Dad’s Conwy socks are finished. I’ll post them off to him today.
Next on my list of projects to finish this month is the fingerless mitts for my friend Kerry. I’m on the first one, and have started the first cables:
I love this yarn. I can see more of it in my future 🙂
I’ve finished the first of Dad’s socks. Unfortunately, I’m running a little later than I’d hoped, and didn’t finish the pair in time to post yesterday to make it to Dad for his birthday on Saturday. (Don’t worry – contingency plans for an alternative present to arrive on the day have been enacted!)
I’ve adapted the Conwy pattern by Nancy Bush. I first knitted a sock in this pattern some years ago, back in my early sock knitting days, but it came out way too small for me. Dad’s feet and mine are roughly the same size, so this time, I used larger needles, and I didn’t do the decreases to shape the leg. I figured tramadol that the rib/cable pattern will shape to his leg, and allow for any ankle swelling he might get.
Now, I’m working on sock 2 – and hoping to have it finished so I can post them on Monday. Sock 2 should be quicker, as I’m not stressing about the size, and I’m more familiar with the pattern. And, thanks to Ravelry, I have notes about the mods I made and how I knitted the heel and the toe, so sock 2 can end up looking at least similar to sock 1!
On other matters, my niece loved her lacy fingerless mittens, and her two friends who were there when she opened the parcel loved them, too!
First, a check of how I did against my March goals:
1. Finish the Knittery merino/cashmere jaywalkers – frogged – just couldn’t get the sizing right
2. Finish the Jo Sharp Fisherman’s gansey (only a few more inches on the front to go, then knit the collar and sew it all up) – this is the gansey that never ends. I’ve knitted quite a few inches and am now up to the neckline. Only a few more inches to go. (Haven’t I heard that somewhere before??)
3. Finish the baby jacket (only have to do the button bands – but I hate picking up button bands, so this project has stalled too long!) – Ahem. (Have I mentioned how much I hate picking up stitches for button bands??)
4. Knit at least one sock in a pair for my Dad (both have to be finished in the first week of April, in time to post for his birthday.) – I’ve knitted almost half a sock. Had a bit of a panic about whether it would fit, but I think it will. Now I just have to decide what to do about the shaping.
5. Knit fingerless mittens for my friend Kerry. – I made the cabled mittens, originally for her. Then I discovered the mistake in the cable pattern, so they’re for me. Kerry has tried them on, though, and chosen red for her pair, and I’ve started them.
It wasn’t one of my goals, but I alsomade the lacy mittens for my niece, and I posted them off to her today. I’ll find out on Friday if she likes them!
Despite battling a nasty viral bug, I also walked 32.3 kilometres on the treadmill, earning $32.30 for the exer-stash fund, plus a bonus $5 for losing a kilo.
So, on to my April goals:
1. Finish the Jo Sharp Fisherman’s gansey (only a few more inches on the front to go, then knit the collar and sew it all up) (Is there an echo in here?)
2. Finish the baby jacket (only have to do the button bands – but I hate picking up button bands, so this project has stalled too long!)
3. Finish Dad’s socks and post them to him.
4. Finish Kerry’s fingerless mittens.
5. Start something new – a new jacket, or a lace shawl… or maybe both. I’ve got a gazillion patterns to choose from in my Ravelry queue.
6. Exer-stash fund: earn a bonus $10 for two kilos lost, plus walk at least 60 kilometres.
Yep, that all will keep my busy.
I finished the lacy fingerless mitts for Lauren two days ago, but only got photos taken today – I needed the DH’s help, as it’s kinda awkward to photograph both of one’s own hands!
I’m very pleased with these – other than the slight oopsy of stuffing up the thumb increase on mitten two, and starting it a pattern repeat later than on mitten one – hence one mitt being almost an inch longer than the other. I’m sure Lauren won’t mind – it’s not terribly obvious.
I like these so much that now I need to make a pair for myself! Despite the lacy holes, they are quite warm, which is good, as we’re moving into autumn down here, and winter gets quite chilly.
Details:
Yarn: Nundle Woolen Mills Retro 4ply (pure wool)
Pattern: improvisation as I went along. The lace pattern is the same basic lace from the Veronik socks.
