One more gift to go before Christmas. (You know- Thursday). I cast last night with the required needle size, after getting a dead-on gauge swatch. I finished the cuff, tried it on and whoa- it was huge! Looking back, I should have possibly waited a bit longer before ripping, as maybe off the needles it would have worked out, but as it was I couldn’t risk time I didn’t have to knit something that wouldn’t fit. I frogged the cuff and restarted on a smaller needle.
The new cuff was perfect. I kept going, and since I have a tracing of my sister-in-law’s hand, I was able to hold the knitting against the tracing to see that I would have to add extra repeats before the waste yarn for the afterthought thumb. I finished the rest of the mitten, closed the top, then tried it on myself.
Too small. As in, my fingers were cramped like toes in triangle-pointed high heels, and I couldn’t even straighten out my hand. I traced my own hand in another color over my sister-in-law’s to see how our hands compare, and while they are the same length, hers is about 0.25-0.5″ wider. If the mitten didn’t fit me…there was no way it would fit her.
I ripped back to before the shaping and added another repeat and a half. I redid the shaping and closed the top. I tried it on again.
It still felt tight. At this point I knew I couldn’t mess around any longer.
This is where the mitten is now. So much for a day’s knitting! I kept the cuff from the smaller needle size, but have reinserted the larger needle size so I can work up the pattern with a little more breathing room. I’m going to follow the same changes for the thumb hole, and try it on as I go to make sure the length is good. I will then hopefully have a mitten that fits…so I can knit its mate. You know, by Thursday afternoon, when we get together to exchange gifts.
No time to share photos of the other gift knits, but I delivered Jakob’s 3 teachers’ gifts this morning as it was his last day of daycare before the holidays, and I also finished my father-in-law’s socks last night.
And tonight Jakob is spending his first night in his new, big boy room!
December 23, 2008 at 8:40 pm
Good luck to Jakob in his new big boy room! Let us know how it goes.
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December 28, 2008 at 7:55 am
I hope the mittens turned out well! I’ve still got one gift on the needles (I hope to finish it today).
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January 12, 2009 at 5:02 pm
Eeek! Sometimes it takes a few tries to get things just right. Frustrating, but worth it in the end, right?
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