Handspun Mittens second project of the year

Last year I joined a spinning and weaving guild. So much was going on in our lives and you all know I'm a total introvert. I only ended up attending a few meetings via zoom. One of those was a bi-monthly spinning group. The format is to go around one by one and talk about what you've been spinning. Luckily I had set up my wheel and actually had spun some fiber. But oh man I could feel the pressure coming to talk and it scared me. I thought of jumping off before they could get to me but I hung in there and told them my dirty secret. I have not knit with any of my handspun yarn. Well, except for some ropey spindle spun mini sweater ornaments.

After that I bucked up and pulled out some lovely hand spun yarn. Actually I went down a rabbit hole of my spun yarn but that is a story for a different day. 

I looked around my knitting room and decided on a skein of handspun fresh off the plying bobbin was my next project. I'm not even sure if the yarn was even washed. Oh well it is experiment time. I used Ann Budd's Knitter's book of patterns to cast on. Then because I had no idea of what gauge to knit at I cast on a bunch more times. It was experimentation time I tell you. I finally decided a gauge of 4 stitches per inch would work. I knit a nice long cuff and almost all of the mitten.

Then because it was still experimentation time I weighed it and the left over skein. Partial mitten was 59 g and remaining skein was 57 g. Well this is not going to work. I thought of just using some other hand spun for the thumbs but decided the fun of knitting another mitten the right way was a better plan. 

I ripped back to only a 2 inch cuff, most likely the recommended cuff length to begin with, and knit another mitten and weighed it. 52 g, hey these mittens might even get to have thumbs!

Knitting with bigger yarn and needles than sock weight is fun too. I think each mitten took about a day to knit. Easier to rip back and start over when it is just a day's experiment that you lose. What else does a knitter/spinner do with a weekend?

Will you look at that? I make stripy yarn sometimes. So much fun to play around and have fun and warm mittens at the end.

Once I finished these I cast on a pair for hubby out of some Alpaca Sox I dug out of the stash. Those are not going as quick! 

I can finally say I made something I can use, from fluff to mitten. Just wait till I tell you about the rest of the handspun stash and my vow to do better. Just like my knitting journal vow to do better...

Happy knitting!