Sunday 4 November 2012

Gubs (or a lesson in following a pattern)

This week has been about gubs.  What?  That's gloves to most people.  Gubs is what my dad calls them.  I've no idea where this term comes from but it's stuck.

I finished another pair of Cranford mitts which will be a Christmas gift for someone, as yet undecided.  This pattern is one of my favourites and these are a staple of my limited repertoire. The pattern is pretty much committed to memory now, I've made quite a few pairs of late...

nearly finished, the end are now all sewn in

Committing a pattern to memory is a good thing as this week's other attempt at gloves has revealed that I am not very good at following a pattern.

Mid-week, I settled down to make a pair of children's mittens for a friend's little boy from The Big Book of Kid's Knits by Zoe Mellor. 

A quick and easy project I thought to myself.  Yes, if you read the pattern properly.  Ok, perhaps I was a little distracted.  My furry companion was not being particularly helpful that night. 

But I can't really blame Scooby, she was only doing what cats do best, being curious.

 
The pattern is written in three sizes and I plumped for the 3-4 years so that he'll be able to use them next year too. 

I didn't take photos of all the intermediate stages (I was too busy swearing under my breath) but suffice to say that the amount of times I went wrong during a relatively short space of time is quite impressive.  Between forgetting to change needle sizes and forgetting to change yarn for the striping, I had to undo various sections.  The biggest mistake however, was the fact that I started to knit both the 1st AND the 3rd sizes in the same mitten.  It took me until after I'd completed the thumb to work out what was wrong.

The result is that I only have one, very small mitten to show for quite a few hours' work this week.

Still, I'm pleased with it, and at least I know what to do (and more importantly, what not to do) for the second of the pair.


With a bit of luck I'll have the full pair to show on Handmade Monday next week!

I hope your week has been less full of errors.

Bye for now!

Hx

8 comments:

  1. I love your cranford 'gubs', gorgeous pattern. Glad to see you got the little pair finished with the help of your cat.
    Ali x

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  2. Well, they're looking very good, despite the mistakes. I think the fact that I am completely unable to follow instructions (including patterns) goes a long way to explaining why I never made it beyond a novice knitter.

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  3. I love the Cranford mitts. I can't follow a knitting pattern at all so I think your mitten is brilliant, I'm sure the second will be much quicker!

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  4. oohh err been there and done that as well! loving your wrist warmers as well as those cute little mittens. You got there in the end!

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  5. I'm sure it's not your fault. I've been trying to knit a heart all day, and have abandoned two ravelry patterns because I just couldn't follow them, and decided to make my own up. Your mitt looks very cute.

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  6. It's a very lovely mitten and I am sure it will look even lovelier when paired with a friend!

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  7. thanks all! I'll attempt mitten number two this week.
    x

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