So my friend Aubrey and I went down to Mango's farm on Saturday to pick up our CSA share, and Mango saw us out the window and came running out: "Knitters! Knitters! Come inside and have some tea!" So we did. Then we spent a couple of hours sitting by the wood stove and knitting away. Then she showed us the baby chicks they'd just gotten the day before. (Having a friend with a farm is awesome! It's like having a friend with a swimming pool, only there are cute small animals!)
Well, while I was there, I did a bunch of work on this mitten, got about an inch or two past the thumb opening, and realized that the thumb was in the wrong place -- the gusset started way too soon, and the thumb opening was too low. Need extra rows! So I ripped back to the cuff, and then pouted, as I wasn't quite sure what to do.
Mango to the rescue! She ran upstairs, grabbed a book about Scandinavian knitting, and suddenly I had all kinds of options! I chose this leaf motif because the heart/flower-thingy pattern has leaves also, and this one happened to be a multiple-of-six pattern, which is handy when you've got 60 stitches.
Now the thumb is in the right place (but you can't see it, because I can't get that picture to post), and the mitten is still long enough in the hand. In fact, I did the decrease-y part of the fingers with size 2 needles rather than size 3s, just to cut down on a smidge of length. Cuff is also on size 2s, but most of the hand part is on 3s. All in all, it only took me about a day, maybe two, to knock this one out. Amazing how quickly a mitten knits up when you actually enjoy knitting it!
3 comments:
Gorgeous mitten. Nice radiator too.
Love, Mom
I can't believe you can just knock those mittens out. Each one would take me more than a month, I'm sure - and then they wouldn't even be lined! You are one of my knitting sheroes, HolyKnit!
LiturgyGeek, I can't believe I can knock them out, either. It's kind of unreal. According to some of my knitting friends up here, when it comes to Fair Isle knitting, some people just have "it" and some don't. And I have "it" to an unusual degree.
It's one of my personality traits to keep doing the things I do really well and abandon the things I don't do well -- so I've really stuck with the stranded knitting. If I weren't good at it, you'd never see it again. But I have absolutely no idea where this talent originated. All I know is, I gotta use the gifts I've got!
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