What have I been knitting?

I seem to have completely lost the plot when it comes to blogging. I've got a couple of blog posts, including one about Yarndale, half-written in my draft folder but I'm in the middle of several deadlines, book editing and this is my busiest time teaching, so blogging has taken a back seat. I have done lots of knitting though. I've got a pile of designs which I'd like to self-publish before the end of this year or early next year so I'm slowly working my way through those too.

I sent out a newsletter yesterday with a 15% discount. I've got new colours, beads, kits, shawl pins and some other stuff in the shop. Use code: oct15 to claim your 15% discount. Valid until midnight Monday 20th October. 

To try to get back into blogging groove, I thought I'd share a few things I've been knitting. Below is the next pattern to be published: my 'Vinter Votter'. Vinter is winter in Norwegian and votter is mittens. So these are winter mittens. These mittens are inspired by traditional 'Selbu' mittens and feature snow flake motifs which are so popular in Norwegian mittens. 

The plum/light grey (it looks white but is grey) is Quince & Co Chickadee and knitted up to a slightly larger tension than the pattern states which makes these mittens perfect for me and I'm keeping this pair for myself. The grey/green pair is the official sample pair and were knitted by Gwen in Lang merino. More details when the pattern is ready which will be very soon, hopefully in the next few days.

I've been working on more mittens. I've been wanting to knit something with Navia Duo for a long time. I've used it for swatching a few times and it's lovely. So I cast on for a new pair of mittens inspired by Norwegian waffles. All Norwegian homes have a waffle maker and the motif on these mittens remind me of the traditional waffle shape. This is the large size which is quite large. They would fit a man quite nicely. They're slightly large for me and I've got man size hands. I'm working on a smaller pair too. I've just finished re-charting the smaller size this morning and now I need to dig out some yarn to knit them in.

Although I love mittens and will actually wear them when the weather gets colder and I'm especially looking forward to wearing them in Norway at Christmas but I wear fingerless mittens most of the time. My hands are always cold. I've had a stitch pattern in my head for a while so I charted it out and it knitted up exactly like I hoped it would. The yarn is Navia Duo again.

Here's the front of the mitten:

And here's the back:

Before we left for Yorkshire last month I cast on for a crescent shawl. I used a slightly different construction method than I've done before and added some short rows. I didn't check how the size was working out till I cast off a few days after we got back but I love the size of this. It's bigger than I thought it would be.  I bought the yarn in Jersey last March and I got Vanessa to model it for me when she was home last weekend. I'm working on finishing the pattern so I can send it to the tech editor. I'll talk more about it when it's ready for publication. I'm really looking forward to wearing it this winter. I think it'll be my favourite scarf.

I've been very tempted by Navia lately and I've been dreaming of doing something with neon pink and silver grey. I couldn't resist a bright blue either and a few days ago I cast on for this scarf. I've got a bit further by now and I'm loving it. I had a outline plan when I started but I'm designing on the go.

I've also got a new circular shawl on the needles which I'm designing 'on the go'. I did take photos but they seem to have vanished so I'll share some photos another time.

I've also got a couple of simple projects on the go but I'm not sure if I'll finish them or not yet. Not quite sure if they're working out as I hoped, so I've put them on hold for now.

This weekend I'll mainly focus on mittens I think. What's on your needles this weekend?