When I want to knit, I really want to knit.

This fact is supported by all the yarn I’ve purchased this past month. Yikes. And if you knit or crochet, you know that quality fiber is pricey. The cost for sweater quantity yarn quickly approaches $100+.

JJ and I agree on most things, one of which is putting our resources (time + money) towards things and experiences that we enjoy. Where I about shit my pants at the cost of the yarn I love, he doesn’t even bat an eye. He has told me many times that he knows that I enjoy my crafts – sewing/quilting/knitting – so he doesn’t really question how much this stuff costs.

With that, I’ve actually got 2 sweaters I’m about to begin. Both are designed by Ysolda Teague. I’ve knitted a sweater by her a few years ago, and her patterns are well written and the garments are so well designed. I didn’t intend on knitting two sweaters, but I had already bought the yarn for a Strokkur when I saw that Fancy Tiger is hosting a knit-a-long. With the knit-a-long, they offered a discount on selected yarn. Since I want to knit a Blank Canvas at some point anyway, I thought “Why not” and picked out some yarn.

BUT.

Before I even start with the sweaters, I’m going to share these fingerless mittens. I decided to knit arm/hand warmers because my hands get so cold at work! And I chose this pattern because I wanted to learn how to knit colorwork. Extra bonus is that these are extra warm because you ‘carry’ the second color of yarn behind the work, thus creating a double layer of warm wool. Yay!

The Endpaper Mitts are a free pattern. The instructions are not PDF, but they are posted on her website with links to tutorials on the tubular cast on and bind off. I had never done either, so in addition to learning colorwork, I learned the benefits to these techniques. Note: The kitchener bind off is really great for edges that need a lot of stretch, but I had to watch several different video demonstrations before I got it.

I started these in the car ride to Ohio. And the mechanics of knitting with 2 strands of yarn took some getting used to. I used this little plastic strand guide on my index finger, and that worked really well. The pattern designer claimed that the pattern was easy to memorize, but that was not the case for me. I definitely had to refer to the chart often, and I did have to un-knit more than a few rows when I made a mistake. I also used a free knitting counter app on my phone to help keep track of how many rows and pattern repeats I completed.

These were super fun to knit. The colorwork forced me to slow down, which I’m convinced helped alleviate some of the wrist pain I had due to knitting my Antrorse.

There are more details on my Ravelry project page, to include the type of yarn, colors etc….