This
all started quite unexpectedly.
I
was sorting out my sock yarn stash and was sighing at the amount of yarn and
wondering when the sock knitting mojo would return and what if it never did - what
would I do with all that skinny yarn then. I picked this ball of yarn, its ball
band long gone.
I probably have had it on the needles at some point and then
frogged it all. I was going to have the yarn on the needles once again and I cast
on for a plain vanilla sock, after all there was so much going on with the yarn,
it would not need any extra excitement - or so I thought. I knit the ribbing
and I kept stopping and pulling the ribbed beginning on my hand. I resisted
for a while, but gave up after I realized that this yarn wanted to be a mitten.
I was not thrilled with the idea, since this was a big ball of yarn and I would
have lots of left-over and then what? While socks would have used most of the
yarn, small mitts would only make a small dent to the ball.
I
was set to knit plain fingerless mittens - great, the project just became
smaller and smaller requiring less and less of yarn. After the ribbing was done, I was
little bored already and decided to knit these top down. I have never knit
mittens top down, so there would be some thrill there but not enough and I got
out my stitch dictionary and found simple and easy pattern that would break
possible pooling a little bit, if there was going to be any.
Top
down or the other way around does not make that much difference in the process. The
mitten was extremely quick to knit and I was left a little astounded. It came
together so quickly that as I was casting off the stitches, my soul was just
completing the thumb gusset. I kept putting it on and getting it off several
times not believing that it was done. It could not be, nothing should be that
quick. And then there remained the fact that I was not so happy with the
outcome. The yarn was too busy after all and I was not sure if I needed another
one or if this should end up being a swatch, after all this was my first top
down mitten and would perfectly qualify as a swatch.
I
decided to call it a swatch but then if there was no purpose for this little
thing, maybe I could experiment little more with it. Maybe some color
exercise... How could I tame this yarn? Could I add something to it, that
would trick the eye and pull it off the surface and give it a place to rest? What could that be? Quilters have a saying that if the planned colors don't
match, add some more.
For a long time I have wanted to try wool applique on knitted
surface, but have not really found a place for it, so why not try it here, after all this was just a swatch.
I
took out my small wool felt pile, believe me, it is very small, just a few
pieces, but it is the real thing, not the acrylic substitute. I don't have that
many colors to choose from, I had to compromise, and this is what I did: couple
of leaves out of the violet wool, sewed it with crewel wool (from Renaissance
Dyeing) using back stitches, and a row of chain stitches.
And then some beading. I am not good in using beads, but I
have been good in collecting them, always wanting to find an excuse to
buy use
them.
I
think I have found something that I really like, maybe even love. And ok - so I
am making another one. And when that is done, the yarn is going back to the
sock yarn box although there is probably too little there for a pair of socks.
Wool
with you,
Lene
