Just Sayin....

I received a nice complement on another blog a few days ago. Someone wrote that my bind off on the “Fetching” mitts was very “neat.” I looked at the picture again and considered why it looks so neat. And so ensues yet another of my off-the-wall theories, and even more off-the-wall advice.

When the pattern says, “Bind off in pattern,” as this pattern does, I mostly ignore those instructions—across the board! I did try to bind off in the rib pattern, and it didn’t look right to me. Due to the comment about the bind off being “neat,” I realized that there are two ways to look at this subject:

Whenever I want the pattern carried all the way to the end of the knitting so it is decorative, I bind off in pattern. But when I want a nice clean line that doesn’t wave, curl, or generally get in the way, I bind off straight as I did with “Fetching.”

Another tip I might share is always use a size larger needle to bind off. Then there is no tight edge to your mitts, or hat, or whatever. I also cast on with a size larger needle to give stretch to the edge. Just sayin….

I can’t stop without sharing my latest FO’s which are, or course, TA-DA—hats. Am I in a rut, or what? These are legal though—I said I wasn’t going to make any more hats for me. These are Christmas gifts, so they don’t count among the umpteen thousand I have made for my finally-growing-hair head.

I made the green hat using the old standard Jayne Cobb pattern. I am also making four in the original orange-beige-burgundy Jayne hat colors. I will package them with a card bearing the quote from Wash in Firefly, “A man walks down the street in that hat, people know he’s not afraid of anything.” Can’t wait to see the reactions on Christmas morning!

And, so goes the knitting. I plan to make more frequent postings a New Year’s resolution. I hope it goes better than most of my resolutions go!