Pattern: Axel Mitts by Blue Garter Sarah
Yarn: Malabrigo Merino Worsted, Autumn Forest colorway
Yardage: about 100 yards, possibly less
Needles: U.S. size 6 Knitpicks Double Pointed Needles
Modifications: Made on a much smaller scale, what with the worsted weight yarn and the size 6 needles
My hands, they are toasty. I finished my second pair of Axel Mitts, these ones for me, and I must say, I lurrrrrve them. Warm, cozy, pretty, and thanks to Mr. Kninja’s awesome choice of yarn color, they go with pretty much everything I own.
I made them really small. There’s two reasons for this. One, I have small hands, but two, last time I made these, I took into account the fact that I was using thinner yarn than the pattern called for and I used size 10 needles to get gauge. What I didn’t take into account is my own experience with Malabrigo. It stretches. Everything I’ve knit in this yarn has turned out, after a few wearings, rather larger than how it was when it came off the needles. I suspect that this has to do with the fact that Malabrigo is one ply and has less support than a yarn with more plies. The Malabrigo mitts I made for Mr. Kninja are too large for my hand, and they’re almost too large for his, even though they appeared to be in gauge when I knit them. This time ’round, I knit on size 6 needles, and they came out the right size, though they looked really small while I was working on them. I didn’t change the pattern at all, other than in sizing down.
I’ve also been knitting the Baby Surprise Jacket from The Opinionated Knitter. All this month, I’ve been experimenting with my poor Colinette Jitterbug. It looked beautiful when I saw it in skein form, but everything I’ve tried to knit with it has looked awful. There are so many color changes that any interesting stitchwork disappears, and I think I’ve attempted about five patterns before realizing, when looking at Jared’s garter stitch scarf , that this yarn wanted to be garter stitch. I’ve been wanting to try the Baby Surprise Jacket for some time, so I cast on, and sure enough, the yarn looks great in garter stitch. Finally.
The brown stripes are Panda Silk. I accumulated a couple of skeins of it while trying to make the Jitterbug work. I have enough of both colors to make a whole baby set. I don’t have a specific baby in mind for all of this, but it will be fun to knit, and several friends are currently knocked up, so it will surely find a home in the end.
As you can see, we’re still in the weird shapeless stage, but I’ve been cheating and folding the material over and over while I knit, and I’m relieved to see that yes, it does fold into a jacket. It’s hard to imagine the sort of clever mind that could come up with a pattern like this one.
Lastly, I thought I’d pass on a tip. I accidentally discovered some months back that Amazon.com does carry yarn. It doesn’t, however, have any sort of yarn or craft section, so the yarn is craftily hidden away in Apparel, and searching “yarn” doesn’t bring all of it up. The company affiliated with Amazon in this case is Alpaca Direct, and you can find all of their products by searching for the company name. (They have needles and top and clothing as well as yarn.) Or you can search for specific yarn brands. They carry Lorna’s Laces, Cascade, Misti Alpaca, and Catalina alpaca, to my certain knowledge. There may be more.
I’m behind on emails, and I apologize for that, but I’ll try to catch up this week. Take care!
