Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Damage

I feel like such a ninny. Mom warned me about putting my mitts on top of the woodstove to warm them. She said they might get hurt. This is old news to some of my Ravelry buddies, but I actually succeeded in burning a hole in my nice, warm Noro Evangelines. How? By putting them on top of the woodstove to warm before I put them on my hands. Naturally, I managed to put them on the hottest part of the stovetop.
This leaves me with a dilemma: the burnt mitt has unsightly brown scorch marks on it, so do I somehow frog what remains of it and knit the yarn into something else, or do I toss it and knit another mitt--assuming I can dig up another ball of yarn in the right colorway, or do I toss them both and knit a new pair with some wonderful new yarn?
The options for the latter will likely not include Malabrigo. I've found that it pills quite badly after less than two months of wear; mom's mitts are in bad shape and either need to be plucked or shaved to rid them of all the little bits of fuzz. Otherwise, the list will probably be something like this:
1. Frog Tree Merino Worsted. This is iffy since it's a softly spun single that might well pill as badly as the Malabrigo. The upshot is that it's soft and probably won't itch.
2. Noro Kureyon. Doesn't pill horrendously, even after two years of heavy winter wear. It does, however, itch a little.
3. Patons Classic Wool. Not too itchy, not too soft, and probably won't pill as badly since it's plied.
4. KnitPicks Wool of the Andes Worsted. Also plied and neither too soft nor too itchy. It does pill, at least in the form of sweaters, but might be well suited to something like mitts.
5. Bartlett Yarns Fisherman 3-ply. This might be too itchy for mitts...

Wow. I have less in the way of worsted yarn than I thought I did. Lots of sock yarn, lots of lace yarn, but where did all my worsted go? O.o

1 comment:

RaeS said...

Oh, what a bummer! If it were me, and the scorch marks and holes weren't too bad, I'd probably try to repair the damaged parts with left over yarn. If that wouldn't work, I'd take one of the other options you've got.

If you need more suggestions for yarn to use, if you do end up having to make new mitts... I haven't tried it for myself yet (though I have some planned), but I've made three pairs of mitts out of Mirasol Qina in the past year. It's baby alpaca and bamboo, and while it did shed when I knit with it, according to my one friend who has worn her mitts a lot, it doesn't pill. I haven't seen the mitts I made her recently, but according to her description, they've been surprisingly hardwearing.

Good luck!