Works-in-progress Wednesday

This - the Grey Sweater II - is all I've worked on this week. Terribly exciting, I know.

My very first ever mitten.

My sister M requested mittens for Christmas. I still don't know if I'll make them for her or not, but my first mitten (a test) turned out well, if a bit wide. It was a lot easier than I thought, once I figured out that a "gore" was the same thing as a "gusset". I don't think that Folk Mittens does a very good job of explaining the construction of a mitten - they need more pictures to go with the explanations - but boy are there some great mittens in there.

But here's what I don't get:
a) I have large hands. I usually have to buy men's gloves because women's aren't made large enough.
b) I followed the directions for a women's size medium (no measurements specified).
c) I got gauge.

So why is it that:
d) they are about an inch too wide for my hand?

Are mittens supposed to be loose? I haven't had any since I was a little kid, but it seems like they should be snug.

I'm a joiner.

As you can see from my sidebar there, I have joined Zimmermania, Socktoberfest, and the Warm Hands Knitalong. All within a couple of days. Let's hope I haven't overcommitted myself.

Thanks to all this joining, I now know how to put a button on my blog all my myself. (Aren't you proud?)

Works-in-progress Wednesday

I didn't forget. But I can't find the camera.

My sock is a bit longer and I've restarted the grey sweater.

How's that for an update?

What I did last night.

Before: a sad, sad sweater that was about a foot too wide in the body, about two inches too narrow in the arms, and puckery where I had tried out my first color patterns.
After about 15 minutes:

A second example: a baby shirt that, though knit of the softest alpaca, was way off gauge and ended up too wide and with too small a neck.
After about 30 minutes (you know you've become a better knitter when you are ripping something and think "how in the world did I manage that?):
In a way, it's almost like having new yarn. I really am looking forward to re-knitting the sweater (ironically, I was "blindly following" Elizabeth Zimmermann), but I'm not sure if I'll re-knit the baby shirt or do something different. If only I could knit as fast as I can rip....

Works-in-progress Wednesday

I got the idea for posting my current projects every Wednesday from Alianne. We'll see how long I keep it up. You can click on the pictures to make them larger.

First up, the Little Child's Sock from Knitting Vintage Socks:
The yarn is really not purple; it's a dark berry pink. I am planning for these socks to be mine. It's an enjoyable pattern so far though counting rows has slowed me down quite a bit. Perhaps someday I'll get myself a row counter.

Secondly, a striped Tomten jacket for my daughter:

I am pretty happy with this. I'm making it out of leftovers; had it been an "original" project I would have chosen different tones (or is it shades? I always get those confused) because they just don't seem to harmonize perfectly. If I had thought about it sooner I would have swatched for felting this and perhaps I still will. I love the look of a "boiled wool" jacket and it would be much more weatherproof.

And that's all that was worked on this week.

Blind man banned from driving for three years.

Only three years? I don't think I'll be driving in England anytime soon....

Read the full story here.

Phew.

I'm having a busy, busy week. In addition to all my normal activities of caring for a toddler, being pregnant, errands, cooking dinner, cleaning house, etcetera, I have been:

a) toilet training said toddler

b) getting ready for our first MOPS meeting of the year (I am the coordinator of our group), and

c) preparing a devotional to give at the annual ladies' luncheon at our church on Saturday.

At least the MOPS meeting is over now. It went pretty well and I hope that things will just get better and better as I become more practiced in leading meetings.

My house is a wreck. I have mountains of laundry. Very little knitting has been done. I was going to post pictures of my works-in-progress, but the light was really bad and they didn't turn out well. Maybe in the next day or two here.