Been meaning to post these -- my most recent projects.

Convertible mittens (another view here):


I've made three pairs of these now, and I love mine! The pattern is free and available on Knitty, although I made a bunch of alterations to the last two pairs to make them smaller -- the Knitty pattern is one size only, and that was too big for me (it fit my husband). If any of you out there knit and are interested in my sizing changes, post here and I'll send them.

Then there was this sweater:


This was from a kit from Shelridge Farm that I got at Stitches East. Aran sweaters were one of the reasons I decided to take up knitting -- I love the intricate patterns you can make. I like the way this sweater came out.

I'm currently working on squid baby hats for a couple pregnant friends (waves to Lisa) and Yet Another Sweater -- I am redoing this one in a less scratchy yarn. I hate pure wool, except for Merino, and will never make any garment for myself using the scratchy stuff again.

I bet that would look nice in a dark olive color - probably wouldn't be quite as authentic that way, but nice just the same.

I have to post a picture of the mittens you made me once I've made the matching buttons. You know, if you ever need buttons to match something you're making, feel free to send me a swatch of yarn sometime and I should be able to whip you up something.

And that squid hat is just adorable - and the whole story posted with the cat gives it just that much more personality.

Lisa

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Lisa Clarke
Have had your daily dose of Polka Dots?

I knit, but I'm no where near the projects that you're making. I've only been at it for a little over a year. That sweater looks so nice!!!

Those convertible mittens look really cool. Did you make those on double points? I've tried to work with those in the past, but haven't had any luck at all. Any tips? You're obviously an expert

-Angela, Mom to Drew
Drew and I riding Thomas the Tank Engine

They were done on DPNs. I have mixed luck with them myself -- last year I made one sweater (picture here) that was all done in the round, so I had to use double-points on the sleeves (I think that was my first time using DPNs). I couldn't keep it from laddering at the joins between the needles -- my normal trick to stop that is to knit an extra stitch onto each needle so that the gaps are more widely dispersed and therefore not very noticeable, but that sweater required a specific pattern chart to be repeated once per needle, so fudging that way wasn't really an option.

On the mittens, however, I had no problems with laddering -- not sure why, since I didn't even do any of the usual fudging. Maybe the thinner yarn made it easier to maintain tension between needles, or maybe I'm just getting better at it or something -- I'm not sure what the difference was.