Our Monday night Zoom with Mary Jane Mucklestone has me on fire for reconnecting with one of my great yarn loves, Léttlopi.
This workhorse wool yarn—perfected over thousands of years by sheep who like Iceland’s dramatic climate just fine, thank you very much— takes a little adjustment after I’ve been been riding the merino train. But once I get into it, I cannot get enough. It’s just so good for colorwork, with every kind of color mood available in our palette of 38 colors. I just want to keep playing. And Mary Jane’s interchangeable colorwork motifs provide days of play.
With so much choice of both color and motif, it can be hard for a knitter to narrow down the choices for a larger project like the Destination Pullover or the Daytripper Cardigan. But I find that if I blast through some small projects, I learn very quickly about the color and pattern combinations I like the best, and that are the most fun for me to knit.
That’s where the two small projects of Field Guide No. 17 come in. You can play for days, experimenting all you like, and in short order you will have a pile of winsome hats and mitts to distribute to your adoring fans, or lay in for next winter’s wearing or gifting.
What are these two small projects? Here we go.
Jaunty Beanie
We saw Jaunty Beanies popping up as soon as the advance subscription copies of Field Guide No. 17 left Nashville, before we had shipped a single skein of Léttlopi. Knitters delved into their stashes and lopi leftovers and churned out hats with astonishing swiftness.
What is not to like? You can repeat motifs, you can knit the ribbed cuff in a contrasting color or let it blend into the pattern, you can use small remnants for the centers of your Beads motif, you can top them all with pom poms, or not.
It’s simplicity and play, and a great hat at the end of it.
Using the Sparkles motif gives a color block beanie a subtle transition, and adds the warmth of stranding.
At our Zoom on Monday, Ann was showing off the Jaunty Beanies she’s already made, and I was filled with envy. Need more Léttlopi!
Trinket Mittens
The Trinket Mittens are the first mitten pattern we’ve ever published. We were waiting for the mother of all mittens, and Mary Jane’s mittens, inspired by a youthful Christmas she spent in Sweden, tick all the boxes. They are classic, simple, modern, traditional—and most of all, warm—all at the same time. Knit to a chewy, dense gauge, Trinket Mittens will felt lightly with wear until they are a custom fit for your hands. The folded cuffs can be adorned—or not—with a bracelet of colorwork, using one of the five interchangeable motifs in Field Guide No. 17.
Transport your persimmons in style with the Trinket Mittens.
Do you struggle with small-circumference knitting, like I do? Well, help is on the way. Stay tuned for Friday’s post, which will be a Jen Arnall-Culliford video tutorial on the magic loop technique. I’m finally going to jump in, overcome my resistance to learning new-fangled (ish) techniques, and learn magic loop—thanks to the powerful need to make myself some Trinket Mittens. I have a feeling these mittens are going to be fun for the whole family.
Variety (Pack) is the Spice of Life
We know it can be hard to pick colors. We also know it’s tremendous fun to whip up a stack of small, potato-chip knits if you’ve got the inspiration and motivation of a nice collection of colors to play with. That’s why we put together our Léttlopi Variety Pack. The Variety Pack is beloved by our stalwart shipping staff; for you, it’s one click, and for them, it’s one pick. Everybody is happy! We’ll keep the Variety Pack in stock as long as we can, given the ups and downs of the supply chain from Iceland.
Unfortunately this book has been timed when there is very little Lettlopi available in the UK. So I might have to plan a trip to Iceland. . . .Oh for a second I forgot about the global pandemic. . .
I’m thinking of knitting mittens and felting them. Wondering how much bigger I should knit them?
You should watch the Zoom from Monday. This came up and Mary Jane had some good tips to follow.
Thx Pam! I think I briefly caught her say, knit them at a looser gauge? Like on size 10 needles?
It was something to the effect of literally “hand felting” them—-put them on your hands, and then wash your hands for the requisite 20 seconds, or however long it takes to get to a size and texture you like!
Kay, I am surprised to learn that you have never experienced using the Magic Loop method! The one thing that helps me has been to remember that when it is time to turn and go to the stitches on the next needle, I always turn in the same direction. For some reason, that helps. I don’t know if I was taught this way, or if I developed it while learning, but it has held me in good stead, especially that one time I made the two at a time toe up socks.
I was resisting all this until I saw that variety pack.
I’ve tried magic loop, and 2 circulars, but I have to say for me DPNs is the way to go. Just don’t like all those dangling bits flopping around. Not to mention that a dangling circular, or a big loop of cable, is a total cat magnet, which can make knitting even more exciting…
I’m Team DPNs.
So sad that the Lettlopi Variety Pack is already sold out before 9:00 EST. 🙁
Like everybody else we are watching the coast for more Lopi to arrive from Iceland!
There’s absolutely nothing mysterious or “magic” about Magic Loop—I don’t even know why it’s called that. All you’re doing is knitting in the round and pulling your extra cable through occasionally (doesn’t even necessarily matter where) so you can keep the small circumference.
Once I learned Magic Loop it changed my knitting life! I will never go back to DPNs. I hope you find it helpful too!
The gauge for the hats is 16 sts/4″ on #9 needles; for the mittens it’s also 16/4″ but on #7 needles. Can this be correct? It seems the mittens would be knit at a tighter gauge.
p.s. Guess I should apologize: this question should probably be asked in the Lounge, but I just can’t figure out where I am or how to find anything there. Sorry!
Not gonna lie, knitting the mittens was a real challenge for me. I’d never successfully worked anything on dpns. I’d done colorwork just fine but in the round with 4 needles?! Then to turn the cuff and knit backwards? My mind still spins. But success builds on success and I’m halfway through my second pair! Wow! I’m looking through my stash to see if I have enough leftovers to make more! Thanks!