Basic Baby Mittens in the round

You’ll need:
size US 4 double-pointed needles (dpn) (I used bry-flex plastics)
about 200 yards of worsted weight yarn (I used some unknown but fairly soft cream acrylic)
a tapestry or darning needle

note: These mittens were knit specifically for a small one year old with approx 5 1/8 inch wrist circumference and a wrist to fingertip length of about 5 inches. At the mom’s request I made these a bit small at the cuff so the baby couldn’t slip them off that easily. So I’m going to give the numbers I used then the recommended number for a slightly larger size in parentheses. The smaller size should work for a large six month old or average 8 month old. The larger size should comfortably fit a one year old.

on one dpn CO 20 (26) stitches

divide evenly over three dpns.

Join stitches and knit in a knit 1, purl 1 rib stitch for 1-1/4 inches.

Knit 6 rounds in stockinette stitch (knitting every row in the round).

Put first 4 (6) stitches on a holder.

Cast on 4 (6) new stitches. (I used a cable cast on but whatever method you’re comfortable with should work)

Continue with Stockinette stitch until the mitten measures approx 3 3/4 inches overall.

*knit 2 stitches together, knit2* repeat between asterisks to the end of the round - 14 (20) stitches remain

(larger size only repeat previous *k2tog, k2* row (14 stitches remain) )

k2tog all around - 7 stitches remain

break yarn and use a tapestry needle to run through the remaining stitches.

Bring yarn through small circle, turn mitten inside out and sew in ends.

To make thumbs:

Still using size 4 dpns, pick up 4 (6) stitches on the holder

Using additional dpns pick up 2 (4) stitches on opposite side of thumbhole and 1 stitch on either side - totalling 8 (12) stitches spread evenly on 3 needles.

knit 8 (10) rounds

knit 2 together all around - 4 (6) stitches

(larger size only, knit 2 more stitches together)

Break yarn, use tapestry needle to thread through remaining stitches, sew yarn through, turn mitten and thumb inside out and sew in ends, reinforcing any loose areas or holes.

For opposite hand: put the middle 4 (6) stitches on the holder instead of the first 4 (6)

Adding the Kitty Face

You’ll need:
1 pair US 1 straight needles
the same yarn you used for the mittens, but not that much at all
a darning or tapestry needle
Scrap yarn for face - I used blue ( cotton left over from ballet t) for eyes, a dark navy blue acrylic for the pupils and whiskers, and a pink acrylic for the ear highlights and nose.

How to make ears (make four)
Using same yarn as mittens, CO 2 stitches onto US size 1 needles
Knit in the front and back of the 1st stitch, K1 - 3 stitches total
K1, KF&B, K1 - 4 stitches total
K2, KF&B, K1 - 5 stitches
K2, KF&B, K2 - 6 stitches
Bind Off all stitches, break yarn leaving a long tail to sew onto mitten.

Using tapestry needle, sew the yarn from the cast on “tip” of the ear down to the base, on the opposite side from the tail left from binding off.

Using yarn tails sew ears onto the top of the mittens, with the inside of the ears facing the fingertips - with the base of the ears approximately in line with where the thumb starts.

Optional: Using pink or white yarn (or whatever you choose) sew a few stitches that will show only on the front of the ears, to give it a little depth.

Turn mitten inside out and sew in remaining ends.

Shape ears to suit your taste.

Nose: using pink yarn (or whatever color you chose) and tapestry needle, sew a series of parallel stitches in the middle of the top tip of the mitten, I made the stitches smaller the closer they got to the tip for a triangular kitty nose effect.

Whiskers: Cut two strands of dark yarn approximately 6 inches long. Using needle, at roughly 90 degree angles from the nose or wherever you think the “cheeks” should be, tuck both ends of each yarn to the inside on each cheek, by basically sewing two very small stitches on each side. Think of these as tiny dimples. Turn mitten inside out and tie ends of each strand in a small knot, then thread the yarn ends back through the exact same holes they came in. This secures the whiskers from the inside. Trim the whiskers to your preference.

Eyes: Using blue yarn (or whatever you chose) and needle, sew a series of parallel stitches below the ears in a cats-eye shape. Or round if you want a round-eyed kitty. Then use darker yarn to sew a single vertical line for the cat’s pupil. That vertical line makes this really look like a cat. Without it, it looks a bit more bunny-like.

Make sure the ends are knotted and sewn nicely. Put mittens on their hands and watch the kitten mitten fun begin.

Let me know if anything is unclear or I’ve royally screwed up the larger size - I’ve only knit the smaller size so there’s a chance I’m way off with that one.

Because for some reason I love to spin on Saturdays. I think it’s because I learned to spin on a Saturday.

