Eskimimi Knits knitting blog

Attention, ‘ye sea-farin’ lot

Yarr, scurvy land lubbers. We pirates keep be keepin' arr hands warm with mittens

Both Bones mittens are now complete.  I had some obvious issues with the suggested beads being too big to knit comfortably in pattern, but after strenuous and forceful blocking I think even Blackbeard himself would be accepting of them into his treasure haul.  Ok, maybe they are a bit ‘emo’ for Blackbeard, but I reckon Johnny Depp would be all over them…

We pirates like the shiny stuffs...

I’m satisfied with these and they are now going into my little box of knitted Christmas treasure which I am going to bury before I am tempted to put these on myself,  to keep my scurvy hands warms whilst I swab the decks (or clean the oven, whichever task presents itself first).

In my previous blog post I was in the process of experimenting with inserting pins through the vertical columns of beads on the fingerless mitts I have just finished knitting.  As I had written, the beaded skull and crossbones designs, as well as the surrounding knitting, were quite distorted and unattractive.  Perhaps I understated that just slightly. I have just downloaded the photos:

Before: unblocked an unattractive

The knitting in the picture above is not sitting in an ungainly heap – the larger gauge determined by the beads pulls the surrounding knitting so far out of shape that the knitting puckers quite uncontrollably.  The gloves were un-wearable and uncomfortable with a big lumpen mass of beads on the back of the hand, but blocking has worked its usual magic:

after: beaded motif and surrounding knitting now free of distortion

I am really very pleased with just how much blocking has improved these mittens. I thought that this ill-fated yarn was due for another trip to the frog pond, but instead I will be able to add the mitts to my little box of finished Christmas gift knits once the second glove has finished drying and had its blocking pins removed and I have taken some obligatory pictures for blog documentation.

I said goodbye to the 85% complete Edward’s Socks after finally coming to terms with the fact that I never had enough yarn to finish them.  I decided that the yarn needed to be re-purposed into something completely different, and so settled on a pair of fingerless mittens/arm-warmers, mostly because I already had the beads that the pattern called for rattling around the bottom of my knitting bag.

Knit in 4-ply sock yarn at 32st to 4″ I thought these would be a fun gift for my mother for Christmas, who likes this sort of thing (because she is still a teenager, it would seem).

I have never knit with beads before, and so used the ‘crochet hook method’ recommended in the pattern instructions.  This method of beaded knitting is simple, if very, very fiddly, not helped by the fact that the beads are constantly jostling for position in the row.  Sensing something wasn’t quite working I measured to make sure my gauge was still on and it was perfect, and then I measured to see how many beads would comfortably fit side-by-side in the same 4″ area.  28.  So, you are required to fit 8 stitches to every inch in the pattern, but that same inch will only accommodate 7 of the recommended beads.  The beaded motif is quite distorted where the beads are jostling so tight against each other and it is also causing the surrounding knitting to warp and balloon.

I am going to try and suspend my disappointment for a while and just hope that some creative blocking will help a little.  I tried simply wet blocking the first mitten and easing it into shape by hand, but it was apparent early on that this wasn’t going to be sufficient, so I had to get crafty.

Alas poor socks... I knew them well

With the pins in situ the beads are laying in a much more uniform and orderly manner, but I shall not know the success of the experiment until they have dried and I can see if it has sufficiently coaxed the fabric around and through the beads into submission.