The Mittens of My Discontent

So, here's the mitten I cast on in my despondency over the (as it turns out) momentary setback of the Fools Rush socks:


The Icewine Mittens by Aemmeleia. This is my first really heavily charted pattern, and while I'm enjoying the pattern, I've reached the dismal conclusion that these are not going to fit me, despite making gauge. This is the first time I've made this style of mitten, and I had some concerns going in about whether there would be space for the thumb. And I was right to be concerned- I'm probably going to have to rip this back a ways and improvise a thumb gusset. My hands are very broad at the base of the thumb, and I really rely on that gusset for a comfortable fit. The plain pattern I usually use for mittens for myself is a man's size, which fits my rather large hands pretty well.

And in other news- more socks:


These are the moss cable from Charlene's Schurch's trusty book Sensational Knitted Socks. A charming pattern suitable for even the fussiest male. I think the yarn is more Trekking, but I'll have to find the ball band, which seems to have disappeared.

Woolly sock weather has definitely arrived in New England- yesterday it was below freezing with a stiff wind- perfect weather for a seven mile walk (I'm joking- it wasn't perfect weather, though I really did take the walk). I saw rimes of ice on the edges of the stream as I walked by. Definitely the kind of weather that makes me want to be covered in knitting!

Someone Watches Over Fools

So when last we left our footgear, we were most of a foot short of a full sock. And silly me, I thought my biggest issue was going to be what other yarn to choose to make up a full order. The first skein of Trekking came from Webs, you see, and their sliding discount (not to mention shipping charges) is powerful incentive to buy more than just one ball of yarn.

But I'm currently already six or seven projects ahead of myself, which I know makes me a piker. But I really was really having trouble thinking what additional projects I wanted to do. So I went online to look and found...Webs was out of my colorway. Back-ordered. Hope to have more in several weeks. (Let me say here, that Webs' customer service is quite excellent, and it's not their fault they were unable to help in this instance.)

I was crushed. Despondent. Had to cast on a pair of mittens to take my mind off it. (We'll get into the issue of why, when you have a Christmas list full of stuff with deadlines, one feels the need to start something completely new in another post.)

So I idly googled Trekking, wondering if by any chance anyone else had it. Preferably someone else who wouldn't charge me an arm and a leg in shipping. I knew that my local yarn store doesn't carry Trekking. I looked at sites for several other stores in the area, noted one possible to call. And then. Up pops the name of a store a few towns over that I'd never heard of. That I drive right by every week on my way to karate. "Nah," I said. "That would be just too convenient. Still, I should check it out."

They had one skein left in the right colorway.



And here they are- the Fools Rush sock by Cassiana. Very charming pattern, clearly written. I had to size it up considerably, between the 00(!!) needles, the fine yarn, and the large feet, but I quite like the results.

Now maybe I should knit something on the Christmas list, eh?

Rats!

I can't say the Trekking Fools socks were going swimmingly even before the latest snafu. Partly it was the sweaterus interruptus in the middle, and partly it was inattention on my part, but I managed to repeatedly do silly things that needed to be ripped back- once a missed pattern row, that I spotted several rounds later; several missed stitches in the heel flap that made the heel stitch look half-ribbed and half-diagonal; and last but not least, I got through all the gusset decreases on the second sock without noticing that the first sock decreased every other round, not every round.

And while I probably had an excellent reason for it, I'm now at a loss to understand why I thought it was a good idea to do this pair of socks on 00 needles. A pattern repeat is ten rounds, and with a hundred stitches around the sock (for a ladies size 10), I had to work fairly hard to ignore that it was a thousand stitches for every pattern round I re-knit.

But this I can't ignore:


I'm out of yarn. And not just a little short. About 6 inches short. It's the sort of thing that really should have occurred to me when I decided to make these with a standard leg length instead of the short length I usually prefer. After all, if it takes nearly all of a 460 yard skein to make ankle socks, it does make sense that adding three inches to each sock will require more yarn, doesn't it?

I think I'll blame the time change for everything.