Cross Another Off the List

The sudden change in our daily lives is meaning a lot of time at home, which isn't all that unusual for a homebody like me, but usually over the weekend we get out a bit. Obviously any plans we had before have been canceled, so now I have the perfect excuse to stay in with my knitting. Over this past weekend, that meant the perfect opportunity to finish up a project and cross another item off my 20 in 2020 list.

Pattern: Brackthaw by Faye Kennington, size medium
Yarn: Quince & Co. Finch (100% American wool) in Sage, less than one skein, and handspun Georgia "rustic wool"/silk/nylon
Needles: US 1 (2.25 mm) Addi Sock Rockets, magic loop
Started/Completed: February 13/March 14

These mittens have been on my want-to-knit list for a while, and I decided that the Woolly Thistle's annual mitten KAL was the perfect opportunity to finally do it. I'd already decided that I was going to use these two yarns for the mittens, both of which were in my FibreShare package a year ago. It felt good to use stash yarn for a pattern already in my library.

So let's talk details.

This pattern was a bit of a challenge not because it was hard but because of the level of detail. It's worked at a dense gauge -- 9 stitches per inch -- and, as you can see, has a very delicate design. Faye's pattern is very well written and easy to follow, but the charts might be a challenge if your vision isn't great. My sight is generally good, but I had to be very deliberate about keeping my place in the chart. Once I got to the second mitten, however, I found that the patterning was a little more intuitive to me, and the knitting definitely got faster as a result.

I made one modification and one error (that I could easily identify) in the knitting. As I was doing the decreases at the top of the second hand, I notice -- several rounds later -- that I'd done a decrease stitch in the wrong color. I wasn't about to rip back at that point, so I just used one of my yarn tails after I finished to duplicate stitch over the offending stitch as part of weaving that end in. I felt a little smug about it, actually, and though I know exactly where it is, I'm guessing that you can't see it, even if you enlarge the photo. The modification is likewise one that's not easy to spot: I did two additional decreases at the top of each mitten, a centered double decrease on each side (the palm and the back of the hand are separated on each side by three stitches -- white/green/white -- so I just decreased each set to one stitch). This meant that each mitten ended with a small number of stitches all in green, and that was aesthetically pleasing to me.

I generally don't block colorwork too aggressively, but these were a little lumpy because the handspun was a bit inconsistent and overall just a tad thicker than the Finch. I discovered that the top of my Knit Picks sock blockers were the perfect size and shape to stick into the hand, so after the mittens got a good soak, I stuck the blockers into them while they dried. The fabric is still not as even as it could be, but I have a feeling that as these get worn and rewashed, they will even out a bit more.

I'm completely delighted with how these turned out and now have an urge to knit more colorwork mittens -- and perhaps even design a new pair myself!

How are the rest of you coping with the new reality? It's been a long time since I had a knitting group to go to, but I'm finding that it would be really great to have one right now. Would anyone be up for a virtual knitting get-together sometime soon? I'm sure I could figure out Google Hangouts or something similar, and it would be great to be able to talk to some of you in real time while knitting. Let me know!