Lame Mitten

This mitten has been languishing in the gigantic UFO parking lot hidden at the top of the house. After my attempt at Elizabeth Zimmerman's Norwegian mittens failed so miserably, I bought a mitten book with a laudable, but ambitious and ultimately doomed to failure of an idea: I would start with the easy mittens and work my way through the book. Good idea. Great way to learn to knit. Trouble is - I hate simple mittens. I'm trying to think of words to describe the mitten above: worthy, numb and naff spring to mind.

So why did I even cast on for the second one? If I felt so negative about one ethnic mitten, whatever made me think two ethnic mittens would be a good idea? In fact they've been cluttering up a basket for months now - but today they meet their doom! I want the Pingouin yarn for the Aran cabled shrug and it will tidy up my stash. I might have to dig out and trash a few more UFOs - they are depressing things to have about the place. Tangible reminders of what a rubbish knitter I am!

The theory wasn't altogether bad - I have made a better job of the easier mitten, although if you look closely you can see that the thumb is green instead of the background colour and the pattern has gone wonky in a couple of places.

My cabling has gone wrong a few times on the shrug as well - but I have seen the answer on the Internet - highlighter tape! What a great idea. It's like a cross between Post its and a highlighter pen. You lay a row of tape over your chart - and move it up one row as you knit. But because it's transparent, you can see where you have been. I have tried using paper and rulers but always have to move them to see what's underneath. I'm going to buy some this week - but the knitting store that sells them also sells wooden needles, which I want to try. So, I might decide what my next project is going to be, swatch for it, then send off for the wooden needles at the same time as the tape - all in the interests of saving postage, of course.