Now that I’ve given these wristwarmers to their recipient, I can talk about the process of making them. Prior to making these, I’d never used double-pointed needles or knit cables before.  I considered signing up to take a class on using double-pointed needles, but I did some Internet research and it really didn’t look all that hard. I figured I could teach myself like I’ve done with everything else.  

At first, using the double-pointed needles felt a little unwieldy, especially the first inch or so of each glove. I had a few false starts while I was trying to figure out how to use them, but I was able to catch on pretty quick.  Apparently, there’s a lot of grumbling in the knitting world about how double point knitting is a pain, but I really enjoyed it. I liked how having the stitches broken up across 3 needles gave me 3 places to recognize if I’d gotten thrown off my p2, k2 pattern (i.e. I knew at the end of each needle, I needed to end with k or p, and if I didn’t, then I had messed up).  So much better than finding out at the end of a 72 stitch row that you got off pattern at some point.

I thought the cable knitting was going to be difficult, but I was surprised at how easy that was. It’s such an easy thing to do, but so gratifying in looks! The pattern says to pick up the stitch on the cable needle and “hang it in front of the work.”  I assumed that meant the outside of my knitting piece, but I was wrong. Apparently, in front of the work means behind the knitting (in front of me). Still the terminology doesn’t make sense to me, but I should know by now to not assume I understand a new thing when it comes to knitting. I noticed that the cables were not forming and I was like what up? I looked it up on the net and realized what “in front of” really meant and had to start over (though I had only knit a few rows by that point). That was really the only snafu I encountered with learning to cable knit.

The biggest issue I had with this project came with making the thumb gusset. I found the pattern a little confusing at this point, but I think that is user error, not the pattern maker’s. I didn’t understand that when I increased a stitch, I should only count the increased stitch as a stitch, and not assume that m1 (make increase) in the pattern applied to the two stitches that you end up with when you increase. When it said to m1, I would finish up the two stitches and then move on to the next direction (p1). What you’re actually supposed to do is make the increase stitch and then apply the next direction to the original stitch that you based your increase off of. So, my count was getting off and I had to redo it like twice before I posted a question on the pattern maker’s page and got help on figuring it out. Frustrating, that kind of thing, but that’s how you get experience.  Every project I do, I get better at pattern reading. Honestly, for me, pattern reading is the hardest part of knitting. I like to use the exact yarn they recommend so I don’t even have to mess with trying to figure out the gauge. Lazy, but easier!

There are a few errors in the gloves I made. On the first glove, the row of twisted cable gets a little off near the thumb. This is because I somehow ended up increasing an extra stitch and then just knit two together when I realized it (didn’t have the heart to try and go back to fix the mistake as that usually results in me starting over - I really need to learn more about fixing mistakes – I have a weakness in that area.). Luckily, it’s on the bottom of the glove and not too noticeable. On that same glove, there’s a stitch that got a little messed up on the thumb gusset and I find it glaringly apparent, but when I try to look at it objectively, it’s minor. The second glove was more successful and didn’t really have much in the way of mistakes. Yaye!

If you already know how to use double-pointed needles and how to cable knit, this is a quick and easy project. Once I figured out the hang of the new skills, I was able to whip up the gloves pretty quickly. Not counting my trial and error and learning time, I would say that the actual knitting was around 2 -3 hours/glove.  I definitely think I will use the pattern again to make myself a pair. 

Photo of the end result forthcoming.

This article really articulated things I’ve intuitively known about myself for awhile, but never put my finger on.  It basically talks about blanket praise for children and how that can really shape how they approach everything.  The studies mentioned in the article are very persuasive in selling the idea that specific praise for a specific task makes a child feel more in control of their performance than blanket praise like “You’re so smart!” which seems to imply that they have an innate aptitude with a limit.

Of particular interest, I thought, was the study conducted at Life Sciences Secondary School in East Harlem (mentioned towards the bottom of page 2).  It’s really incredible that a 50 minute lesson can have such a profound impact. And yet, the more I learn in life, the more I realize that real change starts with the small things. I often shut down at the prospect of enacting a big change because it seems so overwhelming to completely overhaul something – I have to remind myself to just pick one place to start and deal with each piece in turn. 

