Ten Mile Milestone

The other day, my ravelry yardage knitted total surpassed ten miles. I wonder how many stitches it takes to knit ten miles of yarn? 17,600 yards. How big would that skein be? It’s pretty crazy to consider. It’s also crazy to consider that I’ve knit a lot more than that but didn’t record the yardage, even after I joined rav.

Where has ten miles of knitting gotten me? On one hand, I think I’m a pretty experienced knitter. I’ve made a ton of different kinds of projects (ie, I’m not a “niche” knitter), some on the complicated side. I’m not afraid of lace, seaming, socks, doing gauge swatches, picking up stitches, dpns, blocking, intarsia, etc. On the other hand, there’s a number of projects and techniques I’ve never done that I’d like to try, like Fair Isle, adult sized sweaters, double knitting, more complicated brioche, steeking and knitting on a border, to name just a few. And more socks!!

My flurry of test knits continues. I’ve really enjoyed doing them. For starters, test knitting pushes me to choose projects I might not otherwise have picked, just by virtue of what’s available. Also, it’s a really good outlet for the detail oriented side of me. I love editing and proofreading, and test knitting is like the yarn-based version of those. As my daughter would say, “win win window”!

The last test knit I completed was my Caput Snood (not available yet) by Gabrielle Danskknit. This is the third test I’ve done for her. The others were the Tunbridge Hat and Vik Beach Hat. I made the child size out of two colors of Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick & Quick that I had on hand from a thrift store purchase. Total yardage for the snood was 99 with an additional 20 yards for a giant tassel. I added a button at the front of the neck to help keep it snug. It’s for my daughter’s bestie but I tried it on my daughter in order to get some pics.

I also finished the other hat for the same recipient. At long last, the Pretty Crabby hat is done and gifted! Again, I had my daughter model it so I could get pics. I used aran weight stash acrylic, none of which had any ball bands. I used the Jumbo Crab Cap pattern from Baby Beasties: monster mittens, hats & other knits for babies and toddlers by Debby Ware but I modified it heavily. My notes on that are on my ravelry project page, linked above.

It was such a tedious knit that I wasn’t expecting to like the finished result much. However…how cute is that?? I think it’s awesome! I would not recommend the book the pattern came from, though. I didn’t find the patterns to be well written or the finished items pictured to look very, well, finished. I like my version much better!

I guess that’s where ten miles of knitting gets you: to the point where you can use past experience to improve current projects. My modifications to the crab hat relied heavily on the Earbud Pouch pattern as well as knitty.com’s Kureyon Kozy pattern.

Here’s to the next ten miles. Happy knitting!

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