So people have been talking about their dream projects – about the things that someday they want to be able to knit. Well my dream project for awhile now has been the endpaper mitts. (or click here for a gallery of finished ones) I love them. They are so beautiful and useful and I know I would wear them all the time…and I can totally picture them with black as the contrast against pastely pink/blue/purple variegated yarn that I could dye just for them. Problem is I suck at fair-isle. The one time I tried it was on a felted hat that I made pre-blog. It did not end well… the fair-isle part felted tighter than the rest of it and it came out all misshapen and… BAD.
So anyways while I’m stuck here on the couch I may as well learn something, right? Check out what I made:
That would be the Center Square hat from Knitty knit out of the leftover Swish from my field-work socks. It took about a skein of the red and ¾ of a skein of the black.
Here's a shot of the insides (taken before I tucked in all of the ends, of course. My grandma reads this blog now so I will no longer admit to doing things like wearing this hat with all of the ends shoved up inside of it instead of tucked neatly in and perfectly finished. Because, really, I would never, ever do something like that. Hi grandma!):
And the really fun thing is I knit the whole thing two handed – meaning I knit the main color continental and the contrast color normal (well normal for me). Two hands at once! Two colors at once!
I thought for some reason that my gauge would be looser with this new technique so I knit it on 10.5 needles instead of the 11’s the pattern calls for. Well… my gauge actually turned out tighter than normal… so the hat is pretty small. I managed to block it out so that it fits on my head but it is too short to cover my ears. It’s ok, though, this was a learning experience. And I’ve been wearing the hat inside pretty much constantly since I made it. We keep our house pretty cold in the winter.
And a horrible/blurry shot of the hat actually on me:
Ok… I’m going to go take a nap now. The super-fun side effect of these anti-inflammatory drugs is that they knock me out. Bigtime. Although, according to my mom, this is a good thing because the only way to keep me completely off of my feet is to knock me out. She may have a point…
that.hat.is.AWESOME!!!!
ReplyDeletewtg on the fairisle, jeanne - it turned out fabulous!!
Looks great! I still can't manage to do two-handed colorwork - I put each color on a different finger of my right hand.
ReplyDeleteHere's my dream project:
http://www.schoolhousepress.com/wgback.htm
Scroll down to #67. I even have it already kitted with the suggested yarn in my favorite colors.
Great job! It won't be long before those Endpaper Mitts are on your agenda!
ReplyDeleteThe hat looks great, I usually go up a needle size when I knit fair isle. You will have your mitts cast on and done before you know it. And listen to your mom they know best!
ReplyDeleteso CUTE!!
ReplyDeleteThe hat looks perfect! Way to utilize your couch time in a productive manner!
ReplyDeleteFWIW, when I learned how to knit fair isle, they said it is sometimes easier to do the main color your "normal" way and the contrast color with your nondominant hand. I knit sort of continental (throwing with the left hand instead of "picking") all the time so I usually do the contrast color with my right hand.
Love the hat! You will have to wear the hat and socks together!!!
ReplyDeleteI'd say you've got the hang of Fair Isle now!! That hat is fabulous!!
ReplyDeleteYour hat looks great!
ReplyDeleteI love your hat.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy fair isle in small doses but I usually add a little to a hat to give it some fun colors.
I hope you enjoyed doing it - it totally sounds like it.
P.S. I wore a hat today with the ends tucked in. I only finish them when I am going to sell them!!
:)
Holly
Hey - my friend London designed that hat! YAY!! (she also dyes some killer yarn )
ReplyDelete