These mittens, while the second completed pair, are actually the first and fourth mitten I’ve made, so they differ noticeably – I can use them when using the snowblower. Another pair is underway.
Note in particular the mismatched dye lots. I also neglected to use two sizes of needles. C’est la vie. I get to use the rejects 😁
This is my very first pair of mittens. I’ve been knitting for perhaps ten years or so, but haven’t ventured too far. Scarves, of course, but hats, a few socks, and even a couple of small sweaters for little friends (plus I spun the yarn from Jacob fleece). I had never tried mittens, thinking they would be complex. But other than keeping track of a few increases and decreases, mostly between two stitch markers, it’s just knitting. The pattern came from Berroco, and was in a rip-off pad at our knitting Guild. I had a ball of Lion Brand Hometown USA bulky 4-ply, and pulled out two sets of double-pointed needles (DPNs).
DPNs have always frustrated the hell out of me. I rarely had enough tension in the stitches to hold the needles, so they’d fall out, I’d lose stitches and everything would fall apart.
Practice makes perfect they say, so I figured I’d practice. And it worked! I no longer fear DPNs.
It seems I never knit anything just once. The first mitten took about four stabs at it before it looked like a mitten without a thumb. Using the rest of the ball, I managed to get to (after two or three stabs) about three quarters of a mitten. I have to admit I felt betrayed! I took the label with me on a trip to my LYS (Walmart), and found another ball in that colorway. So I bought enough at $2.49/ball to make three more pairs to boot. These red mittens are really #2 & #3 in my mitten-knitting career. And Peggy loves them! Custom-made mittens!
Oh, and I kind of like the DPNs now. I’ve ordered two more sets – shorter 5” needles in “carbonized” bamboo.
A picker is a device (looks more like a torture device!) that separates wool fibers from one another after (or before!) washing. Washing tends to make the wool clump up, and it’s difficult to deal with in that state. Enter the picker. I’ve seen much larger pickers in factories, but this is fine for home use, once I get it laid out and working like I want.
The nails are bright-finished 16d finish nails that I got at Home Depot, and I used a bench grinder to clean the nails to a nice sharp point so the fibers don’t snag. There are about 150 of these nails in the whole picker, 63 of them in the sled, and another 96 or so in the bed. I was too busy avoiding bloodshed to actually count the nails… These suckers are sharp.
A note to anybody who needs a sawhorse or something like it, I find the Black and Decker WorkMate to be quite handy. My in-laws bought it for me one Christmas, and it’s a great tool. I might need to buy another one. $25 at Amazon, with free shipping if you subscribe to Prime. Much the same pricing at Walmart.
These are pictures of my picker – while I followed some information that was on the internet, and actually at one point purchased plans to make a picker, this is really my own design, and right now it’s substandard. It doesn’t work like I want it to.
Part of the problem, I suspect, is that the nails are not at the correct angle – I went for a 15° angle, which is way too shallow. Other pickers I’ve read about have the nails as low as 45°.
I have purchased more wood and nails to make another attempt at it. This time the nails will go in at about 45°, which is much steeper than I think they should be, but seems to be the commonly-used angle. Commonly used typically outweighs my own sensibilities, with good reason.