My Rainbow Heart by Stephanie Lotven: silk, wool, and ladders, oh my

How to choose something to start? I am still rather obsessed with wool and silk blend yarn after Goldfinch, so, I bought some Manos Del Uruguay Fino at Tint in Falls Church, VA. Fino is a 70% wool and 30% yarn that is a light fingering weight. 

I spent even more time searching on Ravelry for a great pattern to use up my mini-skein pack. Here are the choices I managed to whittle it down to 

 Walk the Miles shawl by Casey Day-Crosier
https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/walk-the-miles

 On the Spice Market shawl by Melanie Berg
https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/on-the-spice-market

 My Rainbow Heart handwarmers by Stephanie Lotven
https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/my-rainbow-heart

 My last two projects have been shawls, so I decided to use this time wisely to try something new and learn a new technique.

 I have always wanted to knit a pair of handwarmers, and I’ve always wanted to learn the two-at-a-time magic loop technique. 

 Well, this project just cannot seem to go right for me. Even after watching multiple tutorials, I am having magic loop issues, so, I got out my trusted DPNs and began knitting away. No swatch, because why would I need a swatch for handwarmers? I have made some progress, but they are probably too small, and, I am getting ladders even though I am tugging. I have made a million hats on DPNs and never have gotten ladders. Why me!

I’m sure I’ll work it out, but, it is slow going.