In Which the Pirate’s Knitting Doesn’t Go Well.

I have a collection of Cascade 220 leftovers, and thought that it would be a good idea to make a scrappy pair of Fleeps (convertible glove-mittens) with stranded colourwork for extra warmth. First I charted out a colour pattern and then I colour-coordinated the leftovers with the remaining yarn from my Acres Wild hat, which will be used as the lining for the cuff and mitten top.

Then I started knitting. I couldn’t tell at first if I had the size right, though I’d measured and done some math and re-measured and re-calculated. It looked small. But knitting always looks small, and once I had it well past the cuff and into the hand section, I tried it on.

It’s too small. (It’s lumpy over my wrist because I didn’t take my watch off when I tried it on, since I wouldn’t be taking my watch off in real life, either.)

While I like how the colourwork looks on the back of my hand, I’m not really fond of how it looks on the palm or the thumb gusset. And there are going to be far too many yarn-ends to weave in at the end of this project. Just look at that cuff! Ends everywhere – blargh.

So I ripped it all out, wound the yarn back into balls, charted out a different colourwork pattern over more stitches with the thumb gusset increasing more sharply, and started again. I’ll laugh if this attempt turns out to be too large, instead of too small. And then I’ll cry, and then I’ll start over again with a happy medium of stitches. Knitting is supposed to be fun and relaxing, right?