Stranded knitting, how I love thee

Progress on my transition gloves!   Rav link.  

I keep being amazed at how quickly these knit up, but I guess knitting on 3s instead of 1s really does make a difference.  (The stranding definitely helps too.)  I've loosened my gauge up a bit for this second glove, which is good.  They'll both still benefit from a blocking, but the first seemed a little overly stretched in places and I think this one is just more even over all. 

I'm a little worried about running out of the brown, since the directions called to finish the hand 1 inch BELOW where your knuckles start.  This is clearly crazy, and I knit up several inches past my knuckles.  It may just mean I have to do the thumbs in teal, and that might be pretty awesome, so I'm not too worried. 

Genmaicha Rav link.

I realized I never showed off these quick mitts.   They're one of the very first patterns heb and I got as a companion to our yarn membership, and I've been wanting to make a pair for a couple of years.  When heb wanted to get rid of this lovely shade of pink (I know, I'm horrified too you guys), I knew just who would appreciate it.  These were fun, a quick waffle rib on the wrist and pretty easy cables along the hands.  I had to decrease the total number of stitches to account for my loose knitting, which worked out totally fine.  However, I forgot to do the same for the thumb, so they ended up being all huge.  I did some k2togs to take them in a bit, but that turned out a little weird as well.  They're recipient claims she likes 'em though, so I think it worked out ok.

These may look familiar...

I think one of the reasons that knitting continues to be something that I enjoy and want to continue with is that the craft is a constant source of learning. And it's a learning process that very much has to take place as a learn-as-you-go, which is also very satisfying.

It's not just that you learn new techniques (I <3 Magic Loop!) as you go along, or that you figure out how to correct mistakes (being able to unknit a few stitches still makes me really happy), but the community of knitting, and how we as people function within it is so interesting and (at times) satisfyingly methodical. Maybe this is stuff that other people get more immediately than I, but I still find it rather fascinating.

These mittens are a perfect example of that. Before "publishing" a pattern, one (of course!) must get it test knit by other knitters. It's the editor job of the knitting world, and so so fun!

Not only do you get a first run at a new pattern, but you can to participate in the art of creation. (And sometimes you don't even have to provide the yarn!)

Ms. HEB designed these mittens as a gift for a friend, and after several requests on ravelry, decided to publish an official pattern for them. I was lucky enough to win one of the test knitter positions.



As this picture shows, these mittens are awesome. They're perfect for surprise chilliness in relatively warm weather, and fit perfectly under light sweaters or jackets.*

Furthermore, they use up hardly any yarn. Two whole pairs can be knit up with one skein of plucky fingering, and it goes fast, and can be accomplished while writing a thesis!



So, test knitting. One more box on the "now I get it" knitting check list. If you're still on the cusp of the knitting life, come on in. The weather is perfect for fingerless mittens.

*In fact, I finally sewed the ends in on these when I was house sitting and suddenly there was all-day-long foggy, chilly weather and I had only packed summer clothes. Thank you, HEB mittens, for preventing pneumonia!

ssk vs. k2tog*

Apologies in advance: this post may bore you all to tears. But I do need your help, so please persevere for my sake!

EW's comment on my last post made me realize that the blog might appreciate an illustration of the differences between k2tog and ssk, so you all don't have to learn the hard way like I did. Until I started working on designing a project that highly featured both, I'd thought that they were perfectly interchangeable. And, being quite honest, I probably prefered the motion of the ssk, even though it had more steps. I'd read the TechKnitter's description of the difference (basically, ssk stretches out the stitches so they are a lot baggier than k2tog) but I'd filed that difference away as something that probably wouldn't affect my knitting much. After all, there are a lot of ways to perfect knitting that I never bother with, so why should I worry if my left-leaning decreases were a little sloppy? But then I started working on desigining a wristwarmer pattern that made the differences between the right-leaning k2tog and the left-leaning ssk all too apparent, so I've now got photographic proof.














The ssk is on the left and the k2tog is on the right. You can see how the k2tog creates relatively straight lines while the ssk meanders in clumsy steps. Now, if the project only included ssks, I'm not sure that it would be as noticeable. But when they are right next to k2togs, I've found the difference to be unfortunate.
I've found a number of suggestions for better left-leaning decreases online, but haven't found one that works particularly well with this pattern. Many of those techniques rely on being able to pick up stitches on the side of the decrease, which isn't possible in this pattern because the decreases are surrounded by yarn overs. I'm still hopeful that TechKnitter's solution will save the day, but I haven't had much success with it so far. (I think I'm messing up the yank somehow....)

In the latest iteration of this pattern, I'm using slip, knit (sk), which I think is better, but still not perfect.














Here the sk is on the left and the k2tog is on the right.

So. I'm opening it up again: any suggestions for a better left-leaning decrease that can be worked between two yarn overs?

* RJ, decoding is available at the end of this post.

finished object parade

Thanks to a long phone conversation with CH on Saturday (and to actually remembering to bring my headset in from the car) I had some time to take care of some long unfinished objects. Like these fingerless mittens:I'd almost finished them about a month ago, but couldn't bring myself to finish one thumb and sew in the ends. Perfect mindless knitting for a phone conversation! These are the Mahayana Flying Gloves, using the Plucky Knitter Worsted Merino. When I first saw the Leyburn sock pattern, I thought that it would make fantastic gloves. Imagine my delight to find that someone had already worked out fingerless mitts using the same stitch pattern! You can find my mods here (rav link; if you're not on ravelry and are curious, let me know and I'll post them, but they are pretty boring...) I'm pretty darn pleased with these, so I hope to knit them again soon, probably with thinner yarn.

And then this hat, which is for my grandma to wear at the North Shore of Lake Superior over Thanksgiving.

All I had left to do was sew in the ends, but I hadn't been able to force myself to do so. However, it's got to get in the mail this week, so I couldn't avoid it any longer. I actually knit this hat twice: the first attempt was using 8s and 9s and casting on 70 stitches. I liked the way it turned out, but decided that my grandma would prefer a little tighter knit. So I frogged and reknit on 6s and 8s, with a cast on of 80 stitches. Now, I think it’s perfect for her.

This is the same pattern that I knit for myself last winter (Odessa, by Grumperina), and I was delighted to get to knit it again. (The pattern is available as a free Ravelry download.) I used a skein of the Plucky Knitter Aran Cashmere and am so happy to get to gift such lovely yarn to my grandma!

I have two more recently finished knits that I need to post about, but they weren't finished during this conversation, so I'll save them for another day.

Pinkin' it Up

I'm really quite fond of fingerless mittens. They are so quick and easy and good for easily chilled hands.

I decided that I needed something cheerful and bright and soft, and happily turned to my Debbie Bliss Silk DK.

My first attempt involved the "Pretty Lace Handwarmers" by PurlBee. I was less than impressed. My yarn may not have been ideal for the pattern, but it was weird and not all that lacey.

So, ripped it out! Wheee.

Then I searched through ravelry one day until I found the Dragonscale Gauntlets. Amusing name, pretty pattern, done and done. There are actually a
couple of "dragonscale" variations that I thought looked interesting, but I didn't want to risk any kind of lace effect, so I avoided the ones that looked like they used yo and settled on the Gauntlets.

I didn't want them to go to my elbows as the pattern calls for, so I simply made the decreases two iterations of the pattern in a row and then jumped into the thumb section and that gave me a nice middle length. I also found that I needed to tighten my normal knitting gauge a bit to really have nicely patterned and fitting mittens.

But oh my, I do love these.