Figured something out

I realized last week that it was getting cold and I had no mittens, somehow. So I decided to knit a pair with two balls of leftover Noro (the Gollum-colored part), some of the Fool's first handspun and some KnitPicks Merino in olive green.
I swore off mittens last year, so this was a pretty major decision for me. Plus, it's getting cold again this weekend and I have to cover an outdoor event on Saturday.
Anyway, what I discovered, after knitting a pair of mittens in three days, is that I don't mind mittens at all.
What I hate are dpns.
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Comments

LaurieM said…
Yipes! Why can't you use what ever sock knitting technique you prefer for mittens? The only issue I could think of might be the thumb, but Meg Swanson has a cure for that: i-cord fingers. Let me know if you want an explaination.
9:26 PM
meg said…
That was the realization I came to. I'm usually a two-circs person, but I knit these mittens with magic loop and it worked out great! What's the I-cord finger thing? That sounds like it could solve my last mitten annoyance.
9:39 PM
JustApril said…
Magic loop is wonderful, I like the two circs, too, but I always end up getting poked in the stomach with a cold cold needle tip - yipe yipe yipe -- do we get to see the mittens?

I-cord fingers? WHY didn't I think of that? It's brilliant! NOW I can make gloves without going insane!
12:16 AM
Thorny said…
Three days? A pair of mittens in three days?

Um, if this were the SAT, this is how that would go:

Meg is to mittens as Thorny is to...

a) garage cozies
b) ponchos
c) socks
d) that freaky hat that looks like a face, with hair on it and everything
2:58 AM
Franklin said…
The one demonstration I wanted to see at Stitches Midwest was the magic loop - and it's also the one I missed. So kindly tell the Fool that if he will please show me the magic loop I will also watch, attentively, as he demonstrates the German Twisted Cast-On.

Or you could show me, and we could skip the German Twisted Cast-On, but then he might get all pouty.
11:13 AM
Anonymous said…
I-cord thumb: cast on enough stitches to go around thumb, but subtract one. Knit I-cord. Use crochet hook to turn the wide spot in the I-cord into a column of stitches.

Or knit the thumb on two needles using double knitting (k1,yf,sl1 p-wise,yb, repeat).
2:36 PM
LaurieM said…
Yes, sorry I didn't get back to you about the I-cord thumb. Tamar has got it right, but the only other thing that Meg Swanson recommends is not pulling your I-cord tight when sliding back. You actually need to leave a stitches worth of yarn so you can ladder it up with the crochet hook. She points out that a stitch takes more yarn than you'd think.

I haven't tried it, so I imagine some experimentation would be required to get a feel for it.
5:15 AM
Lanea said…
Hate DPNs? Really? Man, I feel like I need to cover the ears of my beloved DPNs so they don't develop a complex, but I can't find their ears . . .

I love the i-cord thumb idea though. Having made felted animals, knitting skinny tubes normally does not appeal to me.
12:56 PM
wlturland said…
I-cord fingers! OMG, I think you just solved my SSS problem with my dad's birthday-become-Christmas gloves! I'm going to see if I can get this to work when the rest of the glove has already been knit cuff-up... looks like it may mean a little kitchner's, but if it works, it works!
11:59 AM
Unknown said…
I despise DPNs. Yuck . . . yuck . . . yuck.

I cord thumb sounds like a plan.
8:45 AM
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