Linen Stitch Mitts

Well, right now I'm working on a new pattern for fingerless mitts. I wanted to make something with tons of color and no real obvious color pattern. I also wanted to have all the different colors mix together but I didn't feel like working with more than one yarn per row. So, the perfect solution to accommodate all these various wishes seemed to be the linen stitch.  

Here's a picture of my progress so far:

I'm working it flat which I've never done with mittens (I'm a huge magic loop fan) and I'm having a wonderful time figuring out the gusset. Here's a few things I'm learning as I go:

1. I find the best increase for the linen stitch is the kfb since you are working with an existing stitch and don't have to be bothered about where to make a new stitch as you would with the M1R or M1L which can be tricky with all those slipped stitches lying around. 

2. Increasing will mess up the nice "A B A B" color pattern the linen stitch makes when you switch colors every two rows. Therefore, I had to mix up the pattern a little and work the same color for 3-4 rows, increasing on the third row when all the stitches on the needle are already the same color.

3. Linen stitch makes a very tight piece of fabric, so I'm adding many more stitches to the gusset than I would if working in a looser stitch.  

Also, since I wanted to use several different colors but I didn't want to have to buy a ton of yarn and only use a little from each skein. So, I bought a couple skeins of self-striping sock yarn. Then I cut those skeins up according to color and wound a bunch of mini-skeins. You can buy bobbins for purposes such as this, like these ones from knitpicks: http://www.knitpicks.com/accessories/Knitting_Yarn_Bobbins__DYarnBobbins.html. But I wanted to get knitting and didn't want to wait for them to be delivered. So, I improvised and used the spools from my dog's poop bags to wind the yarn around. New uses for old things!

Once I get these finished, I'll post a pattern.

Hello, My Name Is

For my first official post I thought I should introduce myself.

So here I am (with Ollie the Beagle):

I also have a husband but he's behind the camera as usual. We all live together in a cozy apartment in Manhattan. By day, I'm a social worker, trying my best to make a little bit of difference in this huge city. By night, I'm a lot of things, but for the purposes of this blog, I'm a knitter.

I was taught to knit by my mom when I was in high school. She tried to teach me before, but tomboy that I was, I resisted. When I finally opened my mind and gave it a try I was blown away. I felt connected to all the creative, industrious women who came before me and who had all passed on this art to their daughters until it finally made it to me. Plus, it was fun and you end up with some cool stuff. As I say in my profile, I may not be an expert knitter but I try to be adventurous. I love trying out new techniques and new ideas and mixing and mashing them all together to create something, well, new! My favorite thing is when I get that itch to knit and start dreaming up a project and say "that is way over my head but let's try it anyway." Sometimes it works, sometimes it gets frogged, but it's always fun and interesting.

So, watch me try some new stuff (new to me anyway). Show me what exciting, creative, frustrating, challenging, ridiculous projects you're working on. Give me your two cents and I'll give you mine.