It also mentions how “expending effort becomes stigmatized—it’s public proof that you can’t cut it on your natural gifts.”I remember a lot of talk about kids in college who “had to” study to get better grades, when I could just skate by with A’s and B’s without putting in a lot of work. I never looked at it the right way. I didn’t look at it as them putting forth effort to succeed and me being afraid of failure, but that makes a lot of sense now. Instead, I just looked at it as proof that I was innately smarter, which is incredibly condescending, but ultimately self-defeating and damaging to my own success. The article further points out that those kids who were always told how smart they are are reticent to do anything that they aren’t good at right away because they don’t want to fail. Um, yes, that sounds familiar.

I remember all through school always being praised as one of the smart kids, for being of special intelligence. I have never given a lot of thought before to how accepting my intelligence as a given fact might have affected my performance in school, work, life. As I get older, I start to accept parts of myself as just “that’s who I am” and I forget that very little of my personality is innate and that much of it was based on a variety of experiences and circumstances. Whenever I remember this, I find the idea both powerful and scary. It’s powerful to believe that I can change and become a better person. But, if that’s true, then I feel scared and anxious that I’m accountable for how I act and can’t just write it off as “that’s me.”

Anyway, it’s pretty rare that a newspaper article can be so eye-opening, but this one really made a lot of sense to me, both in general and personally.  Pretty cool.

I’ve always been interested in names. Maybe it’s a girl thing or something, but since I was at least 11 or 12 I’ve had a running list in my head of names I like. I don’t think about them much, they’re just sitting there in a dusty filing cabinet. Occasionally, I’ll open the drawer to add a new one or remove an old one.

One way this name interest manifests itself is that if I hear an unusual name for the first time, I conduct my own popularity study on it by checking out the work address book. It’s a really big sample population, so it’s a great way to see how in use a given name is. I always feel particularly successful at this game when I find a name that occurs in a very small sample set or not at all. You’d be surprised at how many names occur at least once in there.  

Another name game I play is tripping out on my own name. Like I’ll start thinking about how this one word is my label and that for people I know, it evokes my entire personality. And I’ll repeat my name over and over in my head and realize how nonsensical it sounds and yet I have my entire identity invested in those four little letters. I don’t know how to explain this whole thought pattern very well, but it has a powerful affect on me. I actually make a point to not play this little game too often because I don’t want to “wear out” its power. I know, totally bizarre.

I have some strict name policies which I don’t expect others to adhere too but which I consider important. I do not, under any circumstances, like made-up spellings. Alternative historical spellings are fine, but made up spellings, ESPECIALLY if it’s a real word, drive me crazy. I love when there are so many y and x replacements in a name that it takes you a  minute to realize what the name is if you’re reading it. Why would you inflict that on someone?

 When I read a book, one of the first things I think about is the characters’ names. In particular, I have a pet peeve with modern books that have adult characters with names that have only come into vogue in the last few years (such as Madison or Zoe). Even if I like the name in general, I find the mismatch of it very jarring. I mean, really, do you know anyone over the age of 10 with the name Madison? So why should this book character have it when it doesn’t match at all with the generational context? I don’t mind completely unusual names in a book for the most part, just not when they are too twee or clever (JK Rowlings gets into the clever names a bit too much for my liking, e.g. Professor Lupin is a werewolf!).   

Another thing I think about is nicknames. I’m not talking about a standard nickname that you go by as a shortening of your existing name (although, baby-sis/bro-couldn’t-pronounce-it bastardizations I do like). I’m talking about those lovely endearing family or specific friend group or significant other nicknames that arose from some random occurrence and just stuck. And sometimes you can’t even remember where it came from in the first place. I love those. Though, it’s uncomfortable when someone tries to force one of those on people all willy nilly (“call me rane!”) and you’re like, what!?you can’t make up your own nickname! The thing that makes a nickname so pleasing is that it happens organically.

Anyway, when I start thinking about names, I can get really absorbed into the various topics surrounding names and naming very easily. I’ll leave you with one last story. My sister is named Suzanne Erin. I was 11 when she was born and I picked Erin. Why? Because the boy I had a crush on was named Aaron. Thankfully, I still like the name fine, but sheeit, never let an 11 year old name a kid. That’s why babies having babies usually have babies with weird names. Oh, and of course, this site is awesome.