I love knitting for others.
Earlier this Fall, I knitted a mermaid tail. Feeling pretty confident in my knitting accomplishment of the gills, I decided it was time to learn something new. By accomplishment, I mean my ability to email the pattern's creater, wait for her response which contained a tutorial, to watch said YouTube tutorial and follow along.
Columbus Day weekend JoAnn Fabrics had a 60% off one item coupon. Since I had learned several months ago that JoAnn's removed the book purchasing with a coupon restriction, I decided to use my coupon on a knitted animal hats, scarves, and mittens project book.
I chose Fiona Goble's book titled, Knitted Animal Scarves, Mitts, and Socks because of the cover photo of hedgehog mittens. I know someone who LOVES (L-O-V-E-S) hedgehogs.
The pattern called for wool-blend yarn and size 8 straight knitting needles. I purchased two skeins of wool-blended yarn that looked hedgehog-ish. The size 8's were already in my needle collection. At this point I was super excited about the straight needles...not that circulars or double-pointed needles (DPN) scare me anymore. I was just nervous about using DPN needles to shape the thumb. That part seemed tricky but not so much with straight needles.
My first attempt to knit the mittens was so-so at best. Something went amok when I lost track of what row I was knitting. Upon noticing my mistake, I happily removed the yarn from the needles and undid the stitches. No worries. There's a first time for everything.
My second attempt made it all the way to the thumb-forming which made no sense to my brain.
My third and fourth attempts were noble at best with a dash of frustration. After the fourth attempt, I put the pattern book and yarn and needles in a project time-out. I hid my knitting bag in my craftroom. I did not think about the hedgehogs. I did not talk about the hedgehogs. The hedgehogs (for a period of 2 weeks) remained dead to me.
After 2 weeks, I pulled out my bag and began again.
My fifth attempt - my new co-worker was kind of worried about my sanity. I asked him to read aloud the row that confused me. He, being a non-knitter, offered words of encouragement but not words of how to help a knitter. I was on the verge of swearing off knitting...but something inside me kept telling me to finish what I started. Also the little voice began suggesting an email / mail correspondence to the author.
My 6th attempted mitten got me all the way to the hedgehog nose before I realized the thumb was knitted on the wrong side. Since there was a bit of a knot in the yarn during this unraveling, I cut the yarn and threw the messed-up hedgehog mitten in the trash. So long $2 worth of yarn and so long to my sanity. What would I do if I quit knitting? What about all those fun patterns that I still want to make? What about the loss of dishcloths for my family and friends? What about knitting circles worldwide? I cannot quit. I must persevere.
At this point, I informed my non-knitting co-worker that it was time to pull out the big guns. I searched through the book and found the publisher's email. I, then, went through the book to the author's note where she gave thanks to so-and-so for knitting and trying out the patterns. Once I had obtained the pattern-checker's name, I opened Gmail and sent an email with a subject line "Please forward this to the knitter _______."
Less than 24 hours later, I had an email from the publisher saying she forwarded my email to the actual author. THE AUTHOR!!!!! I love it when I can correspond with the author. I should note that I had asked the publisher - now author - to explain the thumb-shaping to me like I was a third grader.
Less than 12 hours later, I had a response from the fabulous Fiona. Due to my lengthy email explaining what was happening (or atleast what I thought was happening) to my hedgehog, the author was able to figure out where I was confused. With straight needles, at the end of each row, your needles switch hands. At my bad spot, the pattern said to knit x-number of stitches & turn to cast-on 1. Next row do this ____. Because the pattern said, "NEXT ROW" after the turn & cast-on 1, I turned it where it should NOT have been turned.
Fiona even offered to knit the pattern herself to see if that would help me. I cannot believe that she would take the time to help me. the very confused hedgehog mitten can't-knit-a-mitten knitter across the Pond. (Did I mention Fiona lives in England?)
Yesterday ( 12/16/16 ) I pulled out my size 8 needles and I once again cast on 34 stitches and began the 8th hedgehog. When I got to the thumb-shaping row, I re-read her email response and it totally made sense. An hour-ish later, I had a completed sans-eyes and nose hedgehog. I played 2 more episodes of Gilmore Girls while I finished the left mitten.
Sometime around midnight, I had both mittens done.
Looking at them - you can tell I was more relaxed when I knitted the left one. It's a little "bigger" due to a looser stitch.
I'd like to knit another pair now that I kinda-sorta know what I'm doing.
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