Two At A Time

Here's the thing about making stuff that comes in pairs: it's hard to make them exactly the same.  Even if you count rows/rounds meticulously, there's still a margin of error.  I usually do pretty well but there's always slight differences.  A stitch or two, a row or two...they fit differently.  I finished Mom's mitts the other night and the difference is a lot more than normal.  I'm a little bit upset about it, to be honest.

The wine colored fingerless mitts I made are pretty good.  My mitts have a row difference that I only notice sometimes.  I remember when I made the BFF's mittens the first time around, one was a couple of rows longer than the other.  

There's a way to almost eliminate this.  When you are making something that there are two of--mitts, socks, sleeves--you can knit them both at the same time.  This way, you are essentially working the same row on each thing at the same time.  I've only tried it once before, when I was playing with sock yarn, and ended up accidentally using the wrong ball of yarn, so that I connected the socks.  Frustrated, I tossed it aside and have only worked one at a time since.

But seeing the difference in Mom's mitts...and remembering the difference in the first pair of BFF mitts...I decided to give it a go again.  I tried.  God knows, I tried.  But I couldn't seem to get my needles sorted and everything kind of got completely frustrating and It just all fell apart.  And then, I thought I had gotten it all set, only to realize I had screwed up the pattern on the second row and hand to pull one out and that I would be much slower when I had to switch back and forth between the different balls of yarn.  And I was worried that I would get into a rhythm and just...forget to pick up the right yarn.  At that point, I decided it was much easier--and sanity saving--to just make one at a time.  

Though I admittedly sometimes feel like a failure when I can't manage to master a simple technique like making two mitts at one time, I also know that I'm a pretty good knitter and I make beautiful things.  So I've got my trusty click-action row counter, and I'll pay attention, and hopefully, things will work out like they are supposed to.  Wish me luck!