The Latvian Mittens Riddle

I’m stuck.

Stuck with too many options and too little time. It’s not like if this would be something unfamiliar, isn’t it?

So, yes, I still didn’t have any chance to cast-on yet for the Nordic Mittens KAL, and it’s driving me crazy!

Yes, things could be worse by far, but still, I feel behind but mostly not fair to my fellow KAL-ers, and of course not as proficient as I would like to be.

It’s not the ideas or the material that are missing. It’s just time and the commitment to invest myself in “one” project and not wander away and be lured to cast-on yet another side project. Like this one!

How could I resist building a knitted Dodecahedron! Everyone needs one, don’t they!?!

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I do have a pair of Amaryllis Mittens already on the go since past October. My first pair; from me to me with love. And they are just gorgeous! The output up to know gave quite impressive results, in part due to the very detailed and precise pattern instructions of the designer, Mary Ann Stephens. And of course, the’re very endearing to knit as well: I just love them. So, if push comes to shove, this is going to be my KAL project. And that’s going to be it.

That’s already what I KIP at the latest knitter’s event I attended, this being the 2nd mitten. The project is going along fine and maybe I could “succeed” at finishing it during the allotted KAL time. That would be a first.

But I was initially planning to make the graph 19 District of Vidzeme Latvian Mittens by Lizbeth Upitis from the Schoolhouse KAL.

I worked on adapting the charts, but have not yet finished to make a mirror image for the 2nd mitten (yes, I’m picky this much), and to calculate the needed number of stitches to cast-on, because I fear they will be too small.

I had trouble with the swatching, and went from 2.5mm flimsy bamboo needles to 2mm spiky vintage metal needles to 2.25mm Knit Picks Harmony dpn’s. This is my latest choice, considering that the Rauma 2-ply I chose doesn’t have any give and that I nearly broke my bamboo as well as nearly speared myself on the spiky metal ones.

So here is my “puny” little swatch buried in the chosen skeins, as seen in my latest post. I do prefer to plan everything ahead in order to be satisfied with the results and get a pair of “wearable” mittens in the end. As you can see, the bottom third is the actual color combo as per the pattern, but I was wary of the light blue not being enough visible on the medium blue background, due to my yarn substitution. So I replaced it with gray in the middle third. And then, I toyed with the idea of using and the light blue and the gray as well, in succession, as seen in the top third of the swatch. And I kinda like this idea. I left everything lingering due to a disastrous attempt at making a loopy fringe. I needed to recover from this first mishap first. And that led me to the later.

So then I begged for some “new material” to attend a Latvian Mitten course last October, promising my bf that I would make a pair of mittens to match Maxime’s hat.

Beth Brown-Reinsel’s workshop was very instructional and proved a great investment. There I learned valuable techniques that helped me a great deal with my Amaryllis Mittens. I’ve been lucky in my yarn choice. I ordered some Telemark from Knit Picks and the colors are blending in just fine. See!

Now, I’ve got to design those mittens from scratch. I do have an idea, yet I have to chart it and swatch it first. And this is what is keeping me for starting altogether because I’m afraid I will all do this in vain. By the time I will have finished the mittens, winter will be over already. So, we’re talking next winter for their completion. And I anticipate for the worse then, the likes of “maybe his hat won’t fit him anymore by then”. Argh! I have growing children issues since day 1 of my comeback to knitting. I can’t knit fast enough for them!

And of course, I need to knit my MIL a pair of mittens for Christmas… …2008. When they where away in Florida for the holidays, I thought I could make them in time for her comeback by mid January 2009, but yet again I failed a dreaded deadline, due to a bottle neck induced by my ever growing Christmas list. This selection does match her coat though:

I had first thought of knitting her a pair of Amaryllis Mittens, since she fell in love with mine, but I’m not convinced that the red and dark gray color combo will do justice to the delicate flower motif. So I then thought of making her the Postwar Mittens instead, with their more abstract geometric motifs. But I just fell in love with the Camellia Mittens upon seeing them and I do think their Japanese influence will be just right with the color combo.

Now, in conclusion, is there such a thing as a reasonable and manageable queue?