Clapotis - Manos STyle

It's a work-in-progress, but I like it! I'm a little disappointed that the variegated yarn has so much of the dark blue in it, it makes it hard to see that I'm using a fibonacci stripe sequence :)

Nevermind all of the horrible ends to weave in - I know I should be doing it as I go but I just can't bear to :) I've dropped four stitches so far and it's fun!

I'm loving the pattern, although I keep getting so caught up in it that I forget to pay attention to my striping - I've unknit too many rows to count ;)

I like the yarn, but it dries my hands out something fierce. I also think there's something in it that I'm allergic to, but I'm not sure. I'm hoping a good wash will fix that because this puppy is for ME! Theoretically it's something *in* the yarn and not the wool itself as I haven't had problems with wool in the past. I had a terrible sneezing fit when I put on my wool jacket this morning too (it was 33 degrees out! brrrrr), again I'm hoping it just needs a cleaning/

I love-love-love this colorway. 

Fetching, Take Two

Here's the second pair of Fetching I made - finished in the car on the way to the wedding where they were gifts :) I actually do like the striping, and I'm glad I lengthened them ever so slightly. 

Halloween Fun!

I have a bunch of leftover orange yarn (Cascade 220) after finishing Leif's longies, and I ran across this great pumpkin pattern from CurlyPurly. It is a really simple, basic pattern that is easily adaptable so I pulled out my sz 5 DPNs and got to work. This took me about an hour or so. I followed the pattern for the most part with a few modifications.

To start, I cast on 28 stitches and k3, kf&b for the first row. This set me up with the 35 stitches I needed to work the k4, p1 pattern. I worked this for 25 rows and then worked a decrease row - k3, k2tog. Then I pulled the end through the stitches and pulled tight. I stuffed with some wool scraps (and some absolutely luscious Rowan Cashsoft!) before feeding the tail through the cast on and pulling tight. Then I brought the tail through to the other side, pulled until it looked like a pumpkin, tied the two ends together and wove them in. I hope it stays put!

After that, I wove a tail of some green Galway Highland Heather through the top of the ball to create five "stitches". Then I picked up those stitches and worked some i-cord. C'est fini! 

One more photo

Forgot this photo of both gloves next to each other - less you think I didn't actually finish them both! ;)

You can sort of tell what I was referring to when I mentioned that the thumbholes begin in a different place on each pair.. very annoying (to me)! 

Fetching, the First

My LYS doesn't carry the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino, so I used Rowan Cashsoft 4-ply (57% extra fine merino, 33% microfibre, 10% cashmere). I didn't like the worsted weight Cashsoft color choices, hence the 4-ply, which I used doubled. The woman at my LYS showed me how to estimate gauge for a yarn doubled based on the singled gauge - you take the spi (in this case, 7), multiply it by 2 (14) and divide by 3 (4.666.....). This was pretty close to the suggested gauge for the Cashmerino, so I went with it. The colors I used were Amethyst and Loganberry. Because the pattern called for exactly one ball of the Cashmerino and I knew I wanted to add an extra few rows, I decided to buy an extra ball of yarn in a different color to make stripes. As it turned out, I did have some of the contrasting color leftover but I doubt that I would have had enough without the contrast color stripes for this length. I used sz 5 double points because I don't have 6's, but my gauge was fine.

I worked the pattern exactly as written up to the thumbholes (except for the stripe pattern), and then I worked six 4x1 rib rows, a cable row, and 5 4x1 rib rows before binding off. I did not do the picot bind off because I thought it just made it look sloppy. My striping pattern was as follows: after the last wrist cable, I worked 5 rows main color, 4 rows contrast color, 5 rows main color, 4 rows contrast color (then thumbhole!) then changed to main color for the rest.
I have one major complaint with the pattern, and it wouldn't have been a complaint if I had been thinking instead of just knitting. The instructions for the left hand say to cable in the opposite direction, but make no allowances for the position of the thumbhole. I put it in the same place as the right hand thumb. Now, there is no reason that the gloves can't be reversible, but it bothers me that the thumbhole falls in a different position relative to the cable stripes on each glove. For my next pair, I'm going to shift the thumb hole ever so slightly - the right hand mitt folds nicely and lays flat with the thumb in the correct position, because it starts directly after a purl column, but the left hand one does not because it starts mid-knit section.

All in all, an easy, quick pattern - two TV shows for the knitting (Gilmore Girls one night, Grey's Anatomy another), about 15 minutes of finishing during Numb3rs, and they're finished! I have another pair already half-finished in shades of green, and they will be gifts for my godsister and her partner at their wedding next week :) 

Fetching

I'm working on a couple of pairs of Fetching from Knitty for wedding presents for my godsister and her partner. I made one last night and have decided it's too short - I'd like it to go a bit further up on the fingers - so I'll be ripping and reworking it. Instead of doing it entirely in a solid color, I think I will add some striping - not sure how, and not sure if I'll go with a contrasting color or a coordinating color, but I'll decide soon :)

I have this dark green and then a deep mauve-y purple, and then ligher versions of this green and the purple. I'll either do dark purple/light purple and dark green/light green, or dark green/light purple and dark purple/light green. We'll see.

The yarn is Rowan's version of the recommended yarn - I'll have to post details later, because I can't remember just now. 

Christmas Socks?

I am working on these socks from the Falling Leaves pattern at Knitty, using Knitpicks' Sock Garden yarn in Hollyberry (if I remember correctly). It's going reasonably quickly now that I've become familiar with the lace pattern. They look disproportionately long but they measure just right.. we'll see! 

Autumn Longies

I made these for my friend's baby. He's awfully cute and these pants are awfully cute on him! They look kind of funny in this photo but I promise they look awesome in person. The yarn is IrishBabyKnit's Elenya Alpaca in the Nolan colorway. I don't remember exactly what needles I used, but I know sz 1 for the waist/cuffs because those are Cascade 220 which is a little bit thicker than the Elenya Alpaca. I think I used sz 3's and then sz 6's for the rest of the body. I don't remember the exact stitch counts or anything at the moment - I worked a medium-ish size to get the striping to work out correctly. There's a mistake because I was a moron and didn't realise it until I was so far along I couldn't bear to rip and re-start, but hopefully nobody will notice :)


I am particularly fond of the crotch gusset. I'm not sure if it's supposed to look like this, but it does, and I like it! It's really neat to look at. I wonder if there's a different way to work the increases so it doesn't stick up as much, though. I'm not sure.
I worked the waist from the longies UP, after taking out the provisional cast on because I couldn't bear the thought of 106 or however many stitches worth of grafting. This meant there was a half-stitch jog where the color change occurred which led to this interesting texture. I kind of like it but I dislike how it's not consistent (due to the k3, p1, k1, p1, k1, p1 patterning).

I sent these off to Leif yesterday so he will be able to wear them now that the autumn weather is coming and the leaves are falling off the trees!