Merry Christmas everyone!

Heart Mittens

The mittens from hell are finally done. 

It's was definitely a learning project for me. Here's what I learned: 

1. I really need a pattern when I knit stuff. Improvisation leads to frogging. 
2. Colorwork with both hands sucks. Or my English method sucks. Weird, distorted stitches. Can't really say I'll ever get better at it. 
3. Different tension produces different sized mittens. Again, yet another reason to dislike colorwork. And I really tried to maintain my tension. Damn the TENSION!!!!
4. I should probably trim my fingernails.

A simple project that was only supposed to take three day tops, and yet somehow it dragged on and I managed to turn it into a hell project, by doing every single thing wrong. 

The finished mittens don't look all that bad, but every time I look at them I just remember all the frustration and the stress they caused me. Maybe I'll learn to love them with time. 

I should probably add that the colors are not so bright in real life.

Quick! To the rip pond!

I started a mitten last week, to go with my hat. I decided to use absolutely every color of GGH Wollywash I had left. Decided to start the thumb after the second row of hearts. And then I just knit away. Is it going to be too long? Nah. Not so sure about the red color. Maybe the orange is a bit to garish? No, it isn't, what are you talking about, just keep knitting.  It'll work out.

This my friends, is called denial. 

I got as far up to my pinky, and then it became evident even to my brain that it's not going to work out. The mitten is too long, the thumb is too high, and the top portion without the hearts is too long and just looks blank.

So I'm going to rip it. Start the thumb way lower, probably right after the cuff. I might keep the red color, because I don't have enough of the other colors to repeat them on both mitts, but the orange is going away. 

I think I'll try a different thumb. I could end up ripping it once more, but right now my brain is telling me to go ahead - try that thumb technique you never used before, why stick with this one that works just fine for you? 

Oh, brain, one of these days you and I are going to need to sit down and have a serious conversation.

From Norway with love

A friend's birthday was a few weeks ago, and I decided to make her fingerless mittens. Had to buy new yarn for them, she loves pale blue, and I didn't have anything pale blue in my stash. So I bought one skein of Ispe Padova Serenada and used up all of it. Really, after I bound off the second glove, I only had about 30 cm of yarn left. That was cutting it kind of close. 

The pattern is Garden Trellis Mitts, I really like the mesh detail in the middle of the glove.

And since the mitts were done really fast, I went straight ahead on another project. And I used the yarn left from my Caitlin sweater. The From Norway with love hat was in my queue ever since I decided it was time to figure out colorwork.  I can't really say I figured it out, but I certainly developed the most awkward colorwork technique ever. 

I tried holding both yarns in my left hand - that only led to major tangles. I spent more time untangling the strands than actually knitting. 

Then I switched to holding my main color in my left hand, and the contrast color in my right. Knitting with both hands! How exciting! How completely and totally awkward and uncomfortable! 

I can't for the life of me figure out the whole English knitting thing. When I wrap the yarn, I drop the needle and sort of use my whole hand to make one single stitch. I hold the project with my knees so it doesn't go anywhere. It's slow. And creates weird and different tension compared to my Continental knitting of the main color parts. But I did the combo for this hat. And it turned out superfine, if you consider the disaster that it could have been. 

You can notice funky tension here and there, but only if you look real close. 

Not only does it protect my ears from the cold, but my eyes as well ;)

I just messed up the size and made it 2,5 cm too long. Ironic, since most of the hats I make barely cover my ears. But I guess I can fold the ribbing. 

Before blocking this thing threatened to crush my skull, it was that tight. It's amazing how loose it became in a nice Perwoll lukewarm bath. I blocked it on a balloon, so I think that helped too. 

All in all, I'm really satisfied. I love the rows of hearts. I kind of want to make a hat with rows of ducks next, to work a bit on my tension issues. But I think I'll CO for socks instead.

Keeping my feet warm

After catching a massive cold two weeks ago, I thought it's time to be a little more proactive about my health and make sure my feet are warm. Or maybe I just wanted to use up some of my yarn. I doubt warm feet will protect me from the people that cough and sneeze in the bus. 

First up - crochet slippers. Not the same size, because I really don't know how to count crochet stitches. Pattern is here. 

And very short socks, because I only bought one 50 g skein of Regia sock yarn. These were done two at a time on one circular needle. In retrospective, I could have made the toes a little less pointy (by casting on more stitches). 

I'm also not very satisfied with my short row heels. Holes! Holes everywhere! 

Next time I'll do some research first, to see if there's a way to avoid the holes. I'm sure there is, it seems like there's a technique for everything. 

Like the amazing Judy's magic cast on and Jeny's surprisingly stretchy bind off that I used on these socks. Pure magic.