What, would you have preferred knittin' a mitten for a kitten?
Regardless of bad wordplay, I have learnt from my first (finished) mitten attempt. And, obviously, I thought I would share.
A mitten is something to keep your hand warm. Alpaca is warm. Ergo, mittens made from Alpaca should be warm. But, as it turns out, that is still only a theory.
Mittens are traditionally made with itsy-bitsy sharp little pointy things, that some may think are getting close to toothpick size. 2.5mm (somewhere between a 1 and a 2, for you lot over there) seems just about sharp and pointy enough.
Stash Alpaca's ballband says to use 4mm (aka 6 - getting confused yet?). Tctch - who ever paid attention to the ballband.
Mittens are a quick knit. Estonian mittens, while very beautiful, are not.
Estonian braiding is lots of fun. Estonian braiding with two strands of too thick for the needle yarn is not.
As the temperature drops, and mitten-need moves from desirable to imperative, giving up on Estonian is NOT a sign of weakness. (After all, if you do ever want to knit Estonian, then your hands need to be not numb with cold.)
Some picking up/fixing of holes is unavoidable, even in mitten knitting (think thumb). Warm and fuzzy may hide some holes, but DOES NOT mean you can avoid picking up properly.
Doing a jogless join is great, but looks really silly if you change colour twice, and jogless only once.
Sharp and pointy needles are indeed very sharp and pointy. So sharp and pointy that they wear painful little chasms into fingertips.
Knitting through pain is possible, but sometimes a bandage and a single malt is better.
The second to last thing I learnt? I DO NOT HAVE THE HAND SIZE OF A SEVEN YEAR OLD, SO FOLLOWING THE INSTRUCTIONS FOR A SMALL CHILD'S MITTEN IS POINTLESS.
The last thing I learnt? Kittens like mittens.
Actually, I learnt some other things too. For example, if you try them on as you go, and they are too narrow, just making them longer doesn't fix the problem. And I learnt to remember to look in the winter drawer, and pull out the bought in Iceland Icelandic mittens.
The moral of the story is - make the wrong mittens, and make a cat happy.
A mitten is something to keep your hand warm. Alpaca is warm. Ergo, mittens made from Alpaca should be warm. But, as it turns out, that is still only a theory.
Mittens are traditionally made with itsy-bitsy sharp little pointy things, that some may think are getting close to toothpick size. 2.5mm (somewhere between a 1 and a 2, for you lot over there) seems just about sharp and pointy enough.
Stash Alpaca's ballband says to use 4mm (aka 6 - getting confused yet?). Tctch - who ever paid attention to the ballband.
Mittens are a quick knit. Estonian mittens, while very beautiful, are not.
Estonian braiding is lots of fun. Estonian braiding with two strands of too thick for the needle yarn is not.
As the temperature drops, and mitten-need moves from desirable to imperative, giving up on Estonian is NOT a sign of weakness. (After all, if you do ever want to knit Estonian, then your hands need to be not numb with cold.)
Some picking up/fixing of holes is unavoidable, even in mitten knitting (think thumb). Warm and fuzzy may hide some holes, but DOES NOT mean you can avoid picking up properly.
Doing a jogless join is great, but looks really silly if you change colour twice, and jogless only once.
Sharp and pointy needles are indeed very sharp and pointy. So sharp and pointy that they wear painful little chasms into fingertips.
Knitting through pain is possible, but sometimes a bandage and a single malt is better.
The second to last thing I learnt? I DO NOT HAVE THE HAND SIZE OF A SEVEN YEAR OLD, SO FOLLOWING THE INSTRUCTIONS FOR A SMALL CHILD'S MITTEN IS POINTLESS.
The last thing I learnt? Kittens like mittens.
Actually, I learnt some other things too. For example, if you try them on as you go, and they are too narrow, just making them longer doesn't fix the problem. And I learnt to remember to look in the winter drawer, and pull out the bought in Iceland Icelandic mittens.
The moral of the story is - make the wrong mittens, and make a cat happy.
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