Mod Squad Saga

Greetings, Warm Hands folk! Here's the happy saga of a UFO redeemed.

At Stitches East eons ago, I bought a Charlotte's Web kit. I cast on, worked through the first color change, then stalled out. Time passed; the UFO remained. In an attempt to get un-stalled, I joined the Charlotte's Web KAL. Other starters became happy finishers in due time; not I. UFO gloom descended.

Then came a fortunate synchronicity. Bob saw me bicycling roundabout Exit 151 and noted that he had nice ragg mittens whilst I (a known knitter) was sporting fleece gloves. Gah. While still smarting from that remark, I saw a singleton Fanning the Flame mitten at Elegant Ewe, which had just had a class on modular knitting. Smitten by the mitten, I called in the mod squad for the most drastic of mods.

First, Charlotte came off the needle...



and went to the frog pond.



Here's the new pattern and the old yarn. After some experimentation, I've discovered that my ball winder works better without the swift, or at least it produces the nice, soft, compressible yarn cakes I prefer by winding directly from the hank or even from spaghetti.



The mitten is constructed from fan modules worked top down, which cleverly form an organic curve at the top of the mitten and wrap around the hand. One gets a lot of practice slipping sts and picking up sts with this pattern! (The excellent coil-less safety pin st markers/holders are from my excellent SP6 pal.) I decided to use the apricot multi for the mitten and save the blue multi for something else.



Following the suggestion of Elegant Ewe staff, I'm using different Koigu colorways for the center modules and the side modules. It's hard to tell from the photo, but one yarn (#314) is apricot and olive and the other (#319) is olive and apricot.

I'm amazed and delighted at the way the fans show off the variegated yarns. Something about the curves tames unseemly pooling and flashing. Could this be one of the great secrets of the knitting universe? It's hip to be square – not!