Persevering in the Face of Adversity

I found the Elizabeth Zimmermann reference about knitting more than one part of a project at the same time. It was in Knitting Without Tears, under her discussion of needles. She notes that she likes to have two 16" circulars so she can work the sleeves simultaneously. I suppose I took this to an extreme when, briefly, I had all four pieces of the Perfect Sweater going at once. As a method, it certainly is speeding along the mitered squares afghan - a project I had begun to think would not be completed until my children reached advanced old age.

It makes sense, then, to cast on the second Endpaper Mitt, doesn't it? Of course it does. All kinds of benefits arise. I get to do the Italian Tubular Cast-On again, which I think is great fun, now that I understand that the purpose of the "tail" is to anchor a loop, which is why it stays behind the needle, and that alternating which side the yarn comes from is how the anchoring is done - trust me on this. Or, if you are of a skeptical mind-set, scroll down and watch the video at Fluffbuff. How cool is that?

I get to reinforce my M1L/M1R increase strategy. It takes a lot of repetition to get things into my Long Term Memory these days. 36 mirror image increases should just about do it.

I get to compare mistakes with corrections. Here we come to the true-confessions part of this post. All through the pattern, the instructions refer to when to use the Main Color, and when to use the Contrast Color. Cuff ribbing? Main color. Central pattern motif? Main color. Background pattern elements? Contrast color.

Behold the original mitt. Using the above criteria, the main color is black, wouldn't you say? That would make the contrast color blue-green. The pattern specifies a fake seam made by purling at the sides with the main color. Say it with me now: Main Color Is Black. Do we all see where this is heading?

Why, despite all the evidence to the contrary, have I been convinced that my main color is the blue-green? Resulting, of course, in a blue-green line down the sides of my mitt, instead of a black one.

No question. Time to start the second one.

Feh. Fraternal Endpaper mitts. On the other hand (no pun intended, at least not originally), it will satisfy my now burning curiosity to see what they would look like had I done them right.