Knit and Plenty

Many hands make enlightened work.

For most of us, knitting truly is a spiritual practice. Something we do with our hands to connect us to our hearts and minds. I really enjoyed my practice of knitting hand warmers and gloves this winter. It gave me everything I like about knitting. First, immediate gratification. Oooo, I finished the wrist. Hooray, there's the thumb. Yippee.. a finger. Next: you can finished a project in less than a week. Ok, I guess that's actually more immediate gratification.  Also, you get a lot of use out of what you make. It's not like a sweater that sits in the closet and I bet I'll use them for years to come. mmm? I guess that's more like long-term gratification. Let's see, what else? Oh, people comment alot on them - ego gratification?  And you can churn 'em out. Obsessive compulsive gratification. AH, knitting - the road to enLightenment.

Red Letter Day

Oh, I know it's the Ides of March and Et Tu, Brute and all that - but the Red Letter of the day for me is the completion of my red cashmere gloves to match my red cashmere sampler scarf. I really took my time with these. It was a 4 ply cashmere and I knit them on size 4 needles. I swear, they almost look like store bought gloves. And they are soooo warm.

I have to say, I love the glove.

A double caper....

I wrote an article for an upcoming issue of Yarn Market News, (with much of your input) called "I'll Have What She's Having" - about being inspired by the people around us - or in my case, never having an original idea so I just make whatever my friends are knitting. So, since Regina has been making these small capelets, I've been making these small capelets. And since Regina's been using Noro Silk Garden and running Kidsilk Haze with it, I've been using Silk Garden and Kidsilk Haze. So, there you have it. Its very easy and fast. There are capelet patterns all over the internet. I'm going to work on Regina to create a pattern with these two yarns so email me if you're interested. I added a little double crochet along the bottom. I also made one up in Brown Sheep Nature's Spectrum which is warmer and pretty but the drape isn't half as nice.

I'm thinking of trying it in a lighter fiber and color that will take me into the Spring, make a silk/wool blend - mmm, maybe a cashmere....

I Gotta Hand it To Ya

If "idle hands are the devil's playthings" (or so the expression goes) than certainly knitter's hands are God's army corp of engineers. And mine have been knitting up a storm making fingerless gloves. You'd think with all the yarn-tossing and needle-twisting, they'd warm up a bit, but they're always freezing cold! Now, the nice thing is that a pair of fingerless mitts takes about 3 hours - or two evening. So being one of the army corp of engineers, I have figured out a pattern/formula that's really easy. I promise you, you don't even have to be in the apple core of ingenues to get this one.

Ready?

Measure the circumference of your hand around your palm. Palm = A. I am going to put my numbers in red - Palm= 7 for me

Pick a yarn. DK weight yarn works best. You'll need about 150 - 160 yards. Use something that's about 5 or 6 stitches per inch on a size 5 or 6 needle. Get a gauge...Then TAKE SPI x A = Stitches to Cast On   Let's call that "B" . So if stitches per inch is 5 and palm is 7, that would be 35. Now your hand might be 7.5 and your gauge might be 5.5 - that's why lots of gloves cast on 40 or 41. But once you have B - there are only two other numbers, B/2 and B/2+10.

Here we go:

Cast on B 35, Work in K1 P1 Rib for 2.5 inches or however long you want the cuff to be. At the wrist, work two rows of ST ST. Next row: Knit to half of cast on or (B/2) 17 and place marker (PM) then M1 k2 M1 and Knit to end. Work three rows in ST ST. Next row - knit to marker, M1 K4 M1 knit to end. Work three row. Knit to marker, M1 K6 M1 knit to end. (sound familiar) Work three rows. Knit to marker, M1 K8 M1, knit to end. Work 3 rows. Knit to marker, M1 K10 M1 knit to end. Work in ST ST to reach base of thumb ( you should be there) -end with purl row. On next knit row, Knit to (B/2+10 )27 - stop and turn work. Cast on two stitches on left needle, purl those stitches, next 12 on needle and cast on 2 more. Turn and knit those 16 stitches back and forth until you are a little more than half way up the thumb. Bind off loosely. Seam up the thumb. Now, holding the opening away from you (Right side facing), attach yarn and pick up four stitches across base of thumb, knit to end. When you come back to base of thumb, make those four picked up stitches into 2. Now just keep ST ST until the mitt is as long as you want it to be up your knuckles. When you're about three rows from where you want to end, count your stitches and decrease 3 or 4 stitches evenly across the top. Wrap it around your hand to gauge the width. Sew the seam and you're done.

Now, give yourself a BIG HAND!!!!

PS. Make two - unless you're Captain Hook.

{if you do give it a try, send me pix to post!}

Nothing up my sleeve.

