I ventured into Lettuce Knit located downtown Toronto with Ed and her friend Jess. It was the first time I've even stepped foot in a yarn store (I won't count the time I stepped into Mary's Yarns on Main St. Unionville a few years ago to use their bathroom.. LoL). I used to buy my yarn from Michaels, and wow! Yarn store.. so much better! I ended up buying two balls of Rowan Little Big Wool yarn, and a ball of Noro yarn that I thought would make a fun long lace scarf and a set of double pointed needles (DPNs)
I downloaded a Bulky Mitt pattern from Ravelry.com and here's where the fun began, because I soon realized I had made some rookie mistakes.
1) The yarn gauge didn't match what was listed in the pattern
2) Should have listened to my friends at the store and bought stitch markers
Now I know these are not huge misakes, but looking back I think it for a first-time pattern knitter, it would have been easier if I found the pattern first and bought the right gauge yarn. Needless to say it was fun trying to figure out how to adjust the pattern for the yarn gauge while trying to figure out the pattern :). The stitch markers would have been helpful to mark the start of the row and where the location of the thumb gussets were. I improvised and used twist ties (they kept getting caught in the yarn though... but it served its' purpose!)
Knitting mitts are quite easy is definitely a great way to start knitting patterns (if you are sick of knitting scarves like I was!). The hardest part was knitting in a circle with DPNs and figuring out how to do the thumb gusset.
I was quite happy with my mitts :) The only problem is, the mitts let in a lot of air - which doesn't quite cut it for Canadian winters. If you are loose knitter (like me), it would be better to go down a few needles sizes so the stitches are tighter.
Here's a picture of the finish product... plus the lace scarf I knit with the Noro yarn:
No comments:
Post a Comment