Finished Mitts

The mittens are finished!

Yarn: Misti Alpaca Baby Me Boo Aran weight.

Needles: 4mm dpns.

Pattern: 36 Stitch Mittens by Elizabeth Zimmermann, in Knitting Without Tears

Mods: The results are fine - very wearable - but with some not so great points. They are too baggy (I did get gauge). The thumb is that awful restrictive unnaturally positioned one at the front of the palm. The weaving at the top is a little awkward. I would tweak this pattern a lot if I were to make it again. I would do it in DK instead of aran, to get snugger mitts. I would add a thumb gusset. I would try different grafting methods at the top, to see if it’s tidier.

Back 2 School

It's late August. The sun is starting to fall below the horizon earlier. The rain is starting to pelt us a bit. The wind is chillier. All signs that it's ... back to school time! I had this idea of bringing myself back to school in a knitty way - and who better to guide you through how to knit everything than the great Elizabeth Zimmermann herself? I thought that if I just knit everything in one of her books, that then, then I would know so much more about knitting, that I would have a qualification, of sorts.

I hadn't even heard of EZ until last year, when the Brilliant Becca told me about her (thank you! I miss you!). She lent me her copy of The Opinionated Knitter, and by the time I'd returned home from Wednesday-morning-knitting-group that day, I'd been online and ordered myself some EZ-for-me. I got the Almanac first (above) and Knitting Without Tears (below). I love the idea of the Almanac the most - your knitting year laid out before you, all neat and tidy. This was the book I wanted to work through the most, but I was (as were the other blogging contributors here, who I approached very swiftly when the idea of Zimmerversity struck) daunted by the fact that January's project = an Aran sweater. Oh! The complex and fiery relationship us modern Irish knitters bear with that garment!

So, we blew the idea wi-ide open. A few clicks later, there was a blogspot set up. We're still adding contributors, so if you want to knit some stuff from EZ's books, and throw up a few pictures and words about it here, fire a comment below!

Rules are stressful and crap, so here are the anti-rules:

1. you should have access to a book or pattern by EZ
2. there's no time limit for knitting anything - take as long as you like to join in
3. there's no specific order of garments - knit what you like from whatever book you like, whenever
4. there's no rule about x amount of posts - post once a month, or twice a day - whatever
5. shove your nickname in your post as a 'label' (down at the bottom, in the little box) so they're all collected nicely in the sidebar

Take your seats, open your books, sharpen those needles - class is now in session.