knitting lesson #426

… That would be knitting lesson number 426 of a seemingly unending series.  No matter how long I’ve been knitting, I have a habit of making really stupid mistakes.

The latest lesson:  When making two of something (such as sleeves, socks, mittens), be sure to measure each one.

Here’s what happens when you fail to do so:

These were my Cranford mitts, which I finished up last weekend.  Such a simple knit, and very gratifying.  I was reminded however, that even if the pattern is simple, you still need to check your work.

Turns out that I’d omitted a pattern repeat on the second mitt (or rather I’d miscounted, as I knew that I’d made the first one longer than stipulated), and didn’t realise until after I had cast off.  In the photo above, the left mitt is blocked; the right mitt was straight off the needles.

I decided not to rip back, as I’d had a nightmare time with the yarn.  There was a knot half way through the skein, and the yarn after the knot was so poorly spun that I had to bin some of it.  Even without the flaw, the yarn didn’t seem to be tightly spun enough to be called a sock yarn, and my mitts are already looking a bit rough after the first few wears.

Nonetheless, they’ve been getting lots of use over the past week in this freezing weather, and are very useful when staring at a computer all day.  I’ve minimised the error by wearing the longer one on my left hand so that it goes over my watchband; no-one will ever know they don’t match!  I’ll still have to make another pair in better yarn though.