Start Something Saturday

I’ve been merrily working on Lintilla and I’m still in love with the pattern. It’s clever and perfect commuting knitting. I can stop at just about any point and pick it up without issue. Of course, this assumes I actually look at where I left off. Otherwise, I might spend an entire train ride knitting long rows that need to be frogged because I should have started another ruffle.
Just sayin.
It’s starting to get cold in the Philly area. Even on the warmer days, the mornings are in the low to mid 30s. I have plenty of scarves but I’ve never made myself a pair of mittens. Until this year mittens just weren’t practical. I spent so much time commuting in the car that I’d just use fingerless mitts to run from car to building. But this year I need full on mittens.
I haven’t knit many cables recently and I had a bug to knit them. There’s no shortage of cabled mittens. At writing Ravelry has 262 women’s or unisex cabled mittens – and those are just the ones with photos.
After a morning of Ravelry trolling and yarn shopping yesterday I picked up three skeins of Shibui Baby Alpaca DK in a strong red color 430 – three skeins because I plan to adapt a scarf out of the pattern as well. Baby alpaca because I couldn’t resist its softness. BTW the Shibui skeins come in 225 yard 100 gram put ups and were only $20 USD – that’s a good deal for hand dyed baby alpaca!
I chose Ambroso mittens by Carol Feller in Knitty Deep Fall 2011. I love the asymmetrical cables and the look of cables on a stockinette background. I’ve knit the entire cuff and half the thumb gusset increases already – I think mittens will be fast? Since the Shibui is 100% alpaca I’m knitting the yarn more tightly and I’m sizing them slightly small. Alpaca is notorious for not keeping its shape so I’m hoping this will work out *fingers crossed*. Oh, and I did make one design mod – I skipped the twisted cable cuff. I like the cleaner lines of the 2×2 rib.

I also made a last minute sizing mod and increased from the smaller size to the larger size after knitting the cuff. I think mitten cuffs should fit closely to keep the wind out but I want to ensure my fingers have enough room to move around in the mitten itself. Since I’ve never made mittens I have a bit of anxiety until I have enough done to try them on.
I may also make one more mod and change the top to use spiral decreases. I always find myself mildly obsessed with the look of spiral decreases but I don’t like the way they fit me for socks. When I read that Carol Fuller had posted a mod for a spiral decrease top I knew it’d be for me.
I feel an accessory period coming on for my knitting. The portability for commuting is fantastic, it allows me to buy just a few skeins to get that yarn shopping high and they’re quicker to knit. That may be why you haven’t heard about Audrey in Unst lately 😉
Random info of the day – I learned about “Try-It-On Tubing” on the Knitmore Girls Facebook page yesterday. It’s plastic tubing that slips over your knitting needles to make a continuous ring so you can easily try on your knitting with minimum effort. I can’t believe I’d never heard of this. It’s genius (and inexpensive at only $2.95 USD for a yard). Of course, I learn about this right after I decide I’m going to focus on accessory knitting and have no need for it (hmm, maybe that’s not true – I bet it would be great to spread out large lace shawls as well). But I’m sure some of you will. Enjoy!