Lovikka Mittens from Three Bags Full - Day 4

Hands down...

Hands are the tedious part of mittens.  You just chug along until you get to the appropriate point to start the decrease.  Cuffs have the excitement of a newly started project, gussets hold the promise of the thumb, but hands?  Well, they’re just the part between the thumb and the finish line.

Now, in some mittens, this is where your pattern gets to show off.  In last year’s spiffy alpaca models, the hand was a collection of fabulous colorwork.  Here, not so much.  All the action in this pattern lays in the wonderful cuffs.

The nice part here is that you can try the mitten on as you go.  It’s a little goofy looking, but gratifying to know the thumb and fingertips are lining up exactly where you want them.  Custom mittens, if you will.

Next up?  The final structural elements: thumb and fingertips.

Lovikka Mittens from Three Bags Full - Day 3

Mittens aren’t exactly linear.

  

Unlike socks, where the knitter starts at either the top or bottom and just plows on through, Mittens always need a detour for the thumb.  Gusset or set in--I’ve done both--they always mean knitters need to circle back and enclose the thumb.  

This only enforces the basic truth of sock, glove, and mitten knitting:  reaching an end doesn’t mean you’re done.  Either you’ve reached the end of the hand and you’ve got a thumb to go; or worse yet--you’ve finished the left and you’ve still got the right to go.

Which brings me to an embarrassing admission.  I’m not sure how it happened, but in following the directions for a left mitten I somehow ended up with a right.  I think it had to do with how I handled the fingertip end--I don’t like round-ended mittens so I opted to kitchener stitch it up.  I find the kitchner stitch gives the right balance between a pointed/flat mitten tip and the bunchy drawstring approach.  I suspect this foible means I need to be extra careful which stitches I kitchener (is that a verb?) next.

The fit--even if it is snug--is very nice.  A tailored, close-fitting mitten that doesn’t bunch up or make it impossible to grasp your car keys.  Well done!

Two extra bonuses today:

1) "Colin Smith" and "Gina", according to the trusty random math at Random.org, each of you has won a copy of an Erica O’Rourke novel from our February Authors Who Knit feature--please email me at allie [at] alliepleiter [dot] com with your snail mail address so we can arrange for shipment

2) Here, for your viewing pleasure, is a little non-fiber art: a shot of me at the Chicago Auto Show in a car decorated entirely by Sharpie markers.

Lovikka Mittens from Three Bags Full - Day 2

Simply grand...

The mark of a really good pattern designer is that they can take simple skills and wield them for lots of impact.  The cuffs on these mittens are a perfect example.  Knit and purl and the salt and pepper of knitting--as basic as you can get.  Here, however, our designer alternates them, changes direction, and turns them inside out to create a nifty little channel that will hold decorative stitching when we’re done.

It took me a couple of readings--and peering at the photo of the finished object--to realize how all this worked.  Now I’m impressed instead of confused.  Decorative ingenuity aside, this pattern creates a snug cuff, which is something I value in a mitten.  It won’t matter how toasty my fingers are if my wrists are cold and wet.

If you have big hands like mine, you might want to opt for the man’s sizing.  I didn’t, and they’re feeling a little snug (not something I like in mittens).  I’m withholding judgement on how snug until they’re washed and blocked, but I’m making a mental list of mitten-worthy friends for gifting just in case they end up too tight.

They are very wooly without being very scratchy--another high value for me.  I like the feel of this Cascade wool against my bamboo double pointed needles.  A bit on the rustic side (tweedy yarns always feel rustic to me), but with enough style to feel ruggedly artistic rather than woodsy.  Of course, your choice of wool will be the ultimate factor in how they look--I could see these in a black wool with a wildly colored contrast yarn for the stitching.

Next up, I tackle the thumb gusset.  Don't forget, you can still leave a comment (voting for your favorite chocolate) to win one of Erica O'Rourke's books from our February Authors Who Knit episode!

February Authors Who Knit: Erica O'Rourke

Once again, I have the pleasure of introducing you to an author who shares our love of yarn and needles.  This month we're getting to know rising star of young adult fiction Erica O'Rourke as she releases her new book (with a title we can all relate to...) TANGLED.


Want a chance at a copy of TORN or a copy of TANGLED?  Comment with your preference:  dark chocolate, white chocolate, or milk chocolate?

What’s on your needles right now? 

A cotton-candy pink gnome hat for my youngest daughter. I bought the yarn as a souvenir when I was recently in New York, and she’s been badgering me ever since. “Mama! Wind my yarn! Mama! Make my hat! Mama! I need a hat for my little head!”

How can you argue with someone so enthusiastic about knitting?

What feels like your favorite/greatest knitting accomplishment?

It’s a tossup: I test-knit a sweater for a friend’s book, and it was technically quite challenging -- multicolored stripes on size 1 needles, and a lot of frogging back when we found errors in the pattern. But the sense of accomplishment when the pattern went out into the world was fantastic. My other great feat was making a blanket for a friend’s son -- his “Bankie.” This enormous turquoise blanket was dragged all around our neighborhood as his constant companion. These days, Bankie is frayed and dirty and much, much smaller, due to repair. But I love knowing I made something that brought someone so much joy.

What feels like the worst knitting mistake/foible/wrong choice you’ve ever made?

Not checking for gauge. I always think, “how far off can it be?”

VERY FAR. Always.

This has resulted in re-knitting entire dresses, unwearable baby booties, and blankets with a decidedly asymmetrical look. I’ve figured out by now that my gauge is loose, so I typically go down a needle size or two even before I’ve started, and that’s helped. Still, I can’t bring myself to swatch regularly. Apparently I have a bit of a stubborn streak.

