Twin Mitts

One of the best (and worst) things a knitter can hear is, "Can you make that for me?" Often, people don't understand the time and the energy involved in knitting something (let alone the time and cost of the beautiful yarn). But when my twin sister requested a pair of Snapdragon mitts, I knew I had to say yes. She hasn't always been appreciative of my knitted gifts; she considers them "cheating" because they're not store-bought. Yet when she spotted my Snapdragons, she sheepishly asked, "Can I commission a pair from you?"

Now, I've accumulated at least 4 sweater quantities of yarn in the last month or so (whoops), so I've been looking to destash. Luckily, I had some beautiful Candlewick Madelinetosh DK leftover from my Acorns sweater. I also had some spare owl buttons, so away I went.

I definitely learned a lot from knitting these mitts the first time, so I made some beneficial changes. The most significant change was to knit the first 25 rounds or so on size 5 needles. This tightened up the wrists to prevent gaping.

I went down even further -- to a size 3 -- for the i-cord. This was to make sure that my button tabs are super durable. I also shortened them by several stitches to accommodate my smaller buttons. (Bonus: Check out the friendship bracelet Claire made me! We traded bracelets 5 or 6 months ago, and they're still going strong. Hooray!)

Overall, I think these mitts are a rousing success! I had a great time working the pattern again (and using up some of my stash!), so now I can move on to the Peaks Island Hood.

Starting Smith (aka Jess Makes Mistakes Aplenty)

Smith is tragically cute, but it's incredibly fiddly! From the complicated cast on to the spikes, there are plenty of places that your (read: my) knitting can (read: did) go wrong. I want to make it very clear that my mistakes were not the pattern's fault. It's very hot, so my brain is melting. First, I messed up the cast on, but I was okay with that because nobody should be staring at my hedgehog's booty. Then, I was cruising along with the knitting until I realized that my spikes were wrapping around my hedgehog further than they should. Turns out I misread round 9. While you're supposed to knit 1 and then knit the stitches together, I alternated between the two. Whoops! However, I've already attached two sets of spikes, so I do NOT want to frog! Instead, I'll just sew the spikes to wrap all the way around the body, and I'll work the rest of the spikes correctly. That'll look okay, right? Remember, kids, it's not nice to make fun of deformed hedgehogs!

The good news is that I've discovered a few helpful tips to make my Smith more successful!

• Read the pattern correctly. (Apparently I don't take my own advice.)


• Weave in the ends as you go. A little effort now will save you a lot of stress when finished the project!


• Knit the spikes in advance. If you've got space on your needle or have spare needles, you don't have to keep alternating between knitting the body and spikes. In my case, I'm using DPNs, so I was able to knit 4 spikes before going back to the body!
  

Hopefully, these tips will help somebody else avoid hedgehog deformity!