Hats and Hands & Stops and Starts

One of the planned but didn't happen things from my visit back in Cleveland was teaching my pal how to knit in the round with double points (dpns).

This planned tutorial session was the excuse for buying some dpns and soft lovely yarn from Knitting On the Square.

When it didn't happen, I brought the yarn and needles back to San Diego and promised to send them back as something wonderful.

The bag of yarn and needles has been sitting on my desk patiently waiting it's turn as legwarmers, hats, earrings, etc. got finished before them.

Since the Alpaca/Silk blend is so very soft and warm, I always had some sort of wrist warmers, muffatees or fingerless mitts planned for this yarn. The pattern was always the missing bit.

I was already digging 'round my stitch directories for a cable or twist stitch pattern to use/adapt for a more complex centre out hat when I came upon Supple Rib in my Vogue Dictionary of Knitting Stitches. It's an easy to remember simple rib with a stable stitch and row count.

I'm still trying to decide if I want to go with a fully fashioned thumb gusset or just a slit solution . While mulling that over I turned my attention to the other yarns in waiting.

Originally, I thought I'd do the Suri Merino Paint up as a hat and do co-ordinating mittens from the solid green. The theory behind the plan is that a hat doesn't need to match a coat as much as a mitten or glove should. That bit of fashion wisdom may or may not be a good rule but it's stored in my brain that way.

In any event, I knit to the wrong chart for the hat and chart and yarn were doing nothing for each other.

Instead of tearing out and working the other chart, I decided to put the hat on hold and start a mitten with the other ball. The mitten in this case, a modified version of EZ's mitered mittens. My modification involved not doing an icord start but just letting the stocking stitch roll for a few (4 rounds) before beginning the mitre.

The goal has always been to match hats with hands but mittens have been problematic for me.

The mittens to accompany Borjana's beret are still mired in a combination of gauge and yardage issues. Miss Jean's mitten is also lying in wait for either an updated hand outline or the resurfacing of the original. I also need to find Abby's paw print to make her pint sized mittens.