Being January, a new hat is a good thing.....

Stranded knitting is fun...most of the time.   Lately, I have been working on improving my technique.  When I saw the North Star Hat, I was itching to take on this project.

Last fall I decided I was tired of my hats.  I gave a couple away and was looking around for a few ideas when the North Star Hat popped up on Ravelry.   I had yarn left over from the thrummed mittens.  Off I went!

As I new my gauge for this yarn from having just done a project with the same yarn, I daringly skipped doing a swatch.  Fortunately, this turned out not to be a mistake.

It seems that I have THREE sets of 16" interchangeable needles.   The Karbonz were first to hand...and a lovely need for this kind of work.

When I got to be fairly skilled at color knitting, I used to hold each color in a separate hand.  That was fine, but I wanted to see if I could do better.  Keeping in mind that the yarns have to be worked consistently -- one from the bottom and one from the top -- to achieve the color dominance -- I used this to practice holding both the yarns in my left hand.

In my knitting stuff, I had a Swedish thimble.  As I started this, I gave it a try.  The yarn thimble

proved to be a disappointment.  I thought it was clunky to use and did not want to continue.  Maybe I will try again on another project....or not.

This project sped along.  When I finished it a week later, I was pretty happy with the result.  I took a picture.   I looked at it closely.   OH.  NO.

Yes, I HAD checked this as I went along and did not see this.  The only explanation that I have is that it takes place at the jog between rows.  Yes, I should have caught this.  Did I take it out and fix it?  No.  I even opted not to fix it with a duplicate stitch as I thought that would end in drawing more attention to the error.  Lesson learned.  The hat fits well...and is nice and soft.....

OH NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Adventures in thrumming....

More years ago than I care to admit (or actually....remember), I was intrigued by a kit from Mary

The beginning of the second pair of mittens.....

Maxim for a pair of thrummed mittens.  Last fall, the kit magically rose to the top of the stash.   Finally, late in December after all the gift knitting was done, I got to it.

Thrumming is a technique from Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada.   A thrum is a bit of twisted wool knit into the mitten at random intervals.   When the mittens have been worn a bit, the thrums felt and form a soft inner layer to a mitten.

The directions on how to put in a thrum in the kit were not giving me what I wanted to see.  The wonderful world of the internet helped me find a way to do the thrum that made more sense to me and with which I was much more successful.

Even with the new instructions, I miscalculated how much roving should be in a thrum.   I ripped out the first mitten multiple times...at least five.  Though my interest began to flag, I pressed on.

Of course, I ran out of roving.  Depth of Field to the rescue!  As the thrums were made from undyed wool, I could match the shade despite the number of years the kit had rested in the stash.

This pair of mittens was test driven in a real Minnesota cold spell.   I can attest to the warmth of the

The completed second pair out in the wild.

thrummed mittens in a sub zero windchill.   I was really glad I had them.

With the thrumming technique fresh in my mind, I did a second pair.   This pair went much more smoothly.  I used much smaller thrums and did a better job of twisting them.   On my prior roving run to Depth of Field, I had gotten the roving for a second pair.  I tried to remember how much had come in the kit.....and how much more I had to buy to finish the first pair.  What I had guesstimated was short by one thumb and about half the mitten.   Back to Depth....and these were done in a flash.  

The second pair of mittens did turn out much better than the first.  Both mittens will be worn a lot by me.  As the cold is bothering me more this year, I am very grateful for them.