Finishes and Starts

This week I not only finished the Inside Out Socks, but also the beaded cuff that I started (several times) while I was in AZ in March. Once the beads are on the yarn, the knitting is speedy--until you come to a bead stringing error, and need to rip out a row, cut the yarn, fix the order of the beads, and then continue. This only happened once on this cuff, and not until I was very close to the end, so it wasn't much of a problem at all. I haven't started stringing the beads for cuff #2, which will use the same beads / yarn, but will most likely have rows of beads rather than squares. I like how this worked out with my first pair, and it livens things up a little. Here's an on-arm photos, showing the cuff in action:

Yikes, my hand looks huge in this photos--I'm trying to convince myself that the problem is the angle of the photo, so if you feel differently keep it to yourself! No ETA on when I will start cuff #2, I've got to get fired up to string beads again, so it may be awhile.

While on the plane to LA last weekend, I started a new pair of Anemoi mittens. The beaded cuff and the inside out socks were too close to being finished to take along, and the Bohus and Wicked are too bulky. The patten is, of course, from Eunny Jang, and this time I'm using solid colored Louet Gems yarn. I love the way the variagated Sundara yarn looked in the last pair, but I wanted to try some colors that were more muted and less contrasty. Here's the palm:

and here's the top of the hand:

So far, so good, right? Today I'm too tired to work from a chart, so I've started yet another new project, this one for Project Spectrum. And did I mention that I started a new pair of socks this week, plain stockinette socks that I can knit in the car? So in the last week, I finished two projects, and started three new projects--hmmm, no wonder I'm slipping further behind . . .

Finally Finished - Anemoi Mittens

I'm not sure if there's much left to say about the Anemoi mittens, except that they are finished!


Here they are after washing--they are still wet here. It was hard to get them to lay flat and straight for the photo. They were not knit crooked! At least not as crooked as they look here.

The main color is Sundara Yarn sock yarn in Bittersweet, and the off-white is Dale Baby Ull. I love the slightly stripey color of the Bittersweet, and the dark sections give a velvety look to the corrugated ribbing.


The striping looks great on the palms, doesn't it? I think that the palms would have benefitted from a better handle on yarn dominance, although then the hands might have turned out lighter than I wanted. The two mittens are slightly different sizes and a little big, but not enough to be a problem. Next time, I may try using a US1 instead of a US2 for the main part, for a snugger fit. The pattern came with blank charts so that I could chart my own design, so I'm mulling over some possibilities. I love the swirls on Eunny's design, though!





Here are the mittens in action--and by action, I mean modelled by my mom in the sewing room, while I awkwardly photograph them under the full-spectrum light.

Now all I need to do is figure out which is more important--wearing the mittens while driving, or having my fingers free to knit at stoplights.

Everything's Coming Up Milhouse

I finished the cuff of the left Anemoi mitten last weekend, and was making good progress until a couple of issues cropped up:

• Yarn Dominance: No, this doesn't mean that these are dominatrix mittens. Would a dominatrix even wear mittens? It means that the pattern shows up differently depending on which strand of yarn you hold under the other one. I've been holding the brown yarn under the white yarn. The pattern looks better if I hold the white yarn under the brown yarn. How do I know? I tried it out, and the difference was significant. Rather than rip out 1.75 mittens, I ripped out 10 rows of better-looking knitting in favor of consistent knitting.
• Pattern Stupidity: It's not the pattern, it's the knitter. After ripping out the 10 rows mentioned above, and re-knitting 4 of them, I realized that I'd made a mistake after putting the thumb on stitch holders and had omitted one of the vertical stripes that runs up the inside-side of the mitten. A very obvious mistake, so I had to rip out another 18 rows. I took the photos above after ripping these out--just in case I have to scrap the whole mitten.

I'm tempted to start something in stockinette on giant needles, just to feel like I'm making some progress!

Anemoi Mittens - More than 50% Complete!

I cast on the second Anemoi mitten yesterday evening, I've been mentally steeling myself for the excruciatingly slow corrugated rib. How can such a beautiful cuff take so much time? How?? I planned to start this on my trip to Stanford, but couldn't remember how to start the tubular cast-on. This cast on looks very pretty, and it was much simpler this time. I wanted to get a jump on the left mitten before the Madrona Fiber Arts Festival, where I will be taking a class on Bohus knitting with Susanna, and attending a mentor session with Stephanie. And maybe doing a little bit of shopping, and maybe attending a charity knitting talk on Thursday. I'm really looking forward to this, although I'm a little afraid that I'll learn that my colorwork techniques are all wrong. All wrong!!!! Maybe rather than worry about my skills, I should get back to honing them on this mitten cuff . . . .

Long Flight = Lots of Progress

The long flights to and from Boston were perfect for working on the Anemoi mitten, and now mitten one is almost done. If I had taken dpns for the thumb, it would be totally done--there was plenty of time on the six hour flight home. I was a little surprised how easy it was to set up my chart (on this great chart holder) and really focus on the pattern. No puppies bothering me, no periodic web surfing, television changing, or other distractions.












Here's a close up of the palm side:
It's odd that where the dark yarn stripes, it makes the pattern look completely different than the more solid parts.














Here's a bit of the inside--nice and even, this is the palm side.

The Swirlies! The Swirlies!

I made a lot of progress on the first Anemoi Mitten over the weekend, at the expense of a few other projects. I did put them aside for a couple of days to work on other things, partly to decide whether or not I really like the pattern in this yarn. Any thoughts? I'm not so thrilled with the amount of cream in the pattern on the back of the hand, and the ribbing is a little tighter than I'd like. On the plus side, the variegation looks good--a little less stripey than on the cuff, and both yarns are soft. Hopefully I'll be able to stretch out the cuff a little when I block these. Maybe I should have realized ahead of time that I should have gone up to a size 1 needle for the cuff since I'm using a 2 for the hand itself.



Here's the palm of the hand, with my hand in it. I know that the fit looks a little strange, but it's because the stitch holder interferes with getting my thumb all the way through the thumb hole. I like the mix of brown to white better on the palm and thumb than on the back. The pattern for the mittens is pretty easy to follow, although it's awfully long and there's so much detail that I've found myself flipping around a lot. The charts are great, though, and I like the whole thumb gusset thing. I'm flying to Boston tomorrow (hopefully), so I should have a good long time to work on these, or maybe on something a little less thought-intensive.

This is Why Your Christmas Card is Late

I know, I know, there's always an excuse for late cards, but this year my plans have gone particularly awry. I've been participating in the Who Wouldn't Love a Handknitted Gift? knitalong, and have finished 9 Christmas gifts out of a target of 8. And I've been working a lot more than I expected, and I never factor in the lack of evening time when holiday events start piling up. And now, this:

Earlier this week I received the brown skein of Bittersweet from Sundara Yarn, and I had to wind it and start knitting Eunny Jang's Anemoi Mittens immediately. Immediately! They aren't a gift (so far), they aren't a Christmas-related project, but I've had my eye on them since the pattern came out and I really wanted to see how they'd look in Bittersweet. I expected the Bittersweet to be more plum colored, but it's really a rich dark brown. On the corrugated ribbing, it looks almost like chenille, I like it a lot so far. The cream yarn is Dale of Norway Baby Ull from my stash--I didn't want to wait to go to a yarn store to get something fancier.

However, a small problem with the thumb gusset, between the pink stitch markers:

There should be a cream line framing running up the right side, and there isn't, so I have ripped back to the beginning of the gusset. Booooooo! It might not have been 100% necessary to rip back that far, but I'd rather not make a big mistake right at the beginning of the project, especially after all the time it took to knit the ribbing. (edited to note: there were more mistakes in the first couple of rows, so it's good I ripped back). I will only work on these a little more this (early) morning--seriously, I need to get cracking on those cards (maybe 1/3 have been sent), before it becomes embarrassing to send them out at all.