I’m Knitting As Fast As I Can

Stranded mittens are not my forté.

I had high hopes for the pair I started on Sunday, but they weren’t meant to be.

I originally cast on for the Selbu Mittens in the book, Folk Mittens, but quickly discovered the thumb instructions are completely wrong. A quick check on Ravelry confirmed that there is extensive errata, i.e, the chart and the written instructions have been wholly replaced.

Not wanting to mess with that, I found this nice manly pattern on Knitty. But I didn’t like the thumb so I used a peasant thumb instead.

Unfortunately, now that I’ve opened up the thumb and knit to the point where I should begin the decreases, I’ve come to the bitter conclusion that the mitten is too small for its intended recipient.

I’m nothing if not a pragmatist. Plus, as Elizabeth Zimmerman once wrote, “Nothing is horrider than a tight mitten.”

This means, of course, that the mitten will be frogged.

Tomorrow

Really

What is it about handspun yarn that makes the most mundane project seem special?

I knit these fingerless mitts on the plane from Salt Lake to Boston last week. There are more photos on the project page on Ravelry. The project was based on this pattern I did for Knit Picks a couple of years ago, except I knit them in the round instead of flat and I also adjusted for the different yarn weight.

Admittedly, they look a bit odd until you put them on. Then they fit . . . well . . . like a glove:

The yarn was spun from some luscious merino roving I got from Copper Pot Woolies. (Yes, Beth, the yarn is a tiny bit purple; but it’s orange, too!)

I spun it worsted with a short, forward draw and then wet finished it to really soften up the colors and forestall the inevitable pilling that comes with merino.

In all honesty, I wasn’t sure about the colors in this roving until it was spun and plied. Then I loved it. Proof, yet again, that you should trust the wonderful people who blend batts to concoct something that will look fantastic spun up.

Best of all, I have more of the same fiber in a different colorway just waiting its turn in the spinning queue.

My Rhinebeck Not-Sweater caused me quite a scare this morning.

Tuesday night at Stitch ‘N Bitch it dawned on me that I might run out of yarn. So this morning I decided to calculate my progress by using the mathematical process I blogged about a while ago. You can see my instructions here. Or you can check out Dorothy’s post on calculating the progress on a top-down triangular shawl. Her formula is more tidy than mine but it’s basically the same.

Anyway, to make a long story short, by my calculation I have completed approximately 77% of the shawl (36,284 stitches so far). When I weighed the remaining yarn and realized there are only 31 grams left, I went into full panic mode. Why? Because I suck so much at arithmetic that I thought I had 33% remaining to knit. 77 from 100 is 33, right? Well, no, of course not.

After contemplating all the possible ways to alter the design so I could squeeze the shawl out of the one, 875-yard skein of Alpaca With a Twist Fino, it finally hit me that I only had 23% left to knit, not 33%, and I would have plenty of yarn. Doh!

A word of warning to all you first graders out there . . . pay attention when your teacher instructs you in basic subtraction.

Well, I know I have enough yarn but it’s looking like the shawl will be huge on me. Right now I have about 400 stitches on the needle and I still have 26 rows to go. I’m just about to start the trees in the lower border.

Will the shawl be finished in time for Rhinebeck? Maybe. Maybe not. One thing’s for sure, I could probably make better progress on the shawl if I put down this mitten I started on Sunday.