Felting, Finishing, and Failing a Little

It's Monday again, but I only have to work one more Monday after this one this year! And frankly I'm happy to have a day with a normal schedule after a weekend that was a bit all over the place.

On Saturday morning, Ruthie and I drove out to meet the woman who will be boarding her while we're away later this month. I'd gotten an anti-nausea medication from the vet ahead of time, but apparently it was no match for Ruthie delicate stomach, nor has she outgrown her carsickness yet. I felt so bad that I had to put her through a longer car ride twice, but the good news is that once we got there, there was another dog to play with and a big fenced-in yard to run around it. I'll get in touch with the vet to see if they have any more advice, but I think we may just need to not feed her before a car trip. (She got to have lunch when we got home, seeing as she didn't get much of a chance to digest breakfast, and she got some extra treats and extra snuggles as well. The only good thing about this situation is that as soon as we're out of the car, she's absolutely fine.)

As long as I was doing laundry (I had old towels under her in the car, as I always do), I decided to felt my mittens. Here's what they looked like freshly off the needles:

The pattern I used (Ravelry link) has you pick up and add the cuffs after felting. To ensure I had holes to pick those stitches up, I got out some cotton yarn and my crochet hook and worked it into the stitches all the way around the cast-on edge. I did single crochets into the fabric with a chain in between just to ensure I had enough wiggle room. The pattern just tells you to poke your needle through, but knowing how thick felted fabric can get, I though this would be easier. I promised Vera that I would share how I felt in the dryer, a method that I've found both works easier than using my front-load washer (because it can't be opened in the middle of the cycle to check on them) and that uses a heck of a lot less water. All you have to do is soak your item(s) to be felted so they're good and wet -- not dripping, but definitely soaked through. Then just toss them in the dryer with something else for some agitation. If you're worried about bleeding, use some old towels or jeans or anything that you don't care too much about. These went in first with the towels and then in the next load of laundry. Those two cycles were enough to felt the mittens sufficiently, and as I was already drying those two loads of laundry, they didn't require any extra effort or power. I let the mittens dry on the radiator overnight and then picked up and knit the cuffs yesterday. My apologies for the subpar photo of them, but I was trapped next to a sleeping dog at the time and knew the next chance I would have to take a photo before publishing this post would be after the sun had already set.

I knit the adult small, and they fit -- but only just. I think I may make another pair and make the next size up, which would allow me to wear some thin gloves underneath on the really frigid days. These knit up so quickly on such big needles that it won't take long at all to make another pair -- but only after gift knitting is complete, so maybe not until we're on vacation.

I had another finish this weekend in the form of the hat for my brother, which is done but not yet blocked.

As I was knitting it, I couldn't figure out why I needed a higher stitch count than usual. At the time, I figured my gauge was just a little tighter than normal, which wouldn't be that surprising given all the stress I've been under at work. But when I was pulling the needles out of the project bag to put them away, I realized what had happened. Do you see it?

The needles I usually use for this hat are US 2.5, or 3 mm. A US 2.5 is not the same as a 2.5 mm, which is what I grabbed to use for the crown increases and decreases. And because the hat starts with a crown and it determines the stitch count for the entire hat, that meant that I was using a smaller diameter needle, leading to smaller stitches, leading to needing more of them. That means the resulting hat is probably a little wider than it needs to be. I'm not about to rip it out and start over, but when I block it, I will stretch it out a lot to make it narrower and longer. That should make it fit better and also enable my brother to have enough fabric to fold up an extra brim. And I have learned that I need to read labels a bit more carefully!

This week is shaping up to be another busy one, but at least the big commencement project should be wrapping up toward the beginning of it. Wednesday is my office holiday party, sort of -- they're asking all of us to bring in food for a potluck and cookies to share, which is a far cry from the holiday parties we used to have. That day we'll also be wrapping gifts for a local childcare center for which we sign up to "elf" for. The kid I shopped for is 2 and wanted balls and Pittsburgh-themed clothing, so that's exactly what I bought. Including today, I have nine more days of work this year!