I’ve been holding out on you.

I’ve had knitting to talk about, but I haven’t. I’m such a withholder.

I started the very cute Squirrel and Oak Mittens from Hello Yarn back in August. You know, the month when stranded mittens are on the brain. I’ve had this pattern in mind for a long time, Baby Ull was on sale and the need to strand was calling me, so there I went. These are a fairly quick knit, and honestly I should have finished in a weekend, but I came up against some obstacles. First off, when I do stranded knitting I use a Norwegian knitting thimble so I don’t have to throw the yarn with my left hand and try to knit with both hands. My left hand is basically useless and serves to cheer on my right hand in all of it’s endeavors. Nothing medical or quantifiable in anyway, I’m just severely uncoordinated. Just ask H about the time she tried to teach me to dance freshman year in high school. Anyhoo. The Norwegian knitting thimble works well for small, repeated patterns, like the Endpaper Mitts, but not so much irregular designs like the squirrel and oak leaf patterns. So I had to break down and learn how to strand (it’s a verb now!) with two hands. I watched this video on Continental (left handed) style knitting, and it was easier than I thought it would be, but it won’t be my primary way of knitting. I’m still very right handed, thanks.

So with that solved, now I had the issue of needle sizes. The pattern calls for US 3′s, I accidentally bought 2′s, and ended up having to go up to 5′s to get the gauge loose enough for these cute wee mittens to fit over my meaty paws. And by the time I realised I had to go up to size 5′s, I had already bought 2 new sets of DPN’s and didn’t really feel like going back to the yarn store to buy anymore, so I used my old Susan Bates aluminum DPN’s. They were heavy and slippery and tried to slide out of the stitches every time I set it down, so I ended up putting the project down until I could get to the yarn store to buy some nice Crystal Palace bamboo DPN’s (my new favorite needles). So I got the right needles, and lo, behold a finished mitten:

Almost finished, I haven’t done the thumb yet. And I started on the next mitten.

I admit, the knitting is a little puckery and wonky, but I haven’t blocked it or tugged the worst offending stitches into place yet, so I just have to deal with a funky mitten for now. I always forget how much blocking and a little wear really improves stranded knitting.

I have a few more WIP’s to show you, but I’m going to tease them out a little over the next few days, because that’s what I do apparently. Also, I keep meaning to work on a separate page with links to each finished object post. Any interest in that, or should I just leave it how it is? Thoughts?