OhSewCrafty Blog

• Pattern: Phenomenon by Carine Ancel (free on Ravelry)
• Yarn: Same as above, used double stranded, 406 yds
• Needles/Gauge: 3.5 spi in stockinette on US 10
• Time to knit: 1 week in Nov/Dec 09 (off and on)

 I am inordinately excited about these mittens, which happen to be my first mittens ever.  They are a copy from the car crash scene in Twilight, and also made an appearance on the beach in New Moon.  The pattern is excellent, I made the first one using the written directions then worked the second one from the chart, which was much faster, probably because I knew what I was doing.  There is a minor error in the last 2 rows of the written finger directions, and the final row of the thumb chart is misleading.  The crisscross pattern on the palm/thumb looks really cool but it took some time and frogging to learn how to read my knitting and execute it properly.  It definitely did not help that I started with the palm pattern in a very dark room (dark room + dark yarn + fiddly stitch pattern = disaster).

The mittens are very warm.  I do wonder about their practicality, as I don’t live in the arctic or anything, but hey I’m always cold so I’ll make it work.  They did come in handy, when cleaning up after our first snowstorm of the year.  For the daily commute, when I need to take them on and off while wearing a coat, not so much.  The yarn is a serviceable, basic wool, but I found it splitty.   Knitting it double stranded was annoying.  I feel like I spent as much time untangling the yarn as I did knitting it.  I had to cut it a few times, but that’s no biggie as it spit splices like a dream.  In fact, I’m worried that these will felt with wear, but time will tell, eh?  Next time I’d just use a bulky, but this time, hooray for stash reduction! 

• Pattern: Bella Hat (new version) by Nancy Frye
• Yarn: Patons Classic Wool, dk grey mix, 105yds
• Needles: Size 7, 6 for bottom hem
• Time to knit: 3 days in November 2009

This little hat, a copy of that which Bella wore during the “La Push” scene in Twilight, is a fast, easy knit.  My gauge was a trifle small (like 19.5 st/4″), so I knit the medium size, and put a few extra rows in the third section before beginning the decreases, to get a hat that would fit my rather small head and also accommodate my hair when I wear it up.  I”m not crazy about the decreases, which are abrupt enough to create a little spikiness when worn- this is less noticeable when my hair is up because the volume stretches it out.  The pattern calls for bulky yarn knit on 7s to get a gauge of 19 st/4″.  I swatched, doubling the worsted weight yarn to obtain a bulky, and got about 16 st/4″ on 7’s; the fabric was thick and unflexible.  I don’t like the idea of knitting a bulky weight at worsted gauge anyway, so I knit the hat single-stranded and I’m happy with it.  It’s probably not as warm, but it’s more comfortable and drapes better.