I had to take a break from the sweater that’s inching along row by row. Millimetering would be a better description. I needed something fast and mildly challenging enough to make me appreciate the droning hours of stockingette the sweater requires. The only logical choice would be Mittenettes.

A Mittenette is basically a fingerless mitten, a tube for your wrist and palm with a thumb gusset. I’ve found other patterns that only make a hole for one’s thumb, but I knew I was ready for at least one digit’s cuff. (Darrel’s Fingerless Gloves were too big of a leap). This was also my first project on double-pointed needles.

They were started on Tuesday and finished by Saturday night. Unfortunately, in my haste to begin the second one, I rushed through the pattern leaving the left two rows shorter than the right. So, I now have a means to tell which is which.

All in all, it was a great experience, providing many knitting lessons:

• I’m no longer afraid of M1 increases.
• Paperclips make fine stitch markers.
• Safety pins make fine stitch holders.
• Weaving in the ends provides opportunity to "fill in" any gaps.

The biggest gamble in this project, was making a women’s-sized pattern on a larger than recommended needle. (Note to self: don’t rush into a LYS after they’ve closed to grab your first dpn’s, mistaking the metric 7mm for size 7’s.) And, no, the pattern didn’t specify a gauge. The Mittenettes could be a smidge tighter, in order to fit like a glove, but the experiment worked.

I’m still going to buy some smaller dpn’s. Just after a hundred or more rows of the sweater.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 22nd, 2004 at 10:13 am and is filed under knitting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.