Mitten Time Out

I am currently making a pair of mittens from some of the most luxurious yarn I have ever acquired. It is Alisha Goes Around Pulchritude of Peacocks DK and it is lovely!

The pattern is Diamonds Go Around Mittens by Alisha Broberg, who also happens to be the creator of this beautiful yarn.

The stitch is called the royal quilting stitch and it is relatively easy and quite stunning. I knit the matching hat (Diamonds Go Around Hat) before I started on the mittens. After almost ten years of knitting under my belt, I am finally getting brave enough to change up more than just the yarn in the patterns I use. I had never knit myself a hat that fit really well so I had always given them away - usually to my husband or a friend with a larger head or thicker hair.

I love the stitch and the yarn, and purchased it and the patterns specifically to go with my coat so I was bound and determined to make a hat that fit. I would knit a few inches, try on the hat, knit another, try it on, and so on until it seemed like I needed to decrease. Looking at the pattern, I knit less height for the hat than the toddler version recommended - Ha! Maybe this is why my hats never fit?! No matter, the hat fits perfectly and I love it!

Upon my first completion of the mittens, I was really disappointed. The mitten looked great up until the very top. I finished casting off using Kitchener stitch which I usually love because it looks so clean and seamless. The mittens looked boxy at the top - somehow not mitten-y. I ripped it out, (if you have never ripped out Kitchener stitch, it is a royal pain!) and tried the other suggested cast off - the three needle bind off. Ugh, it looked even worse! Now they were boxy and had this huge seem at the top. I ripped that out and put the mitten in Time Out.

Time Out can be any location - behind the couch, in the freezer, or anywhere it doesn't raise my blood pressure - and is an essential tactic of any (un)successful creator. It is not dissimilar to waiting 24 hours before sending an angry email, but instead, wait 24 hours before you rip the whole darn thing apart. I then like to work on another project that I know I cannot screw up to get the good mojo going again. Mine go to is The Bee Keepers's Quilt by tiny owl knits. Yep, this situation happens often enough I have a backup project.

I waited the obligatory 24 hours before getting the ball winder out, and during that time I kept thinking, I've made mittens that I've been super happy with before, what went wrong? Then I remembered thinking as I was knitting the mittens that it was weird how few decreases there were before I cast off. This would definitely contribute to their boxyness!

After putting my daughter to bed, I rushed over to my mitten - that I was excited to see again and no longer wanted to destroy - and frogged a couple of rows. I added some decreases and my hunch was confirmed Even before casting off, I could tell they were going to be awesome. I wrote down what I did - I gotta make another one of these things and it WILL match - and cast off using Kitchener. I am so happy with it!