, I thought I may be knitting too tight and was constantly telling myself, loosen up.  So I took a deep breath and......
Ribbit.  I frogged back over 2 inches.
Then I put the Green Flowy Cardigan away for a while.
But when I pick it back up, I will knit tighter, you may be sure.

And We Are Good to Go

After sketching, measuring, calculating, and designing, I think I am finally ready to take on the Green Flowy Cardigan.

This isn't a regular sweater knitting adventure. For one thing there is no pattern for me to tweak. I am using the basic outline for my gauge from the book shown above right. But I am adding wide front overlaps that will hang open. That is the "flowy" part. My rough sketches and schematic measurements for the sweater are on left.

I found a cable in another book. The chart was pretty tiny so I had to enlarge it. Actually I used some charting software to chart the knit and purl stitches. However the software didn't have the size cable icons I needed. So I printed off the basic chart and sketched in the cables myself. That is shown pictured above in the middle, with my swatching information below on a sticky note.

Then came calculating stitch counts. And that is where the rubber meets the road. Luckily I checked the gauge of my swatch before and after washing because there was quite a big difference. After washing the stitches per inch were less, but the rows per inch were more. Hmmm? Maybe that is why people (including me sometimes) think gauge lies. So I am basing my stitch and row counts on the "after washing" gauge. I'll finish the back and wash that and see if it is the right size then. Hopefully, gauge and the good Lord willing, it will be fine.

And here I am, ten rows of seed stitch so far for the back. Wish me luck!

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