Do you see a theme developing lately? It's all surrounding this latest pullover sweater project. As you can see I am still being quite the dummy. My current issue is all about the sleeves. I have finished the front and the back, and quite frankly, I am wondering how many knitters decide to make vests when they get to this point in their sweater projects. The thought of making two sleeves at this point seems so booooorrrring! In fact, from now on I will always start a sweater by making one sleeve, then the back, then the next sleeve and end with the front. If I had done that, I'd be finished by now!!

The crazy thing about this sweater is that I created the back without a pattern, then found a pattern to create the front. Now I'm not quite surehow I'll pull off the sleeves - but sleeves I must!

I better keep the vodka at arms-length! 

I can be a real dummy sometimes!

My head is about to come off! I'm working on the front of a pullover sweater. The problem with making  a pullover sweater is that it has to pull over your head. So I have reached that wonderful place in the pattern where the head hole - better known as the neck edge will meet the arm hole. Stay with me now. Because the pattern instructions now read as follows:

DEC 1 st at armhole edge of next 3 rows then foll 3 alt row AND AT THE SAME TIME and every foll 4th row DEC 1 st at neck edge of next and only on every foll row from previous dec WHILE AT THE SAME TIME begin to cry incessently and decide that you really don't want to make a pull over sweater after all!!!

Of course, it is always 11:30 at night when I hit that section of a pattern and I hope that there will be a time, in the not to distant future, when I will be able to screw my head back on and not feel like such a dummy and figure out how to follow these directions.

Raise Your Glove/Hand

Razzle Dazzle -  I've graduated from fingerless mitten to real ten-finger gloves! Here is my first pair! The pattern is from this great book called Knitted Accessories by Claire Crompton.    

^ This picture looks rather Bob Fosse-esque, doesn't it?

Sewing little buttons on the back is a cute idea - and would even be cute on those $1.99/pair you can buy at Walgreens.

Now whether you are wearing gloves or not, would you considering raising your hand if you'd be willing to be a part some surveys. I've been asked to write an ongoing marketing column for Yarn Market News, and I'm looking to create a consumer panel. If you're in, leave me your email and I'll send the first survey -  If you don't want to be a part of the panel, maybe just answer one question: You've decided to start a new project, you enter the yarn shop - what one word describes how you feel??? !

It's a Wind Sock.

Every year in New England, just when the leaves reach their absolute peak of perfection, you can bet that a wind storm will come along and blow Autumn away. That's what's in store for us this weekend. They're predicting 40 to 60 mile per hour winds. But I'm o.k. with that, because, this week, I finished my first sock  - and I am in need of a full-out two-day lock down to hunker down and get the second sock made. So far I have loved everything about the whole sock thing. But "the other sock", well, that's just feels a bit like "the second sleeve" - So at this point, I just really want to get it done. However, I really do like sock knitting so maybe the winds of change are blowing my way. I know how great it's going to feel when I slip these babies on my feet. Let's just hope the lights don't go out. Have a great weekend. See ya Monday.

McStretchy

By now you've probably heard the news that Dr. Burke

and McDreamy got in a real fight on the set of Grey's Anatomy.

Boys, boys, boys, I told you not to fight over me. 

Well,you know I'll be tuning in tonight while I continue to knit up my first sock. (Cheap segue to show you my sock progress) Not bad. I really like how stretchy the ribbing feels. I should be done with these by...Kwanzah.

Oh, and by the way, while I love Grey's, I can't bear this whole dating thing between Meredith and the two guys. What man worth his spit would put up with it? Guaranteed, the guy you'd want is the guy who refused to play.

Insert Part A in Slot B

Why can't I ever follow directions? I swear - I always start out intending to, but along the way, sh*t happens and I have to make course correction - which probably wouldn't happen if I JUST FOLLOWED THE DIRECTIONS.

Here's an example: it's a cabled purse I finished last night. I downloaded the pattern from Pieknits.  The pattern looked great - easy enough. So first, I used a different yarn (which I will explain the result of later). Next, I altered the front of the bag because the pattern called for a pretty complex cable, and I didn't want to follow a chart.  I went with the easiest cable I know.

It also was suppose to be made in three  pieces: the front panel, the bag (knitted flat) and the sides/handle. Somehow, I messed up and ended up with a different three.

Further, because I mis-measured as I went along creating the body, when I stitched it together, the front panel was too long and the sides were too thin. I had to make a seam on the inside, and totally fudge the flap.

And as usual, I realized in the end, that the yarn I picked (although wonderfully soft) was not firm enough to allow the bag to stand.

But in the end, it all came together.  Of course, it bears little resemblance to the pattern and it certainly doesn't look anything like the $200 cabled bag in the Nordstrom catalog.

But its got a pretty cool construction to it and I learned a few things a long the way. Like: FOLLOW DIRECTIONS!

Click on this small picture for a close-up of the sides.

Knowing me, I'll probably spill coffee on it the first time I use it. Then I could dye in brown. Gee, I wonder how I'll alter the RIT dye instructions??