Monday, November 17, 2008

A Dark Sense of Foreboding

So for some reason, when I saw the cover of Vogue Fall 2008 I fell in love with the most unlikely of patterns (for me, anyway): the Druid Mittens by Jared Flood. I hate bobbles and cables make my ill, but somehow, some way these were compelling. The texture, the curves, the luscious cuffs. And I already had the perfect yarn in my stash! It was meant to be!



Shibui Sock- wasabi green (I think)
The color is the most true in these photos.
Size 2 needles



Since my hands are small and the yarn is smooth I dropped the needle size down from the original. Man- the first one flew off the needles and fits perfectly. Behold: The Mitten of Perfection!





(insert chorus of angels here)



So then I started the second one. I flew through the cuff, soared up the main pattern and then...promptly put it down for about 4 weeks. When I picked it back up I noticed some serious pooling that hadn't happened on the first mitten.



But I thought, "Everyone says Shibui pools, so I guess that's the fun of handpainted yarns."

I also noticed that one of the cables looked hideous, so i frogged a few rows to do it again. (Sorry, no pics) Cables properly crossed I thought, "Hey- maybe I should try this sucker on and see how it compares to The Mitten of Perfection."

"Hmm...a little tight. I must have been knitting tightly. I'll loosen up and I'm sure it will block out in the end." Because it always does, right? Right?



And then I found a problem in the palm stitches and went to redo them, dutifully dropping down and working back up and, and... something is not right. Something was off. I counted the palm stitches and compared that number to the pattern.
And then I did it again.
And again.
But the number kept coming up the same. Ten stitches off on the palm.


10 STITCHES!



Argh! I knit 3/4 of a damn mitten and the count was off the whole time!!!! I'm a fool. This is not something that can be recovered from without a drink and some serious frogging.

And now for that drink...

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