Directional Knits

This is a set of accessories that I knitted off-and-on for the past year or more… I started out with a scarf, knitted the long way, on a long circular needle. This is actually a really fast way to knit a scarf, because you knit fewer, longer, rows, and there is less turning. At the end of each row, I cut the yarn and joined a new one – automatic fringe, and best of all, no ends to weave in!

I had bought this green fuzzy yarn many years before, way before I even learned how to knit. I think I bought it around the time that those “tube scarves” first appeared, thinking I would learn how to knit and knit a tube scarf, like the one my co-worker’s aunt had knitted her… Little did I know how learning to knit would open up such a new world of creativity and fashion… I still haven’t made a tube scarf!

Next came the hat. I knitted this hat “on the bias,” inspired by a pattern I saw in a book. You increase on one edge and decrease on the other, to make a diagonal stripe. It’s a bit tricky to plan and estimate yarn, so I knitted up a parallelogram and ran out of yarn before it was big enough to go around my head… at this point, summer came along and I wasn’t motivated to knit a fuzzy wool hat, let alone one that had to be unraveled and started over!

So, this winter I got out the hat and re-worked it. I had an extra skein of the multi-colored yarn – the fancy Japanese kind that gradually changes color from one end of the skein to the other with no repeats!

I decided to make fingerless mitts out of it, from a pattern in Weekend Knitting. Because I just had the one skein, I knew the colors would be different on each mitt. So, I decided to capitalize on this and do stripes from different sections of the yarn skein. The pattern, unlike typical accessory (sock and glove) construction, has you knit these sideways, from wrist to knuckles.

They are a wool-silk blend and very stretchy and warm.

The three items, along with having the yarns in common, are each knitted in an unconventional direction. I’m very pleased with how they came out. It also felt good to wrap up a project that had been on the back burner for awhile. If you run into trouble with a project, it’s a good idea to tuck it away and ignore it for awhile – when you come back you’ll feel like you have a fresh start!