A few friends were chatting about swifts on AIM last night, and I mentioned my charity shop find, a folding mini-swift called the Aero Wool Winder. In the hope that some blog-readers might be interested, Rys helped me take some pictures of it today. Judging by the picture in the leaflet, I’d say it was made in the 1940s, or perhaps early 1950s:

It fits into a box 10″ x 2.7″ x 1.3″ (25.4 x 7 x 3.3 cm):

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The postman and my friends have been really good to me over the past few days. I have been sent fine lace knitting needles (US #00) by Sharon, and beaded stitch markers from Tricia, who makes lovely markers and also row counter bracelets:

The blue ones were a gift, and fit sock needles and fine lace needles. I was so impressed I bought the red ones (with that lovely bonus one) to use with thicker needles.

Then yesterday, the postie brought a package of hand-reeled silk from Michael (a.k.a. Oaken King) You can read more about the different types he sent.

If you are at all interested in silk fibre or silk moths, you must explore Michael’s web site.

As for what I’ve been doing since my last entry, I finished the corrugated ribbing on the first Sanquhar glove, but it is on hold while I try to come up with a chart I like for the initials block. I realised that when I put my ALF aside weeks ago, I was actually within 20 rows of finishing it. I’ve decided it makes sense to finish it before getting back to the shawl I started more recently. ALF was intended for me, but it will also serve as a fall-back for hte scarf exchange if I can’t finish the other shawl by the deadline.

Now I have to eat some Haagen-Daz Chocolate Midnight Cookies ice cream, so I will get back to blogging another time …

Before I could start these gloves, I had to decide which of the 4 designs from the SWRI patterns I would use, or even whether to use one of the Sanquhar designs described elsewhere such as in Rutt’s book. A lot of the most famous Sanquhar designs are based on an 11 x 11 stitch square grid. The SWRI pattern using that square has 99 stitches around the palm, which for my 6.7″ palm would require a gauge of 14-15 sts/inch, which I didn’t want to do. The other patterns have 80 (Shepherd’s Plaid).and 90 (the other 2) stitches, so would work better. Perhaps one day I’ll make a pair for Rys and then I could use one of the grid patterns..

Of the other traditional designs, my favourite is Prince of Wales, so I swatched that one first, using some J&S lace weight send to me by Jenny S (thanks again!) using 2mm dpns (11.5 sts/inch):

After some thought, I decided that as an overall glove pattern, I preferred the Midge and Fly glove, so I swatched that next, using the same yarn but 1.75 mm needles:

That gave me a gauge of 13 sts/inch, which is what I needed, and I liked the fabric, so I cast on without swatching for the corrugated rib cuff, but fortunately it fits well. I like the blue and natural swatches, but as you can see I’ve chosen to go with the grey and white yarn which I had already ordered.

Earlier this month, I finished a pair of socks for a friend, but I didn’t want to post pictures here until she had received them. She has them now, so here they are (pictured before washing, and not on Ann’s feet):

Here is a close-up of the faux plaited cable, actually a slipped stitch ‘cable’ from Barbara Walker’s first Treasury, p108:

The yarn is Super Sport Strumpf wool/nylon, given to me long ago by a kind Knitlister living in Germany. It has been maturing in my stash waiting for the perfect recipient.

My current small project is Sanquhar gloves, similar to these but with a different traditional stitch pattern. The SWRI has patterns for 4 versions of these gloves. I am swatching J&S laceweight. I have done a swatch on 2 mm needles which is too loose for the gloves to fit my narrow hands, so I started another on 1.75 mm (promising!) and I’ve just changed to 1.5 mm. I’ll post photos later.

My other WIPS are socks for me in Opal and 2 Faroese shawls, both from Heartstrings. Pendants is for a friend, and ALF (All-Over Lace Faroese) will probably be for me unless I decide I haven’t time to knit another shawl for an exchange with a May deadline.

… just not updating the blog as often as I should. One reason was not wanting the intended recipients of my recent projects to see what I was making. The exchange mittens have reached their home, so I can post pictures of those now. .

The recipient requested natural or warm colours, with a preference for orange. Orange is not a colour I would usually use, but I like a challenge. I was going to spin the yarn from BFL/silk, but my dye attempts didn’t work out the way I wanted (though some of the silk turned out really well). Eventually I decided to buy yarn, but there wasn’t much choice of orange yarn locally. I ended up with Jaeger Baby Merino 4-ply, even though I don’t really like using superwash merino.

My first attempt at knitting the mittens was aborted as I found I couldn’t control my gauge with the longer floats (5 stitches) in this yarn, though I’ve done so successfully in the past. The final pattern was derived by combining elements from various patterns in Folk Mittens and the Mitten Book.

I like the texture the stranding produces on the inside, and all those little air pockets trapping heat.

I received lovely thrummed mittens in return. I don’t have pictures yet as Mary intentionally left them slightly large so I could full them to an exact fit. I’ll post pictures eventually, but for now, here is a link to the picture on Mary’s blog (January 26th).