One More Christmas Gift

Here's your warning--if you think you may get a gift from me and haven't yet, this post may be a spoiler for you. Consider yourself duly warned

Now, for the rest of you, I would like to share my Honey Gloves. I made them to match a Honey Cowl that I made last year. I based them on a basic glove pattern from Ravelry but started them above the cuff with a provisional cast on.

Once the gloves were finished to the tips of all the fingers, I took what yarn was left and knit the cuffs down from the cast on. To stretch the yarn a little further (because I was going to run short), I did a two-colour version by alternating each row.

The yarn used on the slip stitch row dominates so I used the main colour. For the alternate rows, I used a purple silk with sequins that I had left over from my Sahara. The effect is pretty subtle but it's a nice extra touch.

I think the gloves turned out pretty well. They are short, which makes them ideal for the long winter coat sleeves with no room for bulky gloves half way up to your elbow. They are also thin enough to not make your hands useless while warm enough to make a difference. What I think of as ideal driving gloves. I hope they work for the recipient!!

Project Stats
Started: 7 Sep 11
Finished: 26 Sep 11
Pattern: Basic Glove Pattern by Harry Wells (free)
Materials: Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light (Prune Mix), 1.2 skeins ($6.30)

Current Projects

With my current lack of large chunks of time for knitting and even smaller chunks of time that my brain can focus (seriously, I come home from work and just stare into space occasionally thinking "I should knit" but not able to pick up the needles and do it), I have been working on small projects.

A few weeks ago I was finishing a number of projects (the red stole, Green Leaf beret and Mini Mochi Circle Socks) and debating what to do next. It occurred to me that I could make the decision easier by just working on some gifts for Christmas this year. I had a couple ideas already so it was a matter of casting on and getting going.

First was a "spooky" hat for my boss at the haunted house. (Yes, I work for a haunted house--specifically, the Niles Haunted House Scream Park. I went there last night, incidentally, and had a great time with the rest of the office staff! Oh, alright, while I'm on the subject I may as well show you the pic we got at the photo op:

The one on the torture table is my boss in case that's not obvious. I'm the one tightening the chains.)

Anyway, back to the knitting. I had seen several skeleton or skull design hats and thought I would make him one. I settled on the Skully pattern from Knitpicks and cast on with some raveled wool I had. Green from an American Eagle vest and more of the black I just used on the Circle socks.

The first attempt I did with the yarn doubled and it wasn't right at all. When I finally accepted that, I ripped it out and restarted with a single strand of each. That was much better and I've been making pretty steady progress. I thing I'm about half way down the length:

One thing that is slowing it down is that my needles are just a little too short.

This makes it a pain to work because I'm always having to watch the stitches to make sure they don't fall off the end or picking them up when they do. I don't have a circular needle in this small a size or I would have switched over already.

It should get a little better when I do the ribbing. And even if it doesn't, I'll get through it.

The second project is the gloves I mentioned in a recent post. They are just a simple stockingnette stitch and haven't given me any trouble at all.

I have not let myself work on them at home because I knew they would get done too quickly and leave me with no "travel" knitting. So it's been my Skully hat at home and these gloves in the few minutes I find to knit when out of the house.

I did get in a couple hours of knitting on them during small group on Monday so that helped a lot.

This week I finished the second glove and turned my attention to the cuff. I decided there wasn't enough wool left to do the cuffs. So I enacted my Plan B and added a second colour.

I had a couple choices on hand:

I debated between the light purple alpaca/silk in the middle and the darker sequined silk on the right. (The main colour is on the left.) I ended up going with the sequined silk even though sequins aren't really the style of the recipient. I thought I could get away with it because it's going to be very subtle once it's mixed with the main colour.

I picked up the stitches from the provisional cast on and started knitting in the other direction. I used the stitch pattern from the Honey Cowl I made last year and it worked out very nicely! I tried the contrast colour on the slip stitch rows first but it looked much better with the slip stitches done in the main colour and the contrast on the plain rows.

Once I had that figured out, I motored on the first cuff. I made it fairly narrow and was done in no time. The second cuff is about half done now too. No pictures? Nope. At this point you'll just have to wait until I'm done. But trust me, they're looking good!

New Splice Method for a New Project

I have a beautiful yarn. It's half alpaca, half wool. It feels lovely. Not buttery soft, but sturdy and soft with a nice bounce to the spin.

It's also a beautiful "prune" colour with heathery flecks of every other colour. Subtle but delightful.

I used it for a cowl described here, but I still had some left over, so I thought I would make something else. It had to be small because I don't have a lot left and because I don't currently have the wherewithal to handle something big.

Oh, I should mention the one thing that's wrong with the yarn that I have left is that moths or some other bug got at it. The balls used for the cowl were ok, but this one has quite a number of breaks in it. Or sometimes it is not a complete break, but you have to treat it as one.

Like this spot:

Can you see that the middle section has only one of the three plies left? Not so good. What is good is that I recently read a post in Ravlery that described another way of splicing yarn that doesn't leave a bulky section or ends to work in later. It works best on wool or wool blends that will felt.

First I cut the yarn at the weak spot and raveled the plies back about 1.5 inches.

I raveled the top piece into its three parts and the bottom piece into two parts (one ply/two plies).

Then I cut one of the plies off the top one and cut the single ply off the bottom one:

You now have three pieces that you can braid.

Pin the top to anchor it:

and then start to braid.

I ended up doing almost two inches, but I think one inch would probably do.

Once it's braided, cut off the ends close to the top/bottom of the braided section. Then wet your fingers and rub the cut ends in--you just need to twirl the strand between your wet fingertips and the ends will felt down.

Can you see the braided section in the middle?

Here it is from a little further away:

and you can barely tell. The join is very strong and keeps the strand consistent. Even though it's actually four plies instead of three, the braid is tighter than the spin and it evens out.

The only bad part of this join? It takes quite a bit more time. I'll be saving it for when I really care!

And what am I making?

I started a pair of gloves. They fit...well, like a glove, and I just love the way they feel. (In case you're worried about the part at the wrist, I started with a provisional cast on so I will pick up those stitches later and knit the cuff down from the glove. Once again, I am worried about having enough yarn. Story of my life, but I have a plan B so I'm not concerned.)

All for now...go forth and splice!