Oops
Oh. Oh dear. Oh dear there seems to have been an incident. And I suspect there may be further incidents in the very near future. Oops.
Blocked, and not
You know how I'm always um, let's say 'encouraging' you to block your knits? Yeah. Here's why. This is the same pattern (Constellate, it's not out now, but the clever among you can probably guess that this little stack of goodness means it will be soon), knit in the same yarn (Seven Sisters Arts' gorgeous color wheels). Just one is blocked and one isn't (yet). The blocked one is just so much smoother and more even and more orderly, all for about 5 minutes of effort. And yeah, every single time I do something like this, I get someone piping [...]
Mind the Gap
I warned you I was going to indulge myself and talk about the nerdy bits of these mitts, so let's just do that. Let's talk about how to handle that little gap you can sometimes get between the hand part of the mitt and the thumb part of the mitt. When you make a mitt, you (generally) set some stitches aside for the thumb, finish off the hand, then come back and make a tube for your thumb using the stitches you set aside. BUT, if you just start making a tube with your set aside thumb stitches and nothing [...]
Discontinuity
Let's talk about thumbs on gradient mitts. First, this is a very long gradient with subtle shifts. The color change over the course of the mitt is slight, so you could get away without doing this! But it's a neat trick, so it's worth talking about. Usually when I knit a mitt, I knit a tube for the wrist, make the tube wider to make room for a thumb, knit the wider tube until I get to the webbing between my thumb and hand, set stitches aside for the thumb, then go back to knitting the original size tube for [...]
A general plan
Ok, so I'm feeling a general plan for these. Yeah, the mitts will come back as a pattern, and yeah I wanna do a hat to match. But I also sort of want to talk about the nerdy parts of that stitch. Like the mechanics of it. Because you see, once you understand HOW it goes together, it's really easy to, say, make it wider or narrower. Like maybe wider for a hat or narrower for a sock. And you see how it started off with ribbing and then the stitch pattern sort of phased in? Well there's a [...]
Inadvertent
Yeah, so those purple mitts were a lovely reminder of just how much I enjoy knitting mitts. And how long it had been since I knit some. And how quick they are to bang out. So I might have cast on for some more. Accidentally you understand. Totally inadvertently. These things are bound to happen. Best just to lean into it and wait for the obsession to pass. Safest for all involved.
Limitations
Ok so the second mitt isn't hard. But somehow getting thumbs (as in, the teeny tiny tube that's often only about a hundred stitches and takes literally like half an hour to knit) taken care of often proves a surprisingly difficult task. What can I say. I am aware of my limitations, yet still they persist. But other than thumbs, these are all set. Any bets on how long they'll languish in this state?
Coordination
I'm not sure why, but somehow knitting two mitts never feels as dire as knitting two socks. The second sock is always a slog, but the second mitt pretty much always just zooms along. Does anyone ever do the two at a time thing some folks like for socks? Full confession, I've never done two at a time for anything (I remain a diehard dpn fan and I feel like two at a time requires circ), but I admire the coordination involved. But I don't think I've ever seen anyone do mitts with it, even thought it feels like it [...]
Monthly Reminder
Every month I write a post saying "abortions are good!" and send a donation to Aid Access to support their work providing abortion pills to people who need them. This month marks a year since Roe v Wade was overturned, a year since the Supreme Court declared that I am less of a person because I can get pregnant. It's awful, and it's overwhelming, and it's only getting worse. It is so very easy to despair. But there are people out there working hard to help. And you can help too! The most concrete, immediate, direct way I can think [...]
Mailing List
Want to hear when a new pattern comes out or something fun is going on? Sign up below!
Patreon
Want to support the content I create, get nifty bonus material for some of my favorite patterns, or get every new release delivered right to your inbox? Head over to patreon and sign up!
