February 9, 2006
Nordic Mittens
As promised, here are the finished Nordic Mittens (did you hear that? finished!)
I had in my mind the perfect photo shoot for my lovely mittens - playing in the snow and building snowballs. Snow clinging to the wool and the nice contrast between the bright white snow and the black and red mittens. Then I crashed back to reality. Snow? There's no snow around here. Wind we have, snow - not so much. So, you get the lame office shot. Sorry, it was the best I could do.
Detail Shots:
Project Details:
Pattern: Vinternatt Mittens Kit. Size medium
Yarn: Strikkegarn Rauma Yarn (included in kit) - about 1 1/2 skeins of red and not quite 1 skein of black.
Needles: 3.25 mm and 3.75 mm dpns (I had to go up a needle size on both to compensate for a tighter gauge - that's the first time that's ever happened to me, usually I have to go down a needle size).
Modifications: Um, not a single modification. It was all I could do to follow the pattern There may very well be some mistakes, but don't tell me about them if you see them. My tension improved tremendously on the second mitten. I think it might have been that I stopped gripping the needles like they were going to jump out of my hands, and that I stopped wrapping the right hand yarn around my pinky six times, but I'm just guessing.
The TechGuy socks are progressing nicely. I made quite a lot of progress yesterday.
Did you notice? Yes indeed, I am knitting that freakin sock on one 24" circular needle. Magic loop on a 24" needle is not ideal. Why would I do it then, you ask. Well, because of this. WTF is up with that?! I wasn't even pulling on it or anything, just knitting with it - and about 10 stitches into the round too. So, I'm off to the LYS at lunch to see if I can get some addi turbos and return this little sucker. Jeeze. Oh, and on a side note, I remembered why I didn't love the magic loop. It makes my right pinky sore - the cable almost rubs a raw spot on it. Weird.
February 2, 2006
Mitten Number 2
I've been kind of quiet about the second Nordic Mitten, but it's really going well. The 2-handed knitting gets easier as time goes on, and my tension is considerably better on this one. I'm about half way through and will make good progress next week because I get to just ride along in the car on the commute.
I knit another 4 rows on Ombre last night and I swear I will eventually finish that blanket. I'm worried because I wanted to have it done by the middle of February and that isn't looking likely. Why does it have to take so freakin' long to finish this project? Yes, I'm whining, but come on already. Jeeze.
In exciting news, this morning Phil saw his shadow. When Travis heard that bit of news he scoffed (he really did) and said he'd be ecstatic if we only had six more weeks of winter. He's predicting something more in the range of 12 weeks, but he is a bit of a pessimist (although if you ask him, he'd say he's a realist - whatever). All I know is that I wish the wind would stop blowing.
Posted by Stephanie at 8:57 AM | Comments (21)January 24, 2006
One Mitten
Mitten number 1 has been blocked and dried and is ready for inspection. She is far from perfect, but this ain't no stinkin' store bought mitten, people. For my very first ever stranded knitting attempt, I'm pleased. There is much improvement to be made on mitten number 2, but someone had to volunteer to go first, and it just happened to be this little mitten.
I believe I may have a tentative understanding of this whole business of knitting with the yarn in your right hand, but darn, it's hard! I find that as I knit on the mitten, the two-handed stuff gets a lot easier, but I'm still hopeful that someday I won't feel like the most uncoordinated person on the planet with my right hand (I am right handed after all). However, there's this one spot that is still wonky (I just love that word) and I wondered if any of you might be able to tell me what that's all about.
See that black diamond in the middle? There's supposed to be a single line of red stitches between those black areas (it'd be a whole lot easier if I knew how to draw an arrow on a picture). The stitches are there, but they don't show up. I'm assuming it has something to do with my tension, but I think it's odd that that (and the same design again) is the only place the tension problem is really noticable after blocking (thank god for blocking - you were right, it worked miracles). Any thoughts on why that might be?
And, after much angst and worry over gauge and fit, I'm happy to report that the mitten is a perfect fit - not too tight and not too loose.
Now I just hope the second mitten is close to the same size.
Posted by Stephanie at 8:39 AM | Comments (28)January 12, 2006
One Track Mind
I've been knitting, and knitting, and knitting. I've seriously neglected Ombre because I cannot stop knitting on these mittens. I'm beginning to think it's an obsession. I just can't help myself. I tell myself I'll just knit on them for a few minutes because I need the practice on the 2-handed technique, and before I know it it's ten o'clock and I've knit on the mitten for 3 hours without even glancing at poor Ombre, neglected in his basket. This is how the mitten looks so far:
The two-handed technique continues to get easier, but my tension is still uneven and a bit spotty.
