snowflakes

Not THOSE snowflakes, though we certainly have plenty around this morning.

The title refers to the state of my efforts to knit a pair of anything lately. No two are alike! Take the socks I started during the Summer of Socks '09. When I went back to finish the toe on the second sock, a quick comparison revealed a big difference between the two:

The top toe was knit during our vacation, during which I presumably should have been relaxed. I had to rip out the second toe and knit as tightly as I could to even come close to the dimensions of the first one.

The finished (finally!) socks show a big difference as well. I don't want to wish a set of non-matching calves on anyone, especially my mom, but clearly she will be more comfortable if they are slightly different dimensions.

I had the same problem with a pair of mittens I just made for Terzo. (As an aside: I can't even explain the amount of pleasure it gave me when he announced that he needed a new hat and mittens, and then asked me in the next breath when we could go to the yarn store so he could select what he wanted. The color is all him. He wandered the store until he found what he considered to be the perfect shade of orange, and the yarn, Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride, was a dream to work with.)

I made these mittens back to back, in the space of one week. I counted and counted the rows and decreases to make sure they matched. Thank goodness it doesn't seem to bother him. Although he has complained bitterly that the hat is itchy (just after he pronounced it "perfect"), he has yet to complain that one mitten is a different size than the other.