Mittens, upcycling galore!

I wanted to do a real upcycling/recycling project, using the sweaters we don’t wear anymore. Mainly to improve my sewing machine skills. I used the free pattern "Simple felted wool mittens" from Purl Soho.

I learned a lot from this and had fun looking for good colour and fabric combinations. But the most fun was decorating them with beads, embroidery, appliqué and all kinds of flowers. 

I ended up with 10 pairs of mittens, all rather quirky and fun, definitely unique!

The Waves

I made this abstract piece from fragments of painted cloth on which I made marks with ink and paint. For the marks I used sketches made on a beach walk as a guideline. I also added stitching and sewed a piece of sanded shell onto the work.

It is my entry to the Belgian competition “Nationale expo Museumpas”. You can see my entry on their website here : (you can still vote for me if you wish until Sunday, thank you so very much !! 🙏 😊) …    https://nationaleexpo.museumpas.be/project/35024.

Sweater becomes mittens and cowls

I had a sweater that was still in reasonably good condition but had become too small. I loved its fabric and colour so decided to walk the recycling path here.

I should have taken a photo of the original sweater, but I cut it up before I even thought of that.

From the sleeves I made long fingerless gloves. I cut them from the main body, picked up the stitches with my circular knitting needle and cast off neatly, cutting an opening for the thumb and sewing round it. Really happy with them!

The shawl neckline of the sweater was kind of special so I cut it off in its entirety and made it into a cowl. By sewing round the edge with a nice yarn (Manos del Uruguay Serena alpaca cotton blend) I managed a ruffled edge. With the same yarn, I embroidered some flowers. I added an invisible press stud so it stays well in place. Not completely my style, but I still think it is a successful project and hopefully will make someone else happy.

Then there was the body of the sweater, which I cut into broad strips, sewing them together into one loop cowl that wraps around the neck twice. Again I picked up the stitches, and added a small knitted edge in a colourful yarn (Mayflower Egyptian organic cotton Print). The colourful edge makes this a really pretty cowl, I think!

 

So instead of an unused sweater, I now have 3 nice accessories 😊 

Jo Mittens

Jo March has been one of my heroes since childhood. In "Literary knits, 30 patterns inspired by favorite books" by Nikol Lohr, I found  a pattern for Jo mittens and really wanted to knit them. Partly because I like Jo so much, but also because of the practical boyish look of these mittens.

I struggled with the pattern, to be honest. I don’t think it 's written clearly enough for a not so experienced knitter and I had to frog more than once. I didn't seem to be able to make the pattern work, so in the end I modified it. Overall, sometimes a bit of a frustrating experience but, in the end, also very rewarding.

I like my Jo mittens a lot and am happy I persevered! I love the look of the knitted fabric, its warmth and the way the mittens fit and feel. 

The yarn I used is Rauwerk 100% merino (100g - 220m), an eco-friendly and ethical yarn from Germany. this is fantastic yarn, soft and rustic at the same time, in wonderful colours, a real favourite of mine! I bought this skein at Yarnporium in 2018 (you can read my blogpost on Yarnporium here) at the booth of Wild Woolly (a super nice London yarn shop)

And a little shout-out to the knitting needles I used, Lykke driftwood double-pointed needles : simply super! The combination of the yarn and the knitting needles made this a lovely project!

the wonderful yarn and super needles :

Sherwood mitts

This pattern by Ashley Knowlton is available as a free Ravelry download here.

It is a well-written pattern that has taught me a new technique (drum roll) : the Vikkel Braid! This is an easy stitch with a great, and dare I say, a rather spectacular outcome. In any case I love it and am chuffed with the mitts, which are perfect for gift-knitting.

I used The Fibre Co Terra , an alpaca, silk and wool blend (aran weight). The yarn is discontinued, which is a shame, because it is very soft, and has some nice tweedy speckles and unusual colours.

The Vikkel Braid :

Spring Foliage Mitts

This is a design by Alana Dakos of Never Not Knitting. You can find it in the book "Botanical Knits". When I first saw these mitts, I immediately fell in love with them. Spring foliage grows up one side and into the thumb gusset and side shaping has been added to flatter the curve of the wrist.

I used yarn from my stash : Rowan felted tweed and some unspecified ecru yarn.

If I would knit them again I would only use one colour and that would be a lighter green. But that said, I still love the design very much!

In the past I already knitted two more of Alana Dakos' designs : the life circle scarf and the twin leaf loop. I really like the way she incorporates these botanical themes in her designs!

This old sweater is a pair of wrist warmers

This is my favourite kind of upcycling: something has become unusable (seriously shrunken sweater), another thing is actually needed (wristwarmers for my son) and it all results in an easy project with great result (imho)!
I cut the sleeves from the sweater and made holes for the thumbs, sewing round the holes so that there wouldn't be any unravelling. The sweater had already felted a bit, but I wanted the wristwarmers firmer, so I put them  into the washing machine on a high temperature. They came out super warm and nice. And quite cool too, if I may say so :-)

Here you can see how much more the wristwarmers have shrunk:

 cool!

Mittens revisited

I have knitted this pattern twice. The first time I knitted the mittens for myself in self-striping acrylic (nice and soft, good quality acrylic, from my stash, once bought who knows where and when...). It was my first project on double-pointed needles, and turned out okay in the end (after having to start all over again about 4 times...). The second pair of mittens was a Christmas gift for my mother-in-law. Here I used a 100 % wool yarn, in 2 shades of purple, I bought at Swaledale Woollens in Muker. I had the immense pleasure of visiting this shop in Yorkshire in 2012, while we were on holiday there. If you're ever in the neighbourhood, go and visit this shop. It is beautifully located in this wonderful Yorkshire landscape and they sell the most wonderful honest, local and pure wool.
Knitting with this wool from Yorkshire was absolute bliss!
The pattern is printed in 'Fast and fun knits', p.58.