Marvie's Crochet Corner

The mitten from hell

Well Blogger is giving me fits this morning. It is refusing to open pages, every other page I open is fine, so it’s gotta be blogger again. So I type this out in Word and will copy it into Blogger whenever I can get in.

First off let me just say to Kari, Thank you for thinking of us yesterday =) I told hubby about it and he really appreciated it. Made him feel good to know that someone besides his wife and family appreciates what he and his fellow military members do. I know that lots of people appreciate it and have read many comments online about it, but he doesn’t see that stuff often. You brightened his day =)

Ok I was wrong, Blogspot is giving me fits too, are they part of Blogger?? So I can’t get in to post the comment I wanted to leave on Trish’s blog… which was simply to say that if there were kids outside my house at 10 PM playing basketball, YES, I would say something (or make hubby go do it lol) because that’s just wrong. Especially if there’s quiet hours after 9PM. But then, I’m just bitchy that way lol. I have absolutely no problem at all telling other people’s kids to stoppit if the parent isn’t there to do it. I have been known to tell teens on the bus or at the bus stop here to clean up their language because there were little kids around etc. Last night a group of teens walked past our building at 11 and were laughing and cutting up pretty loudly, I had heard them over our TV (with surround sound no less) and happened to be outside smoking the next time they came by, I informed them that our building is full of little kids who have school in the morning and could they please keep it down. They got quiet then and even apologised, which sometimes I get evil looks and mumbled cursing lol so I appreciated how they reacted =) OK off my soapbox now lol

Well I never made it to the Gussy Goose yesterday, they were closed for the holiday of course, which I hadn’t considered when I thought about going lol. So I’m going to go today. Not sure when yet. Hubby is still sleeping, his back was giving him fits all day and night yesterday (and he doesn’t know what he did of course) so I gave him a muscle relaxant and sent him to bed, heheh he’ll probably sleep in for a while yet. So if he wants to go with me, we’ll have to wait till school lets out and catch the 3:00 shuttle, but if he doesn’t want to go then I can just catch the next shuttle after he gets up (whenever that may be lol) and take my sweet time without hubby and son being bored to tears while I feel up the yarn {grin} Not that this store has much of a selection, just a tiny little corner, while having an entire room devoted to sewing and another entire room I didn’t even go into of something else. Very frustrating. But still, go there I will. Someday I’ll get brave and explore our area and maybe find a German LYS. That’d be kinda cool. Maybe I should ask the lady that runs the thrift shop, she’s German and would probably know… OOOOH and it’s Friday so the shop is open! Yay =)

So ya wanna hear about my mitten from hell? I posted about it at Crochetville already, so if ya read that you can just skip this ;)

Well I decided I really wanted mittens from that super soft and pretty white wool ease I made the ponytail hat out of. I went on a search for fingerless mittten patterns… there aren’t many. And of the ones I found, I couldn’t seem to understand them. So I canabalized various parts that I liked and that made sense and tried to imporovise. For one thing, I have big hands (guess they go with my big head lol) I mean, my hands are as big, if not a titch bigger, than my husband’s. So most ladies patterns won’t fit me. So I found a cuff I liked, using BLO because I have discovered I do not like BP/FP at all. It’s too slow for me I think. I made a cuff. Turned out pretty well, though I seem to have gained a stitch on one row and had gone to far to feel like frogging to fix it. I’ll just cover it with some fun fur or something, besides, it’ll be under my jacket sleeve, who’ll notice??

So after making the cuff, and having to add a couple of rows to make it fit, I followed the instructions SamplerLady posted at Crochetville to build up to the thumb area and beyond. So far so good. Well, mostly. I made it to big at first and had to frog and shrink it down a bit, but I eventually got that right.

Then on to the thumb itself. I tried following the instructions in the pattern I used for the cuff. HA. It was horrid. I dunno what I did to screw it up, but it was awful. At this point, I’d been working on this mitten for several hours. Frustrated, I went outside to smoke and cool off (it had gotten very warm in here and I was feeling sweaty.) As I sat there, I remembered the turtle. Yes, you read that correctly, the turtle. When I made his head I had thought that it somewhat resembled a finger for a glove, well the thought must have stuck because it came back to me. So I came inside and found the page with the pattern on it and sat down at the computer with some test yarn and gave it a whirl. I only had to add some increases at the knuckle area and it worked out beautifully. A nice smooth rounded top and everything. So I opened up a Word doc and quickly typed out what I’d done so I wouldn’t forget. Then I grabbed my mitten and made a thumb, sewed it on, and now had most of a mitten. All it lacked was the flappy thing.

It is by now after 11PM. I was determined to finish this mitten before going to bed (and I wasn’t in the least sleepy anyway) so I attempted a flappy thing. The instructions seemed simple enough. I detest sc and avoid it when possible, so though the instructions called for it, I used hdc. Less painful on my hands, plus it gets me to the end so much faster. So the destructions said, sc across the back of the mitten 16 times… well I had to add some because of the whole largeness issue… so I did, ending on an even number. Next you chain 18 (not me lol so I chained as many as I’d stitched across the back, plus two.) Should work. Next, join the chain to the first sc, which was a hdc, but ok, did that. A few times because it just wouldn’t go right. Eventually I succeded though.

Oh, and have I mentioned that at some point I discovered that my mitten was inside out?? Yup. Same thing happens with every hat I make too. I seem to work it inside out then turn it rightside when I‘m done. So this caused me some confusion too. See I had to end off the mitten before starting the thumb and flap, these being attached seperately. So I was very afraid my thumb was on the wrong way, and would my flap be too? Well I checked it out and it seemed to be fine, so I went on.

Now, the destructions called for 2 sc tog on each row, twice. It worked out to be on each side, so assuming 2 sc tog meant to decrease a stitch, I proceeded. The flap was gradually shrinking. (I did try on the mitten continuously from the very beginning to check fit btw) but it seemed to be shrinking in a good way, it followed my fingers at least. Continuing on. I got to nearly the last row, just the tip of my middle finger sticking out… but it just didn’t look right. It wasn’t a nicely curved mitten like one would expect. It angled and was flat across the top. Froooooooooggg.

I went through this process again, same result. I eventually gave up about 2AM after frogging all the way back to the part where it looked good… which was before the flap.

So I now have a partial mitten. My lovely yarn is distressed from all the frogging, so I have set it down to rest and am proceeding on with RH in Dark Sage (which will match the kid’s coat if the mitten turns out to be a mitten when I’m done practicing) I have so far done 5 rows of the cuff, counting very carefully so it has nice even edges. Hopefully I will end up with something that doesn’t have to be frogged. I will keep you informed on my progress. Maybe even with pics lol.

Have a great day!!

posted by Marvie at 4:53 AM