Warm Hands and More Spinning
Lately I haven’t been able to stop thinking about fingerless mittens. On Friday afternoon I was trying to knit Oblique, but having trouble because my hands were cold and sore. I figured I could kill two birds with one stone - knitting little mitts would be gentler on my hands than Oblique’s lacy stitches with heavy yarn, and the finished product would keep me toasty warm. Ta da!
Pattern: Vine from the October 07 MagKnits. The only change I made was to do k2p1 ribbing on the thumb (to match the rest of it) instead of k1p1.
Yarn: Knit Picks Gloss (70% merino wool, 30% silk) in Cocoa, significantly less than 1 hank.
Needles: Susan Bates US3, set of four
I missed a thumb gusset increase on the left mitten, but didn’t go back to fix it because I found the thumb on the right to be a little big. There should be another yo below the one you can see in the picture at the base og my thumb. Oops. It does make the thumb fit better, though.
They were very quick - I started the first one on Friday at about 3pm, and finished the second on Saturday evening. And that includes a LOT of time not working on them. I bet they took six to eight hours total.
I think these are adorable, and they keep my hands lovely and warm. I can even knit while wearing them! I like them very much.
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There’s this weird lag time between my spinning and blogging about it. When I posted about that handspun merino, I had already finished the stuff pictured below. And at this point, I’ve started another spinning project, abandoned it, and started yet another. I guess I’ll have to write about them another day, because today I have this to show.
It’s from the “Real Vermonter” roving (60% Romney and Corriedale wool, 30% mohair, 10% alpaca) from A Piece of VT. I tried not to put too much twist in it so it would stay soft, and succeeded pretty well. It’s very smooth and glossy (thanks, mohair!) and the tiniest bit fuzzy, and seems durable. It’s a little overplied, but that’s okay. Mostly I’m happy that I was able to spin something resembling a worsted weight. I need to start remembering to measure wraps per inch at some point in the skeining process, to get a better idea of exactly what weight the yarn is. I don’t want to do it before I set the twist, because soaking it could change the wpi, but after the yarn dries I usually just photograph it, twist it into a hank, and stick it in the overflowing box of yarn currently sitting in the den and driving my parents crazy.
This skein weighs exactly 100 grams, which is quite convenient. What to knit… mittens? It would make pretty trim for something, too. Hmm.