Episode 3A: All About Mittens.


Hosts

Sherri. Host, knitter, spinner, and fosters dogs.

You can find Sherri as
TangledThread on Ravelry
Instagram: geminatepodcast

Tamara. Co-host, knitter, knitwear designer, hiker, mom.

You can find Tamara as
tammo on Ravelry
Instagram: tamaramoots
Blog: www.tamaramoots.com
Knitwear Designs: http://www.ravelry.com/designers/tamara-moots 

Current Projects

The second of two shawls in an upcoming Malachite Shawl Series out of Dream in Color Jilly in the colorway Green Lantern on US Size 2 (2.75 mm) needles.
Knitting at the Library Cowl by Irocknits in the very, very beautiful Rustic Fingering Gradient from Neighborhood Fiber Company in the Shades of Vermillion color. https://www.ravelry.com/projects/tammo/knitting-at-the-library-cowl
Top down layering tunic out of Valley Yarns Colrain in the color Chestnut on US Size 6 needles.
InGENEous Mittens by SK Designs out of Berroco Vintage DK in the color Petunia on US Size 6 needles. https://www.ravelry.com/projects/tammo/ingeneous-mittens
Big bag of Basic Adult Mittens out of Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Worsted. Always knits mittens on US Size 6 needles which is a size or two smaller than called for on the ball band get warm and cozy mittens. 

Finished Projects

Sherri:
Rocky Road by Heidi Kirrmaier out of Beaverslide Dry Goods Merino/Mohair 90/10. Sherri's Rocky Road

Tamara:
The first of two shawls in an upcoming Malachite Shawl Series out of Dream in Color Jilly in the colorway Green Lantern on US Size 2 (2.75 mm) needles.
Basic Adult Mittens (as long as she can count them without thumbs....because she hates knitting thumbs and saves them to do a whole whack of mittens at once) in Lamb's Pride Worsted in the colors Prairie Fire and Persian Peacock.
Baby Mittens with actual thumbs out of Lamb's Pride Worsted in the bright red color Red Hot Passion. 

What We've Been Wearing

Sherri:
Bookworm by Heidi Kirrmaier out of Berroco Blackstone Tweed. Sherri's Bookworm.
Snowhemian by Alex Tinsley. Sherri's Snowhemian handspun gray angora held double with scrap sock yarn Knit Picks Imagination color Pixie Dust (discontinued).
Cobblestone by Jared Flood. Sherri's Cobblestone named Walking Dead because while binge watching the show she dug deep into her stash and came up with sock yarn scraps.


Tamara:
Sherri Pullover as a winter hiking mid-layer.
Basic Adult Mittens.


Topic of the Show: Mittens!

Mittens are portable, make great gifts, fun and quick to knit, one of the few knitted things teen boys will actually wear on purpose and small enough to be low risk for learning new techniques or for going all out on fancy color work.

There are more than 15,000 mitten patterns on Ravelry. 3,000 of them are free patterns. Ravelry has some pretty great search features so you can narrow down your searches to color work or cables or whatever else you might want while you are looking. Or using the mitten section in the Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns is another great way to start knitting mittens.

It isn't super easy to get small people to try on mittens. But it is important since the trickiest part of mittens is getting the thumb gusset to fit snug without being too tight (for ease of picking things up). You also need to be sure the thumb length is long enough. The trying it on as she went is how Tamara found a super simple mitten recipe that she uses for almost every mitten she knits.

Sherri talks about the different types of thumb gussets too.

Something New: Thrummed Mittens

Sherri learned how to make thrummed mittens. She learned three different methods by trying three different patterns. First she tried the Yarn Harlot Thrummed Mittens by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee with help from this blog post about the process - http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/thrumfaq.html

Then she tried Thrummed Mittens Knitting Pattern by Corinne Morrison-Morton and finally she tried the slightly different Thrummed Mittens on 2 needles by Wool-Tyme. Each method and pattern gave her a slightly different look. ??? was her favorite....??? was her least favorite...she liked ??? because.....

Tamara didn't try thrummed mittens. But she did get the locks that Sherri used to test out thrummed mittens from the Taos Wool Festival in October. She took Sherri's email about what to find and with the help of a nice vendor from the Sheep Feathers Farm booth picked out some fiber from a wensleydale/cvm sheep named Alfie in a color named Oatmeal. 

Podcast Announcements

Join Geminate Podcast group on Ravelry and follow us on Instagram at geminatepodcast.

Tag us on Instagram using #geminatepodcast and #gp20hats2020 and #gp20in2020


Ravelry board on the Geminate Podcast for "20 Hats in 2020". 

Check out the Ravelry board for a thread about Mittens. 

That's Entertainment

Sherri:
Also watching Movies:  Got the Disney Chanel and watching all the movies... Clone Wars, Revenge of the Sith, Moana, Tangled, Frozen, Beauty and the Beast on the Disney Channel. 

Tamara: 
Watching The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season 3 on Amazon.
Re-watched Bottle Shock.
Re-watched The Hobbit movies.
Watched Man in the High Castle season 4.
It's basketball season! So taking mittens to game to watch the Pep Band.
Reading Birds of a Feather (book 2 of the Maisie Dobbs series).
Finished books 3 and 4 of the Comoran Strike series (Career of Evil and Lethal White).
Finished #49 of the In Death Series Vendetta in Death.

Board Games 

(with Knitability Rankings from 0 with no time to knit at all to 10 with time to finish half a sock during the game)

Terraforming Mars.  Knitability: 4 (fantastic game but at two actions a round the rounds move FAST!)
In the Shadow of the EmperorKnitability: 4 (if trying to actually play, up to 8 if give up and just do things willy-nilly).

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