Keeping Warm

A few weeks ago, Somerset demonstrated her weather predicting ability: It never fails - if she's sitting on the vent in the morning, it's going to be a cold one. Luckily I had my gloves to keep me warm: They are super comfy, and fit perfectly post blocking. The Gambler likes the look of them, so I'll knit him a pair for next winter. I'll shorten the cuffs, and instead of the star pattern on the back, I'm going to use a much less feminine motif.

Speaking of Cool Weather Clothing...

I just finished the first of the Yummy Fable Gloves, just in time for the nice warm weather : Somerset is unimpressed. Once you get to the fingers and thumb, it's a free form pattern; the designer provides some motifs to mix and match. I'm thinking that the next pair I knit (in green, and shorter) I'll just stripe the fingers as well. Speaking of thumbs...when are you supposed to stop knitting the thumb gusset and start the actual thumb? Is it before the web between the thumb and palm is covered up or after it's covered up? When I followed the pattern as written, I still have visible "web": It occurs to me that the glove pattern is written for hands that are average length, rather than for someone with long hands. The next pair I'll add a few rows to the bottom and the top of the motif, and I need to figure out how much longer the thumb gusset should be.

Picking up Poppy volume 583

Once I finished the Gambler Striped Scarf, I picked up my Yummy Fable Gloves (which would come in handy given that several rodents did or did not see their shadow today which apparently means that we will have 6 more weeks of winter - I have a news flash for you people; it's February, and this is Canada - no sh!t that it's going to be cold for the next month and a half) If I see my shadow, it usually means 6 more hours of nap time. But sadly, I ran into a problem: No, that's not a stray DPN... That is the tip of a 3mm bamboo Addi - snapped right off. At least it happened right near the end of a row (and just as I was thinking of calling it a night at the SnB). My needle-less hiatus from the gloves was followed shortly thereafter by a stint in the ICU which barely allowed time to sleep, let alone do any knitting. This past weekend I finally had time and enough of an installment payment on my sleep debt to pick up the needles again. I decided that I should pick up the second Tweedmanaire sock (that had been sitting on a shelf since before Xmas). I had taken the sock off the needles right in the middle of knitting the heel. Since I use a cheat sheet to knit toe-up flap heels, I made the assumption that the numbers written on the piece of paper attached to the cheat sheet were actually representative of the Tweedmanaire sock. So I knit 4 more short rows, knit around, picked up the stitches, and then started the decreases. But there were extra stitches on the needle. Maybe I had done too many gusset increases. I started to rip back the sock, then tried holding it up against the first sock. The number of gusset increases seemed correct... Perhaps this wasn't a 68-stitch sock after all. And looking at the actual sock, I did some high level math (I used to teach calculus labs, you know) to determine that a sock that had 5 repeats of an 8 stitch pattern across the top of the sock was in fact an 80 stitch sock. Luckily I had only ripped back about 4 or 5 rows prior to the last gusset increase, so after about 2 more hours of working on it (which included 30 minutes to thread the slightly splitty yarn back onto the needles) I was able to catch up to EXACTLY WHERE THE SOCK WAS BEFORE I PICKED IT UP TO KNIT IT AGAIN!!! Apparently I had stopped right at the end of the short rows. Because that is such a sensible place to stop, and I would OBVIOUSLY remember (or check the Ravelry Project Page) that I just had to knit across and pick up the wraps. Sigh. Despite my utter stupidity sieve like memory miscalculation, I was able to get almost to the end of the heel on the sock. So the project has again achieved purse knitting status - the short row part of the toe up flap heel is a part of the sock that is intimidating enough / hard enough to remember that I have to do it with my cheat sheet for reference. But since I am off work for a few days, it's a good time to work on that second sleeve of Poppy: This evening I officially completed the black hole part of the sleeve - for the first time I make measureable progress with each row. There are benefits to being tall, but sleeve length is not one of them: 25 inches from the shoulder. Not surprisingly, I didn't go with the bell sleeves that the pattern calls for. Gratuitous cat shot Call the newspapers - I found my shadow! On an unrelated note, it was only today that it occured to me that the whole Knitting Olympics bit would be starting up again. I could be virtuous and attack my large pile of WIPs during that time period, but I instead will try to knit not one but TWO sweaters. Baby sweaters that is - both our dietitian and our pharmacist announced to me last week that they are both pregnant and due some time in the summer. As tempting as it was to go out and buy some new yarn, I decided that I would use some ecru Butterfly Cotton that was originally intended to be a boxy sweater that I gave up on. I found the Cabled Raglan Baby Sweater on Ravelry; it seems to fit the bill nicely. I am debating replacing the garter stitch hem on the sleeves and bottom with ribbing to minimize rolling. I will probably also change the cables so that they are mirrored. At least if I am overoptimistic of how much I can get done during the olympics, I'll have several months to let them sit on a shelf leisurely complete them.

Miss Match

I am liking my Yummy Fable gloves, but... I do find the cuff is quite long as the pattern is written. And it turns out that I will be several grams of yarn short of the Fable yarn judging by the amount of yarn left thus far. So I decided that once I finish the right hand glove, I would knit the left hand glove using the yarns I intend for my second pair - and eliminate one of the charts to decrease the cuff length by about 60%. My plan was to use some green anonymous sock yarn I had bought some time ago together with the green Yummy yarn. I gave myself points for using up some stash yarn... But unfortunately, the solid yarn disappears into the handpaint yarn at the lighter parts of the handpaint. So, I took a trip to Romni Wools and picked up 2 skeins of Fable - one was THE LAST skein of the coral (whew! Good thing I didn't just wait until I ran out!! Obviously this was a sign from God that you should never postpone a yarn purchase). I also got this skein of teal: The colour combo seemed kind of familiar... I cast on for the second glove that evening: It's looking pretty good, although if you take a look at the part of the cast on that overlaps my ring finger, the contrast is much less at that particular point of the Yummy colourway: It's a little more obvious sans flash: Apparently I still have a ways to go in embracing the colourwork concept of not matching too closely. BTW - I fully intend to wear the gloves as a pair once I have a right hand and left hand glove. Hey - the pattern will match, right? It's like the Steven Wright joke: "My socks DO match. They're the same thickness." In the last month or 2, my posting frequency has dropped off because it has been INSANELY busy at work. So next week, we are taking a well deserved Beach Holiday. I'll be back in February - stay warm!

Bright Shiny Things

One project is never enough. I have to wonder - do painters start planning their next work before they are halfway through a painting? Do songwriters end up humming completely new melodies as they are sorting out an arrangement? I have worn the same pair of black leather gloves almost every non-warm day this winter and last - never change them. But before I am even finished the first cuff on this pair of gloves, I'm already starting to debate what contrast colour would work when I knit the next pair with the green Yummy yarn that I bought at The Naked Sheep . Pattern: Handpainted Gloves by Karendipity designs. You have to love a pattern that includes the following instructions: "At this point, put down your knitting and go into the kitchen. Eat an entire bar of chocolate"