Bad mittens, good mittens

Well, you knit and you learn. At any rate, you knit. 2011 seems to be my year of failing badly at a lot of things I try, but occasionally I also learn from my crafting blunders. Hopefully colorwork is one of those areas. The endpaper mitts were one of the first items in my queue after joining Ravelry, but mostly I was enamoured with the Bird and Vine spin-off. I'd done one pair of colorwork socks in the past so I felt confident I could do this.

My attempt was not entirely horrible, but the white yarn poking out everywhere bugged me too much to keep going. The tension was all over the place as well and I just can't handle long floats. If it's more than 2 stitches, I have to weave or it makes me seriously twitchy. Anyway, I wish I'd read the Knitting in Color blog more frequently, it might have given me a hint that such high contrast colors with a pattern that had long flots would not work particularly well. I opted for the plainer original pattern instead and it was mostly a breeze:

I did one more pattern repeat after the thump to make them longer.

Other than the lenght, my only modification was to not break up the pattern with a purl stitch on the non-thump side. The yarn is soft and lovely Omega by Lang Yarns. I'm in love with microfibre lately.

I still like the bird mitten pattern, but am pleased enough with the final outcome anyway. I'm not sure I'll keep the mittens, they don't stretch a lot as is the case with most colorwork and I don't like stiff fabric around my hands, it feels too restricting because as a knitter, I want to be able to move my fingers at all times! I might make these mittens part of a future RAK parcel, but can't quite part with them yet.

My first handspun.

Nearly six months after learning to spin, I finally finished the yarn I started at the German Ravelry meeting. I'm still amazed that it is so easy to make your own yarn, now to actually get good at it. Anyway, my first skein is all you would expect from a first attempt: messy, uneven and way too thick. It's a skein only a mother could love and I sure do.

The colors are actually a bit more vibrant in reality.

I've already started online window shopping for more roving and spindles. The second roving is already 1/3rd done and I have one more after that, so no actual buying until those are spun up. Unless I find a really good spindle...

Socks and socks.

Yep, just that. Plain, colorful socks. All top-down with 80 stitches on 2.0 needles, because I like my socks loose around the leg.

Made from Regia World Ball in Brazil. Already got a bit of wear.


Brand spanking new socks in Opal Rainforest. Next is either zebra or ladybug, methinks.


Ohh, a bit of variation with the arch-shaped socks.

I'm not sure what the yarn for the last pair is. It says Socken-Effekt-Strickgarn on the label and is the usual 72/25 mix, but there's no brand name. I got it as a gift and am pleasantly surprised. These aren't colors I would usually have bought but I adore the finished effect.