I was home from work yesterday after succumbing to the dreaded strep throat that Rosie had caught almost two weeks ago. With all kinds of choices for how I should spend my day — cleaning the collapsing kitchen cabinets? washing the fetid floor? laundering the bed-linens? — I chose to knit. I was getting tired of the hat I've been working on for about two hours a week through November (I missed a stitch or two and the pattern is all screwed up), so, I looked up a project that Kelly had posted on Pinterest, the one-hour fingerless gloves. I did my own search, not thinking about Pinterest yesterday, and found a two-hour fingerless gloves pattern on Allfreeknitting.com. It looked pretty and not too hard, with three inches of ribbing, then gradual increases while you worked in the thumb.
What happened, however, was not a two-hour result. I had a set of bamboo double-pointed needles, perfect for this pattern, but have never used them before—they're sticky. I used acrylic yarn that I have in abundance (free!) from my MIL. It might not be as easy to use as wool, I have no idea. I also knit pretty tightly, especially when I'm trying something new. About four hours into knitting one glove, I was about half-way finished. It's beautiful, but I really, really want to get faster at this stuff! I took my first knitting class exactly a year ago and I've made about five scarves, two and a half hats, and now this half a glove. I was getting faster when I was working on the scarves, but that was mostly because it was all knitting. This, knit one row, purl one row, count 18, knit in front and behind — it's all slowing me down even more.
It's primarily the tension thing, right, experienced knitters? If I can just loosen my stitches up, I can go faster? Arrggh! I'd love this to be the solution to Xmas gifts this year, but not if it's going to take me a day per glove. Rosie said she just liked the wristlet, without the finger-warming part, like a bracelet? I can totally do that. That might even take me two hours.
Can You Really Learn to Crochet with Woobles?
3 hours ago
dbl pointed knitting I've yet to master...it's fiddly and annoys the SHIT out of me. I used bamboo crochet hooks and love them...however they're well loved so that might help the sticky...
ReplyDeleteloosening the stitch usually always helps, but it might just be the pattern...the purling slows me down every time...
Thordora, I was talking with my knitting-expert friend yesterday and she suggested that it was most likely just me getting used to the double-pointed needles. I'm having her and a few friends over to knit on Sunday, so hopefully we can all give each other tips. It's probably mostly loosening the stitch, though!
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