Some knitting, and some, well, probably mostly knitting

Finally finished mitten #2 of the Love Bytes mittens! I somehow managed to make them a liiittle bit too small this time, but I can get them on and once they’re on, they fit pretty nicely, so it’ll have to do. And one of them is a tiny bit shorter than the other one, but not enough that I actually care. Or, well, I care, but not enough to make a fourth mitten for this pair. The pattern is really well written, and even provides alternative charts for dark-on-light color schemes, and I love the look of the mittens, but finishing the third one definitely became a chore, simply because of gauge issues and having to knit way tighter than I’m used to. If I were to knit these again, which I might, I’d go for a different yarn.

I would definitely not call this yarn ideal for the pattern, even if it is the yarn called for. It might have something to do with me knitting quite loosely, but I had to go down to a 2.25mm needle (pattern calls for 3.25) to get gauge, and knitting with needles that small and trying to knit tightly to get gauge was sort of hellish with this yarn. Not that the yarn isn’t lovely, because it is, but I wouldn’t use it again for something requiring this gauge, I think. It also pills quite a bit, so I think the pattern might disappear a bit after a little bit of use, but I won’t know that until next year, as we’re luckily getting spring weather here now.

(Let’s just pretend that camera strap isn’t there.)

But I’m glad to have gotten to know Malabrigo Worsted, at least, and the colors are awesome and I would love to knit some other stuff out of it, and I look forward to finding something to do with the leftovers from this. Probably a hat or something, with the green as the main color. Does anyone have suggestions to nice worsted weight hats, with details in one or two other colors? I’ve been considering a Thorpe with some stripes added, but I guess we’ll see.

• Pattern: Love Bytes
• Yarn: Malabrigo Yarn Merino Worsted
• Colorway: Marron Oscuro (181), Bobby Blue (027) and Olive (056)
• Needle: 2.25mm
• Yarn amount: Finished mittens weigh 96 grams, add a couple for scraps.
• Modifications: Had to use smaller needles. Messed up the whole mirroring of the braids, so they’re identical, but it was too much work for me to unravel because of something so small.
• Ravelry link

…I think. The mitten went from being way too big to almost too tight, but they fit pretty perfectly now. Or, well, the one I’ve knit does. I hope the second one ends up being the same size, which is definitely not a given when I knit mittens :p I knit them on a 2.25mm needle now (though the braids were still done on a 2.5mm needle), and really tried knitting tightly. I got gauge, at least. But yeah, the photo below shows the size different pretty well – I just ripped the larger one up, and will try not to wait too long before I start it again, so these don’t end up being a UFO.

I’m thinking I might turn the green leftovers into a hat, if I can find one I like.

Still really like this pattern, as it’s simple, but more fun than 2×2 rib. I really don’t like 2×2 rib for more than a couple of rounds at the time. Casting on 44 stitches instead of 48 proved to be smart, as these fit better, and I also lengthened the heel a bit. I didn’t think about the fact that they would end up shorter if I knit the same number of pattern repeats (18) with a longer heel than last time, but it ended up okay, they fit well both in length and width. They look ridiculously small for a 38-ish foot, but hey, it works.

Haven’t been knitting a lot lately, as I’m a bit busy with school, but I’m working on a pair of fingerless gloves. I made a few modifications on the fingerless gloves, but forgot to write them down, so I’m not sure I’ll ever knit the second one :D I guess we’ll see if I’ll bother counting stitches and rounds. I’ve never understood the point of fingerless gloves, but I figured I’d try one more pair before I gave up.

• Pattern: Blueberry Waffle Socks
• Yarn: Sandnes Garn Perfect
• Colorway: Apple green (8514)
• Needle: 3mm
• Yarn amount: The finished socks weighed about 87 grams. Used almost two skeins.
• Modifications: Cast on 44 stitches. Ssk instead of k2t tbl. Magic loop, if that counts as a modification.
• Ravelry link

Oh, and this weekend I’ve taken a little bit of a break from school-stuff and have been watching a lot of Sports Night (only have one episode left, which is sad), and I’ve started a Noro striped scarf. So simple, but a lot of fun to knit. And for some reason, 1×1 ribbing is so much better than 2×2. It makes no sense, but there it is. I’m a bit annoyed that the two blues in the two skeins crashed, so there’s a bit of a blue blob there, but I don’t think I’ll ever finish if I frog now. I’ll learn to live with it, I hope I’ve just been staring at it for too long. Oh, and Sports Night is definitely recommended.

I’d read tons of good things about this pattern, so I figured I should try it, and I’ve got to say, I understand the praise. Enough going on for it to not get really, really boring, but simple enough that you don’t really need the pattern in front of you after knitting one sock. So, here’s my first pair of blueberry raspberry waffle socks, in horrible photos. Finished a couple of weeks ago, but, uhm, I thought it’d only been about 6-7 days. Time’s passing way too quickly.

The socks joined me on a trip to Ikea before the photos were taken, so they might look a bit worn, but hey, that’s what socks are for. After about a day of use, they grew to be a bit too wide (still fit decently, just not without socks underneath), so when I cast on for the next pair, I cast on 44 stitches instead of 48. I guess I’ll see which ones fits better with use, the second pair isn’t done yet. Oh, and on these socks I learned that “slip one” by default apparently means “slip one purlwise” unless otherwise stated. Makes sense, and it makes the reinforced heel much nicer to look at, but I hadn’t realized that before. Oh, and I also realized that knit 2 together through back loop is horribly ugly compared to knit 2 together, so I went with ssk instead, on sock one’s toe and all of sock two.

• Pattern: Blueberry Waffle Socks
• Yarn: Sandnes Garn Perfect
• Colorway: Dark red (4065)
• Needle: 3mm
• Yarn amount: The finished socks weighed about 95 grams, I think. Used pretty much the entirety of two skeins.
• Modifications: Cast on 48 stitches. Ssk instead of k2t tbl. Magic loop, if that counts as a modification.
• Ravelry link

There’s not much knitting going on these days, for some reason, even though I’m spending lots of time watching the Olympics. I’ve got the previously mentioned second pair of waffle socks on the needles, as well as a crochet experiment, but other that, nada. Except for a huge swatch for a sweater I’ve got planned for perhaps the fall. Oh, and I frogged an old hat and re-knit it, I’ll probably post about it soon.

Not sure I like this. I feel like it falls a bit weird in the back, but that will probably change once it gets used a bit – I just don’t know if it’ll change for the better or worse. Still not sure who this is for. I’m pretty sure it’ll go to either my youngest brother or myself. It’s definitely soft and warm, I’m just not too sure about the fit. Definitely like the look of it in the pattern (which I found after casting on and knitting for a bit), though.

Cast on 120 stitches with a long-tail cast-on with two colors, then knit about 10 rounds in 1×1 rib with the smaller needle before changing to the larger one. Not sure the change in needles is actually noticable, but then again, I don’t know how it would’ve turned out without it. Started this on Wednesday, finished tonight. Should’ve been doing school work, but procrastination took over.

• Pattern: Simple, slouchy hat
• Yarn: DROPS Merino Extra Fine
• Colorway: Black (02) and dark grey (03m)
• Needle: 3mm and 3.5mm
• Yarn amount: 1 grey, a little over 1 black
• Modifications: Basically only used the bind-off from the pattern, the rest I improvised.
• Ravelry link