hand knits in action

Finished at last

In November 2008, I blogged about several projects in progress. Most of those projects were finished, but the red fetchings in progress remained in progress.

I started them November after finishing an identical pair, and my daughter told me those were the exact fingerless gloves she wanted. I finished one, and then she went to a birthday party, and got a pair of cranberry red fingerless gloves as a party favour, and I never bothered to finish the pair.

My daughter lost the party favours, and I wanted to finish the pair, so they are finished up and successfully gifted. She finds them warm and fuzzy and loves them. Which means she'll wear them yesterday and today and probably never again.

Finished Gifties--Photos

The Dashing and the Fetching for my parents are finished!



Now to get to the post office...

Finished Object

I have special knitting plans for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. However, I won't be able to knit them guilt-free if I'm not finished with--or nearly so--the gifts for my parents. I allocated my Dream in Colour Classy for the gifts, and first knit the fetching. It was finished up yesterday afternoon, ends woven and all. (I don't like this picture, you can't see the lovely colours. If I can get better pictures, I will.)



I weighed the yarn. The fetchings weighed 60 grams, and the yarn left weighed 70 grams. I started on the dashing, and when I was half way through the first dashing, I weighed what yarn was left. I had 50 grams left. As I had half still remaining, my best math was telling me that I didn't have enough yarn to finish a pair of dashings. SIGH.


So today I diverted our afternoon walk to the yarn store that opened up recently. I purchased some emergency Cascade and will start over on the dashing.

They call this Startitis

We knitters have a term, startitis. It describes the condition a knitter gets when she or he compulsively starts more and more projects. Interestingly, everything in this photo is something I've knitted before. There are two sets of fetching, another pair of socks from the sKnitches, a couple aliens, and a dolly dress. (The dress is the scrap of yellow. It didn't get far, yet)

This picture was taken a couple days ago, and there's actually some significant progress, and no further new projects started yet. I'll blog a little later if I can actually convert a few of these to Finished Objects.

Red Fetching, finished

In my previous post about the fetching, Priscilla asked about the bindoff. (and thank you, I adore the colour, too.) This is a very appropriate question, as the original pattern calls for a picot bindoff, but few knitters seem to like that bindoff. In my previous attempt, I used a normal bindoff, and was rather unhappy with the final results.

So I did several modifications to the pattern, many similar to the ones described by Ina on Ravelry. To do the bindoff, I added a cable repeat, like she did, extending the length of the fetching a little. I then did one decrease in the middle of each group of four. You do a k2tog for the glove with the right-leaning cables, and a ssk for the left-leaning cables. Then I did an Elizabeth Zimmerman sewn bindoff. The results are much neater than my previous pair. Unfortunately, the upper edge still curls a little, but not much when you're wearing them.

Pattern: fetching
Yarn: Peruvian yarn, an unspecified blend of wool, alpaca, and cotton
Needle: Size 6
Notes: Let me spell it out for myself...

I cast on, knit 3 rows in 4x1. Pattern says 4, this was a mistake, but I let it rest.

Did four cable repeats

Knit 26 rows of 4x1 rib.

On row 11, 13, 15, an 17, I increased twice in the first column of knit stitches. (Right leaning on right edge, left leaning on left edge.) This made a thumb gusset of 12 stitches.

After 26 rows, I moved the 12 stitches of the thumb gusset onto a separate needle.

Using 2 more size six needles and another ball of yarn, I cast on 4 stitches using a figure 8 cast on. Using the original ball, I knitted across the four stitches and on through the row. Using the new ball, I continued from the 4 stitches and knit around the thumb. I knit around about 5 times and cast off using the EZ cast off.

I knit four more rows, then 2 cable rows. Then I knitted 3 more rows. On the fourth, I decreased once in each group, then did an EZ sewn bindoff

A gift in progress

This is the type of thing that's been seducing me away from Jeanie. Quicker, manageable, attainable projects. I'm trying to have a gift to mail off in the next few days. I have completed one fetching, with a few modifications, including a thumb gusset. It's made of the soft and fuzzy yarn my #1Man brought me back from the market in Lima, Peru.

PS I just put the first fetching on the scale, and it weighed 23 grams. I put the remaining yarn from that ball on the scale, and it weighed 23 grams. I did knit the few rounds of the thumb from another ball, so in theory, I should be able to make it through this without running outta yarn. I hope!

Fetch this

 

Yes, it's that ubiquitous little pattern, Fetching. It took precisely one skein, I didn't need my little leftovers I had waiting and ready. I didn't like the picot edging, so I did a traditional bindoff, and am not happy with it. I can see why a picot bindoff is used, the top will flare out anyway. However, I want the top to hug my hands, so I will be pondering how to modify for next time.

Yarn: Colour 4 Me
Pattern: Fetching from Knitty, Summmer 2006
Needle: Addi Turbo circular size 7
Cast on: Oct 1, on a school bus
Cast off: Oct 3, while watching SMiLE.