A love of double pointed needles....

About 18 months after I learnt to knit I decided to try socks. I had been given a ball of sock wool and that seemed as good a reason as any. What I found was that dpns can be really fiddly, and when knitting with 4ply each inch of knitting seems to take forever. I spent most of 2012 avoiding this pair of socks that, quite frankly had me beaten. Every now and again I'd pull them out, add a couple more rows, remember how adding just a couple of rows meant nothing and put them away again. Being someone who likes method and order I couldn't bring myself to start something new with these socks staring at me from the bottom of my knitting bag. I was going to win - except all that meant was I did no knitting.

Just before Christmas that year I finally finished sock number one, and then to my surprise finished sock number two only a couple of weeks later. I was hooked! Since then seven out of nine completed projects have used double pointed needles, from hats to socks to sleeves. Even Hoot was a dpn project (albeit with 5.5mm needles). 

I've just finished these stranded mitts, my first attempt at fair isle knitting. While the tension was definitely not perfect, you can't tell that at a distance and I'm really happy with the overall effect. I've been wearing them the last couple of weeks and the stranded knitting makes them nice and warm. 

And then I've started on a few new projects :

these baby socks (smaller than the last so hopefully they'll be a better fit for the next newborn)

and untangling this microfibre yarn ready to make a mobile phone sock, which I might make flat and seam... just for a change!

Finally back into a ball after a couple of years tying itself in knots in the bottom of our yarn box

Read More

Knitting - The Answer

Well, the answer to last Wednesdays question about fingerless mittens anyway. I think when it came to it, by asking the question I realised I knew the answer - do you ever do that? You ask something and realise that only one answer is acceptable, but until you ask you just can't decide? I was really hoping you'd all say to undo them, that they were better without, and so that's what I've done. They are fingerless mitts once more.

Instead I've started making a whole new pair and I'm going to plan for these to have caps from the word go. I've been wanting to have a go at some stranded colour work for a while now. I have quite a few patterns lined up that need it, and so decided that patterned mitts, made for me, would be a good testing ground. If they're not quite perfect then I'll still get lots of use out of them. This has one added bonus of using up much more of my stash yarn that just modifying the old pair, and should keep me busy for a little bit longer.

I've started making these. Pretty, right? The pattern is designed for seven colours, but they're split into two groups so that you can just use two if you want. Since I don't have seven coordinating colours in my stash I'm going with the two colour option, though for one of them I'm using Sirdar Crofter which is a self patterning yarn.

 Theres only one snag. Occasionally the crofter wool has a white section which means any pattern completely disappears against my ball of cream wool. I'm getting round this by simply cutting out these sections, and leaving little piles of them wherever I've been knitting....

Read More

To Knit Or Not To Knit...

So I finished the baby socks I was working on. I love how quick and simple they are, though I'm a little dubious that they are "newborn" size. Ah well, at least they'll be grown into.

My quandary is this; what next? There are so many lovely patterns I'd like to knit, my favourites board on Ravelry is growing and growing. What I'd like to do next though is use up some of the wool we already have, and that's where I'm struggling. I'm feeling very uninspired. Every penny saved at the moment is going towards our trip, so if I can knit without buying more yarn then bonus!

I've decided to start by adding some finger caps to some fingerless mittens I made a few years ago. They've been getting a lot of use recently, but would be even better if they could keep the ends of my fingers warm too. It's been a quick knit, and this weekend I finished the first. The problem is I'm not sure I like it. I think where the original pattern had been for handwarmers they didn't cover much of my fingers, so the new cap's ended up being quite long. I think I might undo this and return them to just being fingerless.

 What do you think? Keep going, give up (and maybe make a whole new pair of mitts) or start again?

Read More