Christmas Gifts Unveiled

Well, by now the people getting them have opened their gifts which means I am free to show them off...

Glovember really must have inspired this year because once I got started on gloves, I couldn't stop!

The first pair were giving to my MIL. I converted a fingerless mitten (or "wrister") pattern to gloves. (And I'll repeat that I will be posting separately on how I did that.)

I first fell in love with the yarn of deep purples and reds; I had only the vaguest idea of what it would be used for when I bought it, but loved it enough to take it home. Beyond the colour, it knitted up beautifully. A yarn like that deserves a simple pattern so it can show off without any competition.

I decided on Laura's Ribbed Mitts by Carrie Barraco (Sorry it's a Ravelry download only as far as I can tell.) I liked the simple 6x2 rib pattern and the organic way the thumb gusset was formed.

But fingerless wouldn't do!! So I continued the thumb to full length and added fingers in stocking stitch. (I just kept the purl rib on the outside of the first and pinkie fingers. Just for something.)

The other modification I made, for those who are interested, is to stop the thumb increases early. The gusset and thumb were getting way too big, so I only increased to six stitches the second time instead of 12. I know, this only makes sense if you're working on the pattern, but there it is for those of you who are.

Project Stats
Started: 14 Nov '10
Finished: 8 Dec '10
Pattern: Laura's Ribbed Mitts by Carrie Barraco
Materials: Fleece Artist Nyoni (wool, mohair, nylon, silk)
(<1 skein) $15.90
As with the Green Thumb gloves, I did the Kitchener stitch at the top of the fingers. It worked even better on the stocking stitch here than it did on the ribbed fingers of the Green Thumb pattern. But honestly, if you don't like doing Kitchener, I don't think it would be worth the extra trouble. (And I know there are plenty of you out there that hate to Kitchener.)

The gloves were a pleasure to knit and very good for hauling around.

Next, are the "trouble makers." Oh yes, I told you about them--they were the ones that went flying across the room. Well, I finally got them licked into shape (so to speak). They are modeled here by the recipient, my FIL:

I started with the fingerless pattern, Tony's Cashmere Scarf and Gloves by Christ Abbott (again, only available as a Ravelry download). I then added a half thumb, half fingers for pointer and index fingers, and then a single section for the ring and pinkie fingers.

They kind of look like they were made for an alien or one of Jim Henson's puppets, but it makes sense. Anything you need to do with your hands, you can do with your thumb and first two fingers. Pretty much. So why make the last two cold for no reason? And if they're together, they can keep each other warm. It's very cozy.

Project Stats
Started: 9 Dec '10; Finished: 19 Dec '10
(not counting the numerous mis-starts)
Pattern: Tony's Cashmere Scarf and Gloves by Christ Abbott
Materials: madelinetosh tosh dk (terrarium), 1 skein $22.00
The main pattern of fisherman's rib is wonderful in gloves. It is stretchy to fit, but doesn't get stretched out. It's also very three dimensional which gives you some extra cushion between you and the cold world.

The wool is very nice. One of the new madelinetosh that Amy had at the Red Purl. It's machine washable--very important for "working" gloves. And the greens and browns are so lovely even Troy spontaneously commented how gorgeous the wool is. While being very manly, of course. The colour I mean, not Troy. Well, Troy's manly too, of course. Anyway, you know what I mean!

I worried some about the fit at first, but decided the stretch of the pattern would be sufficient to make up for any sizing problems.

And, indeed, the fit was fine.

In the end, I did use the Turkish (tubular) cast on for both gloves. The result was excellent and far too good for me to get out of doing it on other projects. I'm sure the more I do it, the easier it will get, right? Although I think the biggest obstacle may just be the ease of doing something familiar and habitual. And that is no reason not to do a different [better] method!!

And there you have my secret Christmas projects for this year. Well, except the one that I cast on yesterday. I might get it done on time since I have a week until I'm seeing the person it's for.

Now, I know that casting on a Christmas present on Christmas eve may seem an awful lot like a bad case of procrastination, but it's really not. I only started it because I had done so well on the rest of my gifts that I wasn't burned out. And I'm putting no pressure on myself to get it done. If I don't, I'll give the original gift I had ready. If I do, this person will get two gifts. So of course, that is nothing like procrastination. And what's a knitter to do when she is looking at the last four days of her five-day weekend with no new projects!?