A while ago, I posted about my quest for a lacy capelet pattern to knit for an ill friend. It seems other people have been searching for something similar, as there are a fair few people who have come to this blog because of a search on those keywords.
So, I thought I’d report back here.
Although there are some nice patterns about, I didn’t find anything amongst the patterns currently available on the web that was exactly what I was looking for. However, in recent weeks I’ve been acquiring some vintage pattern books (from my trip to Nundle last month, and I’ve bought some from e-Bay), and in one of those books I found a pattern that is similar to what I had in mind (without the bow!):
Sadly, my friend is now very ill, and after 5 years of struggle her time left is not long enough to knit this capelet for her. However, because life goes on (and my friend would definitely encourage it!), and because my sister commented in passing recently that my niece likes capelets and other now-trendy-again things, I’m contemplating what this pattern might look like in jewel-coloured, space-dyed yarns…
I decided that the lacy mitten gauge was a bit too tight, and after some experimenting, I started again with 3.25mm needles and only 4 repeats of the lace pattern. After using 2.5mm needles, the 3.25mm ones felt huge! Unfortunately I don’t have short 3.25 dpns, so it was a little awkward with only 11 sts on each needle, but nevertheless the first glove knitted up quite quickly and was done in about 24 hours.
This tension lets the lacy pattern show more effectively, yet should still be considerably warmer than bare fingers for the frosty, foggy Canberra winter.
I’ve also started Kerry’s red cabled mittens, and have almost finished the 4″ of ribbing at the cuff. (I did 2″ while watching Pirates of the Caribbean last night. I enjoyed the movie more the second time than I did the first time.)
I might have to put Kerry’s mittens slightly on hold for a week or two – Lauren’s birthday is April 4, so I need to finish by April 1 to get them in the post on time, and Dad’s birthday is April 12 (April 9 posting deadline.) I haven’t started socks for Dad yet, so I’ll probably start them today and do the plain knitting while I’m writing, and Lauren’s lacy knitting while I’m watching DVDs with DH in the evening.
Having finished the cabled mitts, I started thinking about knitting some lacy fingerless mittens. I have left over Nundle 4ply Retro from the Veronik socks, and I liked the lace pattern in that, so I figured it would probably be easy enough to make mittens around that idea.
It’s my niece’s 17th birthday in a few weeks; if these work, she might get a handmade birthday present – unless I decide to keep them for myself! I haven’t used a lacy tension, so the fabric of these is reasonably thick. The idea is that they’ll be warm, as well as decorative.
I had lunch with my friend Kerry yesterday, and she tried on the cabled fingerless mitts. They fit, and she likes the pattern, so I gave her the choice of the three colours I have the merino cashmere yarn in, and she chose the dark reds. I’ll start knitting hers shortly.
In exer-stash news – well, I’ve been a bit off-colour the past week, as DH shared his cold/flu bug with me. I didn’t get it very badly, but enough to make treadmilling an unwise option. Today, though, I was back on it – 2.5km in 31 mins 11secs, and $2.50 in the exer-stash fund. And I have the extra motivation of the bonus $5 if I walk 7 days in a row, so I’m planning to be good!
Just a fly-by post, since I’m madly finishing the copy-edits for my book, due to posted tomorrow.
The mitts are finished, and I managed not to stuff up the cables or anything else in mitt 2!
(Thanks to my DH for taking the photos.)
I’m very happy with the pattern, and the yarn, and look forward to wearing them when the weather gets cooler.
Now, I’d better get back to the copy-edits… after they’re done, I can start another knitting project, but not before!!
After all the problems with the two goes at the Jaywalker pattern, it’s a great feeling to actually knit something that fits first time!
Yes, I still have to knit the second one, and yes, I still have to find out if they’ll fit Kerry (and whether she’ll like them), but for the moment I’m feeling good about this. There’s enough in the skein to knit two pairs, which is great, because I definitely want a pair for myself!
ETA – Okay, it took me a while to see it, despite having photographed the glove and admired it for half of the day. But yes, there is an oopsie in that there glove. