Yarn Everywhere!

First, some socks.

Yarn: Harmony Sock Yarn from The Woolen Rabbit in Tupelo Honey, <1 skein.

Pattern: Purled Ladder from Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch over 64 sts.

Needles: Susan Bates US1, set of four.

Beautiful socks! This is maybe my favorite color in the world. No photograph can properly capture its beautiful golden green tones.

***

For a long time now I’ve known that I would not feel comfortable as a knitter without mastering stranded colorwork. I hate that I disregard patterns that involve it because its on my list of techniques I’m not comfortable with (actually, I think it’s the only thing on that list - certainly there are other things I can’t do, but they don’t seem as hard to learn). The problem with stranding is that it’s really just a question of building up the muscle memory - of getting comfortable with carrying the yarn in my right hand and keeping the stitches spread out on the right needle, things like that. And we all know that the best (only?) way to build up muscle memory is to use the muscles! So I jumped on the bandwagon that is taking the knitting world by storm:

Fiddlehead Mittens from Hello Yarn! I was one of the 2975 or so people who crashed Hello Yarn back when the kits came out and don’t have anything to show for it. I’ve been planning to get the yarn for myself for a while, but I finally took the plunge last weekend. The first mitten is going well, though I’ve had a few hiccups - one gauge related, one due to my own stupidity (note to self - each hand has only one thumb). I’m using US4 needles for the small size and still getting too-tight gauge, but I think it will be okay. I like my hand-coverings snug, and I’m using Kidsilk Haze for the lining, which will take up very little room. Plus the fact that my stitch gauge is too tight means that my row gauge is spot-on*, so at least they’ll be the right length.

Here are my lovely colors (of Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light) in the order they will appear in the mitten:

Muscle memory development is going well, but I think I’m actually getting worse at leaving enough slack in the carried color. You can see in the picture above that the fabric gets less smooth as it goes on. I’ll have to redouble my spreading efforts.

* - I am in complete ignorance of the forces that control the relationship between one’s stitch gauge and one’s row gauge. All I know is that my stitches are all too long. It’s very unfortunate.