First FO of 2014

And here is the first project I finished in the new year. I had them all finished early in January, but then I was so busy that I didn't get a chance to photograph them until the end of the month. Sometimes it's hard to get my free time to match up with sunlight hours, especially in winter.

The pattern for these is called Rye, by Hanna Katajamäki. I followed the pattern pretty closely, except that I narrowed the width of each "ribbon" by two stitches, and made the button loops from a crochet chain instead of casting off stitches.

The yarn is Performa Kiwi Fingering from Zealana, and it's a blend of merino, cotton, and possum, which is why I call these my "possum mitts." It was a little tricky to work with as it was very splitty, but I do like the way it feels. It's very soft and warm, and knit up in stockinette, it almost feels like sweatpants material - in a good way.

It's the buttons that really make this project for me, though. When I saw these at my LYS, I was inspired to find a pattern to use them.

Glorious cables

I finished these a while ago, but it took me almost as long to photograph them as it did to make them. It's really hard to photograph mitts in a way that looks natural, especially on your own hands! This picture will have to do for now, because I wanted to finally do a finished-object post about these guys.

These are from the Glorious Cabled Mitts pattern by Karen Adams, in The Fibre Co. Canopy Fingering. It's an excellent pattern, and while I like the yarn a lot, I would rather make this project again with some kind of sock yarn. The stitch definition is not bad with the Canopy Fingering, but I think the cables could pop even more. And it's such a pretty that the more the cables stand out, the better.

I haven't yet suffered from Second Sock Syndrome, but I struggled with Second Mitt Syndrome when I was making these. Although I didn't spend much time actually working on them, it took me more than three weeks to finish up, and most of that time was just dawdling around about starting the second one. That middle section, where the whole thing is cables, is a little overwhelming. But, in the end, it's worth it!

Since then, I've been working on a handful of different projects, all with deadlines and/or intended as gifts, so that's been keeping me busy. I have some more FO's, but they need to get to their recipients before I can post them here.

WIP Wednesday: cables and charts

Glorious Cabled Mitts by Karen Adams caught my eye on Ravelry before I even knew how to knit, and it's been in my queue for a while, waiting for me to feel ready to tackle cables. Learning new techniques is one of my knitting goals now that I feel pretty comfortable with the basics, and now that I've tried cabling on my secret rough-draft project, it was time to cast on the mitts.

I'm using The Fibre Co. Canopy Fingering in Plum, using a US 1 needle. This combination is mostly due to my stubbornness. The pattern calls for a light fingering, which the Canopy Fingering is not, and for a US 0 needle, which I translate to "at least US 1". Since the yarn is a little heavy for this pattern, I feel like I should have used a US 0, but I don't have one and didn't want to go buy one. Or, since I wanted to use the needles I had, I could have bought a more appropriate yarn, but I really wanted to use the Canopy Fingering. Conclusion: I'm knitting stupidly tight, again, because I'm worried about the mitts turning out too big.

Now that I've gotten as far as the thumb gusset increases, I think the fit is fine for me. All those cables are driving me nuts, though, and I would like to do them without a cable needle, but it's too tricky. Not only are my stitches too tight and tiny, but the yarn is a little fuzzy and splitty, so it's hard to get it all back on the needle.

Whining aside, I really like this pattern. I'll probably make it again, using different yarn - these mitts might make nice gifts.

In the spirit of trying different things, I also picked out a pattern from this amigurumi book that I bought in Japan last November. Japanese patterns are given as charts, which is nice if you can't read Japanese, but I'm not a huge fan of charts. It's going pretty well, though, and I can definitely see the advantage of charts. They make me a little dizzy, but it's easier to visualize what you're doing and where to put your increases and decreases, than it is when you're trying to mentally transfer written instructions into a three-dimensional object.

I'm making the tanuki, which is the little guy in the third row down, second column from the right on the book's cover. As you can see, I've got about half of his bits and pieces done. I'm not super thrilled with how he's turning out, but again, this is because I'm using yarn that doesn't feel quite right for the project. I don't really have the appropriate colors, and this brown is a little too "blah" for him. I actually really want to make the maneki neko (the waving cats), and I do have yarn that works for them, but I thought I should do a warm-up project first. Not a great idea, since this guy will probably go into hibernation soon. Still, it's nice to get this book out and actually use it, not just let it sit around as a souvenir.

Check out more work-in-progress posts at Tami's Amis!

Dad's mitts

My dad had one thing on his Christmas wish list this year, which made it a little tough to shop for him. Coupled with my perennial worry that I'll buy people all the same presents that somebody else got for them, the obvious solution was to make him something, but it took me a while to arrive at that conclusion. The year I first learned to crochet, I made him a scarf that he and I were both happy with, so I think I sort of permanently crossed him off my gift-making list: he's not an accessories kind of guy and since he liked the one scarf I made, it seemed redundant to make him another one. Plus, while there are some patterns for crocheted hats and mitts that look nice on guys, I was not so much into making garments, and I do think crochet in general lends itself better to more feminine designs (or stuffed toys, also not really up my dad's alley).

I don't want to say that knitting is "better" than crochet, but it has expanded the possibilities of what I can make for somebody, because I do think it's a lot more versatile. So, since the mitts I made for my boyfriend were so quick and easy and well-received, it seemed like a great present for the dad who has too much of everything and doesn't particularly want anything.

I used a different pattern, Peekaboo Mitts, and cast on a few more stitches to make them a more comfortable fit for man-hands. Of course, me being me, what should have taken just a day or two ended up taking a week because I encountered something I didn't know how to do, messed it up, redid it, tried other experiments, considered them failures, and (I think this is one of my stupidest knitting mistakes so far) decided to rip out and redo the thumb on one mitt, did so, realized I had gone after the wrong mitt, groaned, knit it back up, ripped out the thumb on the other mitt, then realized I had been right the first time. In short: I am still an idiot when knitting.

But! My dad has a handmade Christmas present and I'm happy about it. And someday I'll remember my troubles with a perfectly simple little knitting pattern and laugh. I hope.