Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Nope - dark chocolate can't fix this,

Some small things, and an incredibly sad thing. I'm back at work, after having a few days at home to rest and get better. No point coughing all over the students and fellow staff is there? And - yes I'm sad, some one is moving into a hospice, and its sad, no other word for it, to describe knowing a life ends soon. Sad. No its not family, but a colleague who I admire and who has such a healthy respectful human attitude to students and peers that I'll miss her already. Please excuse me while I feel a little dark and blue about the whole thing - Friday there is a small function (at her request) to say goodbye - and just between you me and a big box of tissues --- frankly, I'm gonna be a mess. There are a few things in this world I've found to my dismay that even the darkest of dark chocolate can't fix, and this my friends, appears to be one of them.

So I'll avoid the issue for now by talking about the knitting, my Salto sock project continues, I've worked the heel on sock two, and un-worked, or frogged the toe on sock one. Sock one is now just sitting and waiting for me to knit sock two to the same length, and then I'll finish the two together. Remember sock 1 ended up being a little to long and needed trimming? And there might be an issue of not enough yarn - but we will cross that bridge when we get to it.



And my twined mitt? Well I've knit up to the thumb and even managed to add a line of crook stitches to delineate the thumb/palm line. I was so proud of myself, early in the line if you look really close you can see where I messed up, before I learned to read the twine chain and predict if the row should be k1 p1 k1 or p1 k1 p1.



And the increases? Well twined increases are a doddle, is that a word unique to New Zealand or is it in common use world wide. Here is means easy-as, or not-difficult. So to increase in twined knitting, one knits into the stitch first with one strand, and then twists the other strand over and knits into the same stitch - an easy increase, 2 stitches where once there were one. I chose to work this mitten with all the increases on one side of the thumb gusset, why? Because I'd never seen that done before and it was one of the 4 thumb shaping options in the book. I like the result, especially the way the stitches angle away from the body of the mitten so sharply.


And for all of you who think my knitting is well nigh perfect, well its not and here is some of the proof, I have not mastered twining over the gap of the dpn needles. And some where in the muddle I think I goofed the aligning of the knits and purls, something is not right here, and its not the begining of the round so I can't blame that. Wanna know the worst part - its the center back of the mitten, and I could have shifted the gusset around to hide this on the palm - but I didn't think of that till afterwards. Still I'm thinking of this as my 'learning' mitten.



And I'll leave you with my progress so far. I'm trying something new, I've got the thumb stitches strung on a waste yarn just waiting. But this time I strung the 2 stitches either side of the stitches on hold as well - maybe it will stop those on the waste yarn pulling a little hole in my work? Of course with the twining - its so dense it probably won't form a hole anyway. Notice this knitting stands on its own!

Stella

5 comments:

Knitting Linguist said...

Oh, Stella, I am so sorry to hear of your colleague. That is truly something that nothing can make better, not even dark chocolate and port. Friday sounds like it's going to be a difficult event to get through -- I'll be thinking of you.

That mitten is looking wonderful, though, small mishaps notwithstanding. What a fun technique! I'm thinking that I need to start some mittens for Older Daughter for our trip out there...Maybe out of some of my homespun, if I can get enough done? But they won't be as pretty as yours!

Shirley Goodwin said...

Hoo! Free-standing mittens! I am so sorry to hear about your colleague, and there's nothing to be said that will make this better. On the plus side, I adore you as I now have a lovely skein of Vintage Purls wool thanks to you- I'm about to put a photo os this on my blog so will link to you also.

Knitterly hugs,
Shirley

Diantee said...

Sorry to hear about your friend. It can be really good to have a farewell I think. It helps to express how you feel.

Your knitting as always is so interesting. Love the mittens.

KathyR said...

I'll be thinking of you today, Stella. Hang in there. I know from experience that nothing expunges the pain of this happening to a loved one, be they friend or family, but it is something which must be faced. Do yourself and your friend a favour and give her a big hug and tell her how much she means to you before it is too late.

Your mitten is looking really great, by the way!

JustApril said...

Very sorry to hear about your friend. You'll be in my thoughts today. As sad as it is, though, there is something about being ABLE to say goodbye that does something for you. I don't know, it's two different types of pain, really.

Whether or not your twined mits are perfect, they are gorgeous. I bet you could do some over stitching later to mask the mistake a bit (not that it's THAT big of a deal) but if you wanted to, you could =)

(((hugs)))