Thursday, January 1, 2015

Year of the Wood Sheep

It doesn’t officially begin until February 17 or so, but since celebrations for everything nowadays begin months before time, why not. As long as we don’t forget that officially we are still under the influence of the Iron Horse. Unlike the Iron Horse, the Wood Sheep is a more expansive. 2015 should be a good year for growth—no this is not a financial prediction.

To start the year’s knitting off right, I cast on for a project I’ve wanted to knit since I read the article in Piecework’s January/February 2013 issue, 1861 Cottage Industry Wristers and Mitts. It took cleaning the coat and luggage closet leading to the discovery of a bag of hidden stash with a skein of Lion Brand Fisherman’s Wool in Nature’s Brown colorway that decided the issue.

In the project notes on Ravelry and on the Piecework website, I discovered an issue with the pattern. I sat down and spent some time rereading the directions and figured out where the initial confusion occurs in the first round after the ribbing the number of stitches increased is given as 3. Three stitches are actually increased each time you complete the three round sequence for the thumb gusset. But if you knit that sequence 6 times as directed, the total round of increased stitches is 18 instead of the printed 17. It is possible to knit the three round sequence six times and set of 18 stitches for the thumb gusset. However, since I have small hands, I decided to stick with the 17 stitches. To achieve that, after the thumb gusset contained 15 stitches, I knit rounds 2 and 3 once more.

I think there is a further problem with the number of fourchette stitches but I will deal with that once I knit the 8 plain rounds.

All this is a shame because this is actually a pattern a beginner could knit and since it is knit using a worsted weight yarn on size 1 needles, the fabric created is dense and will keep the hands warm. Especially since the wristers and the mittens can be worn together or separately. But I confess to being one of those who more often than not when there are issues with a pattern, just move on to the next item in my queue or bright and shiny object that catches my attention. What drove me in this instance—which is the initial thing about the pattern that grabbed my attention—was the construction of the thumb gusset. A construction I will apply to my next set of mittens or gloves because it eliminates the possibility of holes or stretched stitches that can occur with the M1L/M1R construction.


I have posted my modifications on my project page on Ravelry and on the Knitting Daily forum for the pattern. I hope that some knitter will find my notes helpful.

 

 

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