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    « Saturday Sky and Warm Mittens | Main | It's The Little Things »

    Sunday, December 03, 2006

    Comments

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    MaryB in Richmond

    One of the units I support in Iraq is a group of Marines. Their Captain signs his emails "Semper Gumby: Always Flexible!"

    So there ya go: If the Marines can do it, so can you!

    My kids assure me that I don't even understand the concept of flexible.....

    Elisabeth

    Oh dear. Must knit charity hats!

    It looks like the garter stitch is edge is just supposed to be an edging. Aren't hemmed edges usually stockinette?

    It's good to be flexible. Especially for the slow things in your life. ;)

    AmyP

    Welcome to the dark erm... stranded side! When my mum was a child she once knit a two-colour hat intended for her dad. It fit her doll!

    LaurieM

    Likely you are to do nothing with the garter band. If it were to be hemmed you'd want it to be smooth stockinette. The garter stitch is to prevent the edge from curling up. If you tried using ribbing, it would pull in your color work and distort it. You don't want that after all that effort!

    I think what you have so far is just lovely. Also, your work will even out once you wet block it. Keep up the good work!

    Cheryl

    Hmmmm... the photo certainly doesn't look like it has that much garter stitch, does it? Could it just be 6 rows (total), rather than 6 repeats? Then you'd just have 3 garter stitch "ridges"? It's a lovely pattern, though, and I'm sure you'll end up with great mittens.

    Cookie

    The Norma is fast and flexible.

    I am so going to hell...

    Birdsong

    These mittens will be great when you are done, but maybe you will need to slip "speed" projects in between to keep your sanity.

    Billi-Jean

    Here's a trick for helping keep the floats looser when knitting in the round: Knit it inside out.
    All that means is that, when you have the stitches joined in the round, knit on the FAR needle, not the closest one. So you are knitting on the back of the needle; the right side is inside and the wrong side is outside. This means that the floats go on the outside, making them a little looser when you turn it all right side out at the end.

    :)

    Rachel H

    Thank you so much for being flexible! I just made my very first mitten ever! I'm not even ready for all that you are doing. It's just beautiful!

    ((HUGS)) You have no idea how much I appreciate it!

    DebbieB

    Oh, I want to do that stranded knitting stuff before I die. Maybe next year... what? Next year will be here in less than a month???

    That garter edge does seem to be in the drawing (I didn't see a photo on your linked website). Your colors are great together - that background color looks like warm gingerbread fresh from the oven. Mmmmmmmmm.....

    Kristen

    Think of yoga. Slow isn't always bad. Think of this project as knitting meditation practice. Knowing you, you'll be whipping through stranded mittens like they were fluff in just a short while. Keep it up!

    Anne

    I hear you! Life is short, so MOVE FASTER! (One of my favorite sayings, inherited from Dad... "I'm in no hurry--why should you be?")

    sandy

    Oh, gracious, Norma, those mittens are as gorgeous as I imagined them to be. Welcome to the world of stranding. There is no return. Now, you are offiically LOST. heh.

    Edith

    Hi Norma, Here is a pair from the same company, I think, with the garter stitch border: http://doggedknits.com/?p=650.

    margene

    Go up on your needle size and you can weave in the floats if they are too long and will catch your fingers. The mittens are so worth your time to do...you'll love showing them off when you wear them. Don't work so hard that you forget to take care of yourself!!

    Kim

    All that yoga helps with the flexibility, doesn't it? ;)

    Your mitten swatch is absolutely gorgeous. I hope these mittens are for YOU!
    xoxoxox

    Jackie

    Yes, loose floats are completely counter-intuitive. I mean, aren't you going to get your fingers caught in them?? And then I finished my first two-color knitting (unfortunately, as a sample knit for a book) and well, let's just say I learned my lesson.

    Martha

    I'm pretty sure you don't hem that garter stitch--never heard of such a thing. It looks like it's supposed to be the cuff. My Nancy Bush Estonian mittens have a three-ridge garter stitch cuff too.

    I think I have a partial skein of acrylic in my house to make a headband with...

    Mel

    If you want a pic of Billi-Jean's suggestion, Marilyn (Knitting Curmudgeon) has one up on her latest entry. Learning to knit looser, learning to knit slower, and learning to knit with your left hand are all good character-building exercises, so just remember that.

    My Merino Mantra

    My, those ARE big girl mittens! Beautiful. I don't think your tension looks bad on those mitts at all.
    Trish

    Elizabeth

    If you were a very BRAVE big girl, you'd show us the back of that mitt ;)

    Sarah

    I think that's called something like color dominance. I believe Nona wrote about this awhile back. It bothers me sometimes on my current project when I would prefer to carry the yarns in opposite hands to what I need to get the right color to pop. You might get some good information over on Stranded: The Colorwork Challenge.

    The Queen of the Snow Cows

    The mitten is gorgeous.

    I had no idea there was such a thing as yarn dominance until I stumbled on a post over at Nona's.
    http://nonaknits.typepad.com/nonaknits/2006/01/yarn_dominance.html

    Not that I bothered when embarking on my first colorwork mitten anyway...

    Dave Daniels

    Oh, you ARE still blogging. I haven't seen any of your posts in Blog(crap)lines for almost a week! Look at all the stuff you've been up to. Is there anyone you can call? You're good that way, getting the pions to do their jobs, and to fix shit and all that.
    I have the same issues as you regarding tension and color work. I've held off after trying it a few times, it just hasn't been pretty. If you come up with a solution, please post it.

    Lucia

    I had the same too-tight problem when I started, and all I can say is it just comes after a while. I started with a remote-control holster to learn, and it's a bit puckery in spots, but the remote doesn't care.

    Off to knit a hat...

    minnie

    i finished that afghan-turned-scarf last night. it's, um, 10 ft long. but it's soft! hope somebody tall gets it, lol.

    Carole

    It will come as no shock to you, I'm sure, that I have no acrylic in my house. And of course I went to the yarn store yesterday but since even Google Reader didn't pick up this feed until this morning, well, I missed the post about hats for kids. I'll try and get back there this week and bang out a hat or two for ORH (that's Other Rachel H. in case you were too slow to pick up on that)
    *mwah*

    Kathy

    Oooh, I have a headband that I'll send out tomorrow to augment the hat I sent a few weeks back. Thanks for the heads up.

    Beth S.

    I'm just starting to get comfortable with stranded knitting myself. Here's what works for me:

    1) whichever color you want to "pop", you should bring that one up from underneath the other color. I just drop one color and pick up the next when I need it, and as long as I follow that one simple rule, there are no tangles, and I get the dominance effect I want.

    2) really spread out your completed stitches on the right-hand needle--it'll help your floats stay nice and loose.

    3) steam the bejesus out of the project when you are done! You won't believe the difference it makes. Steam covers a multitude of sins. ;-)

    Good luck! :-)

    Julia Miller

    Is the pattern available for the Plain Vanilla Pullover

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