In any case, it's time to sign off. Merry Christmas to all!

Glovember Wrap Up

Due to an oversight on my part, I had a chance to finish my Glovember gloves this week. You see, I forgot my Christmas knitting at a friend's on Monday. They returned it to me on Wednesday night, but they neglected to bring my pattern and notes (I choose to believe that they think I am so good I don't need patterns and notes--ha ha). I didn't get them back until Saturday so that was almost a week without that particular knitting, which left time to work on other neglected items.

The Glovemeber gloves seemed an easy choice: They didn't need much to be finished; I could use them immediately; I was impatient to show them to the friend that gave me the wool. Plus I pretty much do what I want and answer to no one as far as my knitting is concerned so if that's what I want, that's what I get.

In any case, they were finished very quickly once I applied myself to them again. And I did get to show them to my friend today and she recognized the wool immediately. She greeted them with the delighted question, "Oh, so it worked!!?" Yes, the wool "worked." Ha ha. I shouldn't tease her, especially in public like this, but apparently I can't help myself.

The wool is delightfully "squishy," especially in the rib pattern which makes them even thicker. Maybe "plush" is a better word than "squishy." But they're good, in any case.

I really liked the pattern. The leaf detail at the thumb is perfect.

Very clever designer to use the increases of the leaf to form the thumb gusset.

Project Stats
Started: 7 Nov '10
Finished: 16 Dec '10
Pattern: Green Thumb by Diana Foss (available here) $2.50
Materials: James C Brett Pure Merino (2 skeins) (gift)
The major change I made was to add fingers to the pattern originally designed as fingerless mittens/gloves (or "wristers"). I have developed a method to convert patterns and will post it sometime in the near future in its own post. It is very handy to be able to convert the many cute fingerless patterns as their usefulness is very limited, and I also like to have a hoard of warmer items.

A new method I tried on the fingers of these gloves was to decrease the stitches down to eight and then Kitchener them together. This is gives a "flatter" finish at the top compared to drawing the end through the final stitches. A basic finger shape isn't really a round cylinder; it's more like a flattened cylinder, so I thought I'd try it. (I'm pretty sure I read about it on the oft-cited TechKnitter's blog.) Her theory was that it would produce less bulk at the finger tips.

Can you see in the picture that the stitches "roll" over the top of the fingers from inside to outside? The fingertips fit fine with this method, but I'm not convinced it's much better than the regular method.

I've been wearing the gloves for a couple days and have really enjoyed them. The thickness makes them warm. I can't wait to finish a hat to match.

Well into Glovember

Anyone see Edward Scissorshands?

I finally got started on my gloves for "Glovember" on Sunday. (A whole week late!) Ok, ok, I know "Glovember" is not nearly as good as "Socktober" (not nearly as popular either, strangely enough) but I'm sticking with it.

I know I suggested three glove patterns in this post that I was considering, but it turns out they didn't work out for the wool I wanted to use. Two of them, for one thing, were written for fingering weight instead of DK. How did I not notice this? (Personally, I think the way they were entered in Ravelry is to blame.)

If so inspired, I'm sure I could convert them to DK weight, but the one I liked best was 4 Euros, a little much for a pattern that might not work.

So I did an extensive search through Ravelry's database and found the Green Thumb pattern by Diana Foss. I thought it was perfect for the green wool I had in mind. In the picture below you can see it has a leaf pattern which replaces a thumb gusset. Clever, isn't it!

I can't imagine why some think gloves are fiddly!

The pattern is written for fingerless gloves (or "wristers") but that's what I definitely did not want. So I am converting the pattern to full-fingered gloves.

They have been flying off the needles and I'm having a lot of fun working on them.

Parlour tricks with needles.

I made a whole slew of gloves my first year of college and gave them to everyone in my dorm. (I should explain that I lived in a dorm that was more like a townhouse; so we're talking 7 pair of gloves here, not 30.) I forgot how much I liked making them.

I considered making a right and left glove, but decided the pattern had enough flexibility to it that I could just make two identical "ambidextrous" gloves and not have to worry about keeping them straight. So far that seems to be working out fine.

I've been hitting these gloves pretty hard this week, and although my tunic has suffered somewhat, it is still moving along at a pretty good pace. The back is approximately 7 inches and I'm well into the plain stocking stitch. All the "comfort knitting" I could ever want!