Entry tags:
(no subject)
I'm trying to finish all my current knitting projects before starting a new one, because it seems that the longer I knit, the looser my gauge gets. At first I thought that the recent looseness may be caused by my switching over to the combined method of knitting from continental, but no:
I knit the left hand of (what I'm now calling) Double-Mistake mittens in March, and the right hand in July, both using combination style knitting, but the July mitten looks substantially bigger than the March one.
It even looks the same length, despite the fact that I accidentally skipped four rows in the middle of the pattern. (that's mistake #2)
I'm a bit nervous about how the mittens will measure compared to one another post-blocking, but I don't want to redo all that knitting. And I definitely don't want to do what I did when I made mistake #1 (made two left mittens rather than one left and one right), and make a mate for each of my mistaken mitts. If I did that, I'd have made six mittens in the same design on the exact same yarn! (I'm getting sick of this project)
Down to seven projects now! Bonus: the table at the foot of my bed where my half-knit projects stay now has space for other things (like say, books). Other bonus: the finished projects are no longer weighing on my mind, so I'm gradually getting rid of some of the finisher's anxiety (not an actual term) that has been lingering over me whenever I look at a new pattern.
I have three scarves, one shawl, two (crocheted) bags, and one half of a pair of fingerless gloves. I need to figure out whether to finish the fingerless or not. This is a pair I started in late October 2010, and my gauge is so different, I'm not sure that the second one will still look like it's for the same size once I'm done.
I need to make a larger pair anyway, as the first glove I made was too small for the person I was supposed to gift it to. So I'm beginning to think about undoing the half a pair for yarn in case I really need it, but I hate the thought of undoing all the work I've put into it! The gloves are Nereid Fingerless Gloves, which look really complicated, and which I'm very proud of having finished as a wee beginner.
Hey, I'd even be happy to just have that half a glove. Hang it up somewhere or frame it or something, hah.
(OH MAN. Also I was anxious about something that's now irrelevant, but talking about knitting has calmed down that anxiety completely. I love knitting <3)
ETA:
Oh I forgot the original reason I had for writing this entry! I managed to pick up some bamboo DPNs while I was in Wales, and I finally had a chance to try them out :-D Much lighter than the metal ones which means they didn't have the ability to twist the stitches around as much (the last time I tried knitting with DPNs, I ended up doing something like:
three needles with some stitches on each: 1-3 | 4-6 | 7-9
k 1-3 4-6 7-9
k 1-3 6-4 7-9....
because the needles were so heavy, the unused ones would twist around as they dangled.
Um okay I'm not sure whether it's because the needles are heavy, or whether it's because there were too few stitches. Either way, this set of DPNs is working out for me better. I just need to figure out how to use them without feeling so disconcerted that I'll stab myself in the eye with one of the currently waiting needles.
UNfortunately, they didn't seem to help with the finishing on the fingertips on gloves. Still as pointy and annoying as ever; I'll need to see what TechKnitter says about this, before I do anything else with fingers. (that includes mittens, which have thumbs, and also closed ends).
I knit the left hand of (what I'm now calling) Double-Mistake mittens in March, and the right hand in July, both using combination style knitting, but the July mitten looks substantially bigger than the March one.
It even looks the same length, despite the fact that I accidentally skipped four rows in the middle of the pattern. (that's mistake #2)
I'm a bit nervous about how the mittens will measure compared to one another post-blocking, but I don't want to redo all that knitting. And I definitely don't want to do what I did when I made mistake #1 (made two left mittens rather than one left and one right), and make a mate for each of my mistaken mitts. If I did that, I'd have made six mittens in the same design on the exact same yarn! (I'm getting sick of this project)
Down to seven projects now! Bonus: the table at the foot of my bed where my half-knit projects stay now has space for other things (like say, books). Other bonus: the finished projects are no longer weighing on my mind, so I'm gradually getting rid of some of the finisher's anxiety (not an actual term) that has been lingering over me whenever I look at a new pattern.
I have three scarves, one shawl, two (crocheted) bags, and one half of a pair of fingerless gloves. I need to figure out whether to finish the fingerless or not. This is a pair I started in late October 2010, and my gauge is so different, I'm not sure that the second one will still look like it's for the same size once I'm done.
I need to make a larger pair anyway, as the first glove I made was too small for the person I was supposed to gift it to. So I'm beginning to think about undoing the half a pair for yarn in case I really need it, but I hate the thought of undoing all the work I've put into it! The gloves are Nereid Fingerless Gloves, which look really complicated, and which I'm very proud of having finished as a wee beginner.
Hey, I'd even be happy to just have that half a glove. Hang it up somewhere or frame it or something, hah.
(OH MAN. Also I was anxious about something that's now irrelevant, but talking about knitting has calmed down that anxiety completely. I love knitting <3)
ETA:
Oh I forgot the original reason I had for writing this entry! I managed to pick up some bamboo DPNs while I was in Wales, and I finally had a chance to try them out :-D Much lighter than the metal ones which means they didn't have the ability to twist the stitches around as much (the last time I tried knitting with DPNs, I ended up doing something like:
three needles with some stitches on each: 1-3 | 4-6 | 7-9
k 1-3 4-6 7-9
k 1-3 6-4 7-9....
because the needles were so heavy, the unused ones would twist around as they dangled.
Um okay I'm not sure whether it's because the needles are heavy, or whether it's because there were too few stitches. Either way, this set of DPNs is working out for me better. I just need to figure out how to use them without feeling so disconcerted that I'll stab myself in the eye with one of the currently waiting needles.
UNfortunately, they didn't seem to help with the finishing on the fingertips on gloves. Still as pointy and annoying as ever; I'll need to see what TechKnitter says about this, before I do anything else with fingers. (that includes mittens, which have thumbs, and also closed ends).