Friday 30 January 2009

Esme Johnson Prize



I've finally sent off my fingerless mittens to Yarn magazine. It's way to hot to be thinking about mittens. (For all you who don't know, we're on the.....I think it's the fourth day of 40deg C with minimal relief (down to 35deg C on Saturday) (38deg C is 100deg F)) I haven't posted on Etsy for a couple of days, so it's a great effort to get these off.

I was very happy with the final result. They are beautiful and just what I wanted for this project.


They definitely needed blocking. The pictures really show you what a difference blocking can make.
One of the things I also did, for my own curiousity, was to time how long it took me to knit the second mitten. Having the pattern established, I thought it might be interesting.
It took around 5hours and 40minutes. (I used my mobile phone stopwatch to time me, so it's a bit too accurate!). This means that to knit these would take around 10 to 11 hours. Not taking into account the time it takes to block, then sew on buttons, this is a long time. I have done a rough costing, but I'll leave it to your imagination. How much do you earn an hour, or would like to earn an hour?
I know I've said it before, but the moral: if someone gives you something handmade, treasure it, it's a priceless gift of love.


1 comment:

Leonie said...

Wow, blocking made a huge difference. They look great, good luck with the prize. Try not to melt!!