Straight or circular needles?

Circulars. The only straight needles I have are ones people have given my kids.

Metal or wood needles?

Depends: if I’m working on circulars, I like Addi Turbos or the Knitpicks interchangables. If I’m using DPNs, though, I like bamboo. The stickiness keeps me from dropping stitches off the end.

White chocolate, milk chocolate, or dark chocolate?

Dark chocolate!

Coffee or tea?

Coffee until my kids are home from school, and then I switch to tea.

Have you written a knitting character? 

Yes, although I don’t know that you ever see her knitting on the page! In the Torn Trilogy, Mo’s mom is a knitter and quilter -- but she’s also a single mom who runs a restaurant, so we don’t often see her with leisure time. But in my mind, she’s the one who knit all the afghans in the house as well as Mo’s mittens and scarves. 

What’s the last thing anyone would suspect about TANGLED?

The vast quantities of pita chips I consumed while writing it.

Give a shout out to your favorite local yarn store:

Every time I visit my mother-in-law, we head to her LYS:


Klose Knit
311 W Springfield
Urbana IL
http://www.klosekniturbana.com/ 


Brigitte is super-friendly and helpful, the shop is cozy but not cramped, and the collection of yarn and patterns is both varied and deep. I never come away empty-handed. 




Thanks, Erica!  


Show a fellow yarnie some love and visit her website, give her a twitter shout at @erica_orourke, or buy her book through your favorite retailer.  Readers who knit love writers who knit!

Lovikka Mittens from Three Bags Full - Day 1

Ah, mittens. 

I love them, really I do.  They feel so much friendlier than gloves to me.  Mittens keep our fingers together in cozy codependency, which makes them warmer then gloves, where it’s every digit for themselves.

I must confess, my last pair of mittens--the gorgeous Winter Wonder mitts from FiberWild! was an artistic success, but not a practical one.  Mostly because I’ve never finished the second one.  I need to, because I love them and I’m proud of them.  That mitten’s singularity makes starting this pair from Three Bags Full feel a bit, well, adulterous.  Which is ridiculous.  It’s yarn, not a relationship.  

The whole thing reminds me of this satirical IKEA  commercial:

I admit, I fell for it...feeling sad for a desk lamp left out in the rain.  “You’re crazy--It has no feelings!”  says the guy with the harsh accent. That’s what I keep telling myself as I cast on the cuff of this mitten.  Still, I feel the abandoned mitten’s sad alpaca fuzziness mocking me from the “unfinished projects” drawer.

“You need too much attention” I retort, “I can’t knit you in meetings and busy places.”

If you cared enough to finish what you started, you’d make time, taunts the mitten.

“I want to start these nifty new ones,” I defend.

You felt that way about me once, too, pouts the mitten.

“I’ll get to you, you fibrous nag,” I sneer, ignoring how long it’s been (which is almost a year).

I start rummaging through my circular needle collection to see if I’ve got the right tool to cast on two of these at a time, just to make myself feel better.  Of course, I don’t, and I refuse to let this petulant earlier mitten add unnecessary expense to its current sin of guilting me out.

Honestly people, I need to make more HUMAN friends.

Davis Street Shawl from CloseKnit - Done!

Not every project changes dramatically when you block it.  Lace projects certainly do.  Many sweaters do.  This doesn’t.

It does feel as if it’s lightened up a bit, but I was baffled by my nemesis the picot--they seem to look even more uneven now.  I want it to look like someone who really knew what they were doing made this.  A simple design beautifully executed.

Eh, not so much.

Would I feel differently if it were a vibrant, lush color instead of this neutral I deliberately chose for myself?  I’m not sure.  I do like it, and it looks nice--if basic--on, and basic was what I was shooting for when I chose beige.

I suspect I just don’t do basic well.  Unless basic is a black turtleneck...I seem to own dozens of those.  They show off my scarves so well (basic or not!).

Aha!  I just now realized what this basic shawl needs:  a rockingly un-basic shawl pin.

Excuse me, I have to go shopping now...

Davis Street Shawl from CloseKnit -Day 4

Well, now, ain’t it always the way...

If you’re going to make a big, ugly mistake that you won’t be able to undo, it’s never going to happen on the back of a shawl, is it?  Of course not.  The unfair law of the knitting universe is that such a gaff will happen in the most visible spot.  Right at the top edge, the part that will be near your face or tied in front.

And you know, it won’t matter whether or not anyone else can see it.  Good knitters might be able to spot it in the photo below, but most people probably will never notice it enough to point it out.  Nearly all of the population will never be aware enough of this mistake to make one of those intended-to-be-charming-but-not-really inquiries of “Did you make that?”  Translation:  because it looks hand-made (and not in the complimentary sense).

Whether or not you know the botched picot--which I have come to call the “wart picot”--is there, I know it is there.  Actually, from this photo, even my lovely dog Bella knows it is there. My goal for this project, to master the picot, has not been met.  I’ve gotten much better at the picot, yes, but about four inches from the edge the picot mastered me.

The lesson here is to wear it anyway.  To adorn my shoulders with the fruits of my craft because it is soft and fluffy and deliciously warm.  This is the kind of shawl I will curl around my neck when I have a sore throat or when I have a bad day.

Because the real truth of this shawl is that like the picot edging, one bad bit doesn’t kill the whole endeavor.

So I’ll block it lovingly tomorrow, treating it as tenderly as all my other shawls.  I’ll see if I can manipulate that wart to hide beside its mastered brothers and sisters. 

And I will wear it either way.