Who knew it would only take a dare... Wannietta put the challenge out in the comments on the last post - Well, if you've known me for any length of time, you know I've eaten my share of bugs as a kid, climbed trees they said I couldn't (yes, this was the cause of at least one skull x-ray), and skied where I shouldn't have (no, I don't ski anymore - that caused a few more x-rays and plaster wristers). But don't start daring me to finish everything! Even I have limits...
But every now and then, a dare seems to work:
Tracy asked me about these - where did I get the pattern, what yarn am I using, whether or not she should stop reading me since she wants to make what I'm making... The pattern is sort of cobbled together - I got the idea from Fluffy Knitter Deb - she got the pattern from someone else and made some modifications which I really liked, so I made them. Hey, look at that! I just checked Deb's site, and I guess she has had numerous comments about the pattern that she has written it up with the mods she made. Look here. Now, my modifications from her modifications... I used Koigu KPPPM in the incredibly well named colourway of P716 in dye lot 42. Well done Koigu - it really gives you an idea of the colours... I also used 3mm needles. The nice thing about this pattern is that the ribbing allows for different sizes of yarn and needles - I could have made these smaller, but the ribbing pulls them in nicely, and the 4mm's made quick work of them! This yarn is delicious - nice and sproingy, and soft as all get out! I used the paired long tail cast on - Elizabeth - you are genius!
It looks fabulous, and is nice and stretchy for this 2x2 rib. Way better than my usual cable cast on. I kept the thumb increases as per the original - 18 stitches increased between the ribs and 4 cast on over the thumb opening. I basically knit the thumb until it was a length I liked - just the tip of my thumb sticking out. Once I put the thumb stitches on a thread, I picked up the two stitches that were taken up from the thumb. The thumb join is nice and neat. I'm not sure if this is a factor of the pattern, or just dumb luck on my part. I'm not normally known for my tidy thumb joins. Maybe that's why I never make the second one... The overall length of them is good - at the top, it just stops short of covering my pinky. The cuff length could be shortened a bit - If I had taken out and inch and half or so, I could have got two wristers out of one ball. As they stand, I dug into the second ball a bit. Of course this leaves me with less than one ball of the Koigu, but I will make more of these (with different mods, probably) and will pair what's left of this with something that coordinates. The joys of a large stash - there's always SOMETHING that coordinates... Now, if you need a pattern that walks you through stitch by stitch, row by row - this may not be for you. It assumes that you can figure out where and when to place the increases and the braided motif. (Which, by the way, I LOVE!) Hey, I'm just impressed that I finished a pair. I'm on a roll - I wonder if I can find the Wellington Fibres fair isle mitten...
4 comments:
Whoa, those are great! Are you wearing them today? Don't fret over those thumb joins. All the mitten/glove books have tips on how to deal with them. They are a part of finger life.
And your noting how helpful Koigu's numbering system really helps in the colour deciphering department is pretty funny.
Awesome - I'm glad that I helped a titchy bit!! (I'm a sucker for picking up any gauntlet that gets thrown down too)
Great mitts!!! And I'm sure they are very helpful, given the Deep Freeze in your area.
No matter how hard I've tried, I still (0 for 3) can't get a thumb join without a gap. So there's been fudging with the sewing-up yarn.
Paired L/T cast-on? Is this different than the one I know, which uses two strands of yarn, either both ends of one skein or one from 2 skeins?
Now I'm off to FluffyKnitterDeb to check on the pattern.
Oh those are impressive and beautiful! I can see why you were getting requests.
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