Thank you for all the comments on the pattern, I had a lot of fun putting it together. This year another one of my knit-goals is to put more patterns out there and be more creative (knitting without a pattern or "winging it" more often.) I also appreciate the comments on how I formatted it...one of my old-time skills is in layout/design. I've been writing/editing/designing newspapers from junior high on to HS and then college...I used to be the production editor at the Arizona Daily Wildcat (U of A)...so I have a good sense of what looks good (and can tell you if something is a pica off!) =) Unfortunately I have zero graphic design skills which has always been a real disappointment to me. However, life is all about circles and lately I've been putting my skills back into use in some of my volunteer work by doing the newsletter for one of the groups. It's a lot of fun and very satisfying. AND, if any of you would ever like any help putting together some formatting for a pattern I'd love to help you with it.
So - how was that for foreshawdowing, huh? Not a day after I said I would probably get distracted from Rona I started winding the yarn for a pair of Anemoi mittens. They are very soft and cozy in two colors of koigu. Lest you think they just flew off my needles easily, let me set you straight. The process to get to the first finished mitten went something like this.
1) Cast-on using recommended US0 needles and non-italian tubular cast-on (my fav is Anna's, the tutorial is here)
2) Cast-on was way too small, rip rip rip.
3) Try again, same cast-on with 2.5mm needles.
a) knit entire cuff.
b) start colorwork chart
c) tink downwards, adjusting color patterns to match chart when they appear to be off.
d) after 5 rounds of doing this, realize something is wrong.
e) rip out all colorwork portion, look up errata.
f) realize I have the old version of the pattern where chart symbols are reversed (a simple thing, yet crucial to the whole process) {Tearing hair out commences here} =)
g) download new version while checking for any other errata I have missed.
h) continue knitting, with new version, colorwork is working out perfectly.
i) decide to try mitten on - it is now too small and barely fits over my wrist (and quite possibly is cutting off the blood flow to my hand) =)
j) decide it would be smart to soak/block mitten to see if it would fix the problem (while it's ON the needles. Hey, they're metal!)
k) no dice. {cutting of yarn commences}
4) Start over AGAIN on 3mm needles for cast-on and cuff. Switch back to 2.5 for body of mitten. Try it on, works perfectly, we have success! Repeat for second mitten! =)
So, all in all if you don't count the mis-start it takes about 3 days of average knitting time to knit a mitten. So, they go fast and they are very fun. Hubby was even impressed and that takes a lot! I'll put up some of my comments/clarifications on the pattern once I get the other one knitted up. I think it will go faster the second time =)