This is some stuff I made by predrafting small pillows of roving from piles of Merino top in three different colors: peach, tan, and pink. Then putting them in a paper bag and grabbing them at random to spin in. Then I plied it all together. Neat huh?

I have officially dubbed this yarn “Peach Kelli Pop” after a very silly 80s Red Kross song that goes sort of like this:

She still needs her twist “washed and set” in my favorite lavender baby shampoo then she’ll be up in the shop. Must remember to put things up in the shop.

Yeah I had a busy day today. I spent the morning turning mittens into kittens. Kitten mittens.

Are these not the cutest things in the entire universe? Even if I say so myself.

You bet yer bippy I made that pattern up from scratch. And yes I have it all written down ready to post just for you, I’m just very very tired right now and can’t muster up the strength tonight. Did I mention this will be a pattern for mittens for a one-year-old done in the round on double pointed needles? This is something the web (usually abundant in any and everything) sadly lacked.

But I’m going to also post the pattern I made up for this little bear’s scarf because he’s never giving his up as it’s nicely secure around his neck to avoid hurting the cutie niece.

I also have some photos of the sloppy slubby scarf I made with the preppie boy yarn. This is being modeled by the sister-in-law who really enjoyed her present.

I also have photos of the baby second cousin in-law in his baby kimono and matching hat and some photos of me wearing my loop d loop ballet t as a vest which I think looks quite nice.

There are many many MANY photos of robo cutie niece being incredibly cute and sassy with her birthday cake but I’m considering starting a new flickr account just for the fam photos. That way I can share the photos without having relatives reading my blog ickiness.

Mikey made a great joke post yesterday about 10-4 being Talk Like a Trucker Day and I have to say I think it’s a brilliant idea. Just as silly and funny as Talk like a Pirate Day.

Sure, I rebelled in my Alabama youth by not liking football and trying to speak like a valley girl (that one in California, not the Tennessee Valley) instead of using a southern accent (failing in a big sad way) but I liked Smokey and the Bandit and was known to watch an episode or two of The Dukes of Hazzard (odd factoid: my mom taught a math class at an Atlanta high school in the sixties with the blonde one as a student). I haven’t watched one in a long, long time though and don’t plan to see the movie remake thing, EVER. I do still watch Smokey and the Bandit when it comes on TBS sometimes. I mean, damn that movie is funny in a really silly way. And I still think Fred the basset hound is cute. So there. I had an uncle on one side and a cousin on the other who were both truckers for a while so it’s kind of funny to reminisce about that weird “trucker cool” crap that happened in the seventies.

Anyway, here’s some funny redneck trucker songs to download. Just pretend I put them up on 10-4.

C.W. McCall - Convoy
Jerry Reed - East Bound and Down (the main song from Smokey and the Bandit)
Waylon Jennings - Just Good Ol’ Boys (original theme song for Dukes of Hazzard)
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes - punk cover of Just Good Ol’ Boys

I think the Craftrevolution Etsy shop has done a myriad of good things.

Not only has it raised 20,500 dollars that has gone directly to the Red Cross but it has also given exposure to a great group of crafters and a wonderful place for creators to sell their items. Etsy may have waived their usual commission for the Craft Revolution shop but they have gotten an unbelievable number of new members and shopkeepers in the process.

Several of my favorite creators, like Erin and Mel, already had shops but now there are several new crafters who, after donating their stuff to the Craft Revolution fundraiser, decided to open a shop as well like Pesky Mac and ChaosTheoryJen.

Seeing how well some of my stuff sold in the fundraiser and how much yarn I’ve been spinning and non-gift knitting I’ve been doing, well, consider me a new rider on the bandwagon, ya’ll.

Cody even made a little banner for me last night.

Why Noelle’s Noodles? Well, NoelleNoodle or sometimes a derivitave, NoLNoodle, has been my standard online nickname / handle / membername / login ever since I signed up for a geocities website in July, 1997. The idea at the time was that I was just noodling around. After that I had my own domain and website called Noelle’s Noodle which was more of a reference to whatever what going on in my brain.

So when creating my etsy account in order to buy something I used one of my standard names: noellenoodle. So since I already had that account, the way etsy works is I automatically got a subdomain for my shop: noellenoodle.etsy.com.

So what it’s referring to now are the fibery noodles I’ve been making, all the noodling around I do with yarn, or the random knitting ideas that come out of my noodle. So there ya go, in case you were wondering.

I haven’t uploaded anything for sale yet but there’s also a nifty rss feed so you can subscribe to it on Bloglines or some other rss feed aggregator and see when I do.

This Etsy setup is incredibly cool.

Damn this is funny. And not just because I’ve watched The Shining 14,848 times and like romantic comedies.

via

there’s also West Side Story and Titanic