But I figure that I'll just keep practicing and maybe things will be better by the time I'm ready to start Butterfly. Which at this rate won't be too long - I'm almost half way through the first mitten!
I'm debating knitting the Norwegian Stockings from Folk Socks for additional practice before Butterfly. What do you think?
Posted by Stephanie at 1:57 PM | Comments (18)January 11, 2006
There Was This Thing
...this litle tthing about gauge. After I posted my dismal progress pictures yesterday I thought I'd see if the mitten fit. It didn't. Not by a long shot. Why? The pattern says my gauge should be 6 stitches per inch. Do you think 12 might be a bit tight? Yeah, I thought so too. So, while this project is strictly for practice and I'm cutting myself a lot of slack, I'm not going quite that far. I ripped the mitten. And then I started over. For awhile I thought it was going much better. I went up a needle size and thought my stitches looked smoother and more uniform. Now I've decided that I was just kidding myself.
Wonky stitches abound. However, I've used floats and I think it's going better. I'll have to try weaving again after I get the hang of this two handed stuff. But not on this project.
My gauge is better, but it's still a bit tight. More like 7 stitches per inch than 6. I'm debating on whether to rip and start over or just hope that my knitting loosens up a bit more. And since I didn't knit a swatch and block it I'm not sure how that will affect my gauge. I'm wondering if I can block it out a bit. What's your opinion?
I am finding that knitting with my right hand isn't as torturous as I originally thought. It's getting easier all the time. Not good, but easier. At least I don't still feel like I've never held a knitting needle before. So, I will continue to plug away on my mitten and will have to make some time to work on Ombre - like maybe this evening. Have a great day.
January 10, 2006
Practicing
Thank you all for your advice on this fair isle stuff. I tried a variety of things yesterday and decided that I actually like one color in each hand the best. I'm still not sure on the weaving or floats, but I started using floats and it seems to be ok. I'm a little concerned about the floats around the corners of the dpns, but I'm trying to keep them loose. We'll see if it's enough.
Basically, the floats start at about the black line of stitches. Do the stitches look better above that point or is there no real difference? I find that I have to really concentrate on not knitting too tight with my right hand. I can't remember if it was the same when I learned to knit or if this is just a right hand thing. I did have better control of the tension with my right hand by the end of last night, but as you can see, I still have a long way to go.
January 9, 2006
Hands and Feet
This weekend was lovely - the weather was crap, but I got a lot done. I got caught up around the house after two weekends of being gone. It still amazes me how much laundry two people can generate in such a short amount of time. I think it has something to do with the multiple layers Travis has to wear to keep warm in this lovely climate, but whatever it is - all our laundry was done at one point this weekend (but in the true nature of laundry, there was more before I had the last load folded). Christmas decorations are put away and the tree is out of the living room. Taking down the tree made me really sad because it was still in really good shape - not dry at all - and it just seems wasteful, but I guess it was time to get everything back to normal.
I finished the second Sock after three tries at grafting the toe. I don't know what my problem was but I couldn't seem to concentrate and kept losing track of where I was.
Disregard the lovely rolled pants look - I was too lazy to change my clothes for the photo shoot.
Project Specs:
Pattern - Ellen's Birthday Socks
Yarn - Mountain Colors Weaver's Wool Quarter in Sierra
Needles - Size 2 Addi Natura dpns (can I just tell you that I love these needles)
Modifications - I made the legs shorter than the pattern (7" rather than 9") because I was worried I would run out of yarn - as it turned out I could have added at least an inch to each leg, but I don't think they're too short as they are. I didn't worry about my gauge and I'm glad I used a size 2 rather than a size 3 needles. As they are, the socks are snug and comfortable.
Next up: Ombre (of course) and the Nordic Mittens.
Yesterday morning I sat down with some scap yarn and my Philosopher's Wool dvd and tried to figure out how the heck to do this two-handed fair isle business. Let me digress for just one moment and ask how the heck you knit with your right hand? I am completely uncoordinated and can not keep anything resembling control of the yarn - the tension is mostly really loose, but it seems that the stitches are tight - explain that one to me. It is not pretty. Trust me. However, the weaving seems to be working ok. I do notice that even on the rows where I knit with just the yarn in my left hand, the stitches where the other yarn is woven in look funny. What do ya think?
Please tell me this tension/wonky stitch thing will get better. Please (but if it won't just tell me now - let's just rip that band aid off right now). Despite the struggles with this two-handed stuff, I'm enjoying two color knitting. It's so fun to see the pattern emerge. I had a hard time putting it down yesterday so I could take down my Christmas stuff. All I wanted to do was just knit one more row. I believe I may be in trouble.
