bsag's micro blog

After making a hat with the brioche knitting technique, I reckoned that I had enough yarn left over to make a pair of matching(ish) mittens. After searching for a pattern which would work with my yarn and was interesting but not too difficult, I settled on The Geoscientist’s Mittens by Sabine Kastner.

I’ve made a start now, and after a few minor errors, I think it is going relatively smoothly (though maybe ask me again when I get to the thumbs!). I always find starting a pattern really difficult. For the first few rows, I feel like I’m guessing about whether the stitches are right. It always looks like a complete mess, and it is only after a few rows as the pattern builds up that you can begin to see that — for example — you are going to knit the single orange stitches on a ‘b’ round and slip the blue ones. Repetition makes this structure much more evident, both physically (in the knitted fabric) and mentally (as you remember the pattern of stitches from last time).

At this point, you can start to use the pattern as more of a reminder than a rope on to which to you cling for dear life, and the knitting becomes a lot more enjoyable!

I didn’t get myself organised enough to participate in the November 30 day blogging challenge, so when @macgenie announced the February Photoblogging Challenge, I was determined to give it a go.

I posted my 30th photo today and got my pin, and I’ve really enjoyed participating. February in a northern temperate region is a bit of a challenge for photography, as it is not properly light when I leave for work and nearly dark when I get home. I ended up using a mixture of photos taken on the day and those from my archive. They certainly haven’t always been my best work, and on occasion I had to scrabble around to find something (anything!) relevant to the prompt word, but it has been an enjoyable challenge.

Each day, I went around with the prompt word in my head, looking for things that might fit. As a consequence, I think I have looked at things more this month — and in a more creative way — than I usually do, and that has made it all worthwhile. I’ve also really enjoyed looking at other people’s photos and seeing how they have interpreted the prompts. Thanks to @macgenie and @manton for setting us a fun challenge!

At the weekend, I finished knitting a hat using brioche knitting. I practiced initially by making a fingerless mitt, but this was my first proper item. This style of knitting creates a double faced fabric, because you knit each row twice, slipping alternate stitches with a yarn over on one round and then knitting (or purling) them on the next round.

I’ve actually found it easier doing two colour brioche as used here, as it is a visible reminder about which round you are on, and makes it easier to follow the structure of the stitch. It also makes a reversible item, as you can see below (this is theoretically the inside). It also makes a very warm and squishy fabric, particularly using merino yarn as I have here.

I made quite a few mistakes with this hat. In fact, I had knitted a good 7 cm before I realised that I had made a very visible error, and because it is so difficult to fix these things with brioche, I just ripped it all back to the plain ribbing and started again.

I’m pretty pleased with the end result though. When you wear it, the fabric stretches and the orange inner ribbing peeks through the outer blue ribs.