Some stitching chat

First of all, let me introduce you to Mr Roy. G. Biv. He's note a Project 200 piece, so unfortunately he doesn't get his very own post, but isn't he adorable?



And on to other issues. For one of my Hogwarts assignments I've been making a pair of simple mittens, from the Project 200 list. I'm not good with DPNs so when I found a pattern for knitted flat mittens, I jumped at it. And when I brought some delicious yarn from Hobbycraft before Christmas I decided to use it for the mittens.

It wasn't hard to do. Just basic stitches, until it came to finishing off the thumb. For that I needed DPNs - knitted flat, my arse. I didn't have any the right size, so I had to wait until payday before I could finish it off. Plus, I have a tendency to only buy one ball of a yarn I like, then find a project for it afterwards and discover I need more. So I had to go get a second ball on payday too.

Today was payday. I got my second ball of yarn, and I got my DPNs, and just now I finished off mitten number one. Sort of.

As I say, I'm not too good with DPNs, or working in the round, and I completely cocked up the thumb. Completely. Somehow I ended up with too many stitches, then I dropped a load while I was binding it off, and then there was a giant hole... It's a thumb, it works, but it looks a little odd. And I used completely the wrong gauge. I knew I had the gauge slightly out, but I estimated it'd just be a slightly big mitten. Every knitter or crocheter reading this is screaming at me right now, and I know. Stupid stupid. Always stick to gauge. The mitten is a little large. You'll see when I post.

So when I do the second mitten, I'm going to attempt the right gauge. It's not like I ever actually wear mittens, so these are an experiment more than anything, and it doesn't matter if they don't match. At least, it doesn't matter to me.

Oh, and the seaming is dodgy too. The pattern called for mattress stitch, to make a nice invisible seam. I don't know how to do that, so I looked it up on You Tube. I now know the basics of how to do it, but the yarn I used is variagated and thick and fluffy, and I couldn't see the stitches in enough detail to actually succeed at the mattress stitch, so I just seamed as best as I could. I will always have another chance to try mattress stitch again.

So, the upshot of my ramblings? I'm conflicted. Part of me is really chuffed. I made a mitten! My first ever mitten! And I did my first ever three-needle bind off. It's a good thing. But at the same time, I feel horrible that it has so many problems with it. A tiny part of me wants to rip it apart and try again, but I won't. I'll just do a much much better job with mitten two.