Yarn Pr0n and FO

First, I present to you the finished pair of Fetching (OK, so they still need to be blocked, work with me):



and the view from the palm side:



Look mom, no gaping holes!

Pattern: Fetching from Knitty
Needles: size 3 dpns (I started out with metal needles, Susan Bates I think, but had to switch to bamboo for the last mitt because the metal hurt my hands)
Yarn: one skein of Merino Style from KnitPicks in color Strawberry (I had a few yards left over)
Gauge: unknown, I didn't bother checking and just re-did the first one when it looked way too stretched out
Modifications: I added 5 stitches (total cast on 50 stitches) to help make the mitt wider since it was way overstretched the first time around. I probably could have added another 5 stitches to help with the fact that I have wide hands but then it would have been too loose around my wrist. I also repeated the cable pattern from the bottom on the top mostly because following the pattern would not have reached my knuckles.

Yes, I have freakishly large hands. Luckily for my sister, her hands are only a little smaller than mine so these should fit her perfectly. I liked that the added cables at the top help to keep the mitts snug against my knuckles. Although a regular bind-off would have worked for this pattern, I used the super stretchy k2tbl bind-off. (I have no idea what that bind-off is called but it was the recommended bind-off in the Flower Basket shawl and it gives a nice finish as well.)

Also, it was such a pain to fuss with a cable needle and the dpns that I just decided to do without. It was difficult at first and continued to be a risky endeavor when I was going from one dpn to the next but nothing that couldn't be fixed quickly with a small crochet hook. All-in-all, it was still faster than using the cable needle.

I would definitely make these again. I still have that other skein of Merino Style in the same color so I may be making another pair soon, or at least a variation of these.

Now for what you really want to see, the yarn!

Here is the Opal, 6-ply sock yarn in solid colors from Little Knits:



I like this view better:



Check out the sheen in the sunshine which makes it look even prettier. (I hope that black doesn't fade because it is a nice deep color.)



Only one skein is destined for sock-dom, not sure about the rest. Again, I am hoping that I can get through Eunny's pattern without any major drama. I just couldn't resist the sale and this yarn could be used for so many machine-washable things.

Some evidence of knitting

As I mentioned, I am re-doing the novelty scarf.

Its quite possible that now it is too narrow but I'll keep going for a while and wait to see how I feel about it. That is one of the Balene needles in the work. Again, the needles feel nice but are a little heavy compared to some of my other needles.




Here is the almost finished pair of Fetching gloves. I just undid the bindoff on the first glove and started knitting from it without frogging it all and re-winding into a ball. I should be done tonight. Of course, its isn't likely to get cold again here in FL so I might send these to my sister in MA--she's always cold and could probably get at least another month of wear out of these.

Do-overs

OK, there has been some knitting going on here at the home front but I haven't taken any pictures to post. I'm afraid this will be text-only with pictures to follow at some later date.

First, I now understand the call of armwarmers/wristwarmers/fingerless gloves. They are so quick and satisfying. I was able to finish the first Fetching glove in a weekend. It looked a bit too stretched so when I cast on for the second glove, I added five stitches. I know, I should have checked my gauge but I figured by the time I finished a swatch, I could have made the glove. I already finished the second glove and have started re-doing the first one so that it is the same width. I'm up to the point where I knit with waste yarn for the thumb so should be done by tomorrow.

I was trying to keep my yarn buying to a minimum in 2007 but, um, I just couldn't resist. I bought the shade card and two skeins of Jamieson's Spindrift from Two Swans Yarn. (The service was good and quick. Karen, the owner, seems to have reasonable prices and a wide selection not to mention cool sales every month.) Why the shade card? Because I desperately want to make the Venezia pullover but am thinking I want to change the colors. With all the colors in the original, I wanted to be able to compare the original selection to what I think I want instead. I bought two skeins, in Yellow Ochre and Peacock, to make the Endpaper Mitts and simultaneously get a feel for the yarn. I want to see if the wool will soften enough to really be next-to-the-skin soft. (Let's ignore the fact that I will have little use for a wool sweater in Florida. I can always wear it when I go visiting up north.)

In case you can't tell, I am a big fan of Eunny Jang's designs. So when Little Knits kept sending updates on the sale on Opal sock yarn, I finally gave in and bought some of the solid colored 6-ply yarn. The plan is to make some Bayerische socks and use a couple of skeins in the black color to make a lacy (and machine washable) scarf for my older sister. I hope to have the yarn by next week.

Also motivated by a sale, I have started re-doing the scarf using the novelty yarn. Hubby pointed out some Balene 14" straights on sale at Tuesday Morning. Normally, I wouldn't have bought them because I rarely use straights. However, it was a set of five needles (sizes 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10) for about $6. I've also been on this kick to use as many different kinds of needles as possible to see how they differ and which I like best. I almost bought about $100 worth of needles from JK Needles the other night because I was so in awe of all the different materials and brands. Anyway, I was motivated to re-do the scarf using the new size 10 needles. After only about an hour of knitting, my left wrist hurt badly. I think that compared with my usual needle choice, the 14" straights were just too heavy and my poor little wrist couldn't take it. However, I like the way the Balenes feel. I would probably get their circular needles and dpns. The tips are very similar to the Bryspuns, a nice concave tip that really catches the yarn.

The Alpine Lace scarf has stalled out for now. I didn't finish it in time for my friend's wedding so the frenzy to finish is over. Perhaps after I get the wristwarmers out of my system, I'll be able to focus on it again.

All quiet on the knitting front

The center pattern of the Alpine lace scarf seems to go much faster than the border pattern. However, when combined with a beer or perhaps some wine, it can be much more difficult. Some of you may scoff at using stitch markers, but I find that it makes it real simple for me to keep track of the stitches in a repeat. Well, after a glass (or was it two?) of wine, I was at the inside border part of the pattern and realized that there were only 4 stitches where there were supposed to be 5. I'm feeling daring so I drop down a few rows and see if I can figure out where I lost the stitch. No dice--I couldn't find anything wrong with the pattern. I look at the fabric and can't see where the pattern is off. I put the project away because when all else fails, I tink and I couldn't bear it at the time (maybe it was the blurry vision from the wine).

Anyway, a couple of days later I tinked back a few rows to where I knew for certain that the count was correct. I start knitting the pattern again and get to the inside border again. FYI, when I tinked, I kept the stitch markers in place. Why is this important? Because as I'm knitting and counting stitches, I realized that there had not been a problem with the stitch count. Apparently, while I was handling the fabric the split ring marker got caught up on the neighboring stitch and wound up moving over one. Duh. I thought I had checked the stitch counts for the pattern repeats on each side but apparently not. Needless to say, I needed to step away from the scarf again.

Here it is in its current state:



I think I need something like 30 more repeats to finish the center panel. Yeah, so not going to be done for my friend's wedding this weekend.

This weekend was "cold". It may have even dropped to freezing one night in the town over from us. As a general rule, we put off turning the heat on as long as possible. I would have turned it on this weekend except that we are in the process of upgrading our electric breaker box and hubby had not re-connected the heat pump. So what did I do? Started knitting some Fetching wristwarmers for me. Since its a small enough project, I figured by the time I made a swatch, I would be half done with the actual wristwarmer. My gauge (both row and stitch) is different from the pattern so I needed to add some cable repeats to the top so it would cover my knuckles. I like the way it looks but I'm not crazy about the loose bind off. I might use a less stretchy bind off or perhaps do another cable row and then bind off since the cable row pulls in more than the regular 4x1 ribbing.



I have to admit that the first wristwarmer really isn't wide enough--the hole by the bottom of the thumb is huge when I pull this on and the ribbing is pulled tight. So for the second one, I cast on an extra 5 stitches (50 total) to see if that helps. Considering this endeavor took a couple of nights of work, I think I can motivate to re-knit the first wristwarmer. So far, I'm still only using the first skein so I might be able to get a second pair done from my sister out of the second one.