Tuesday, March 01, 2005

A final photo of the Komi mittens & When Dye Attacks!

This isn't bruising... it's the result of not rinsing the dyed yarn properly. :( Or maybe it wasn't heated long enough? I'm concerned the dark turquoise yarn will run and stain the light yarn when the finished mittens are washed. Now that the cuff is done I'll knit up a test swatch with the two yarns and wash that with some vinegar to see what happens. If the dye stains the light blue yarn then I'll have to halt the mittens and wash the dark turq yarn again and wait for it to dry, what fun.





You can see how I hold the yarn in my left hand, the dye has marked its path: over the index finger, under the middle finger, over the ring finger, under the pinky. There's dye on my thumb because I purl using my thumb and I was doing a K2P2 rib for the mitten cuff. (I know there are some other thumb purlers out there but I haven't met any in person.)

The first pair of Komi mittens are done, here's the final photo. I blocked one of the mittens inside out as the "Mostly Mittens" book suggests and it does make a difference. Not better or worse, just a noticeable difference.



2 comments:

grumperina said...

You're so good to knit up a test swatch first. You know the rest of us would just "wing it" and end up with a bluish mess.

I have also never seen a thumb purler, but now I know they exist! Some purl with the help of their middle finger, but I just use my index finger for everything. The result of which is that it complains after prolonged knitting :).

Anonymous said...

I realize this is an older post-- I was searching on komi mittens and came upon this. I have to tell you -- I'm a thumb purler, too. We exist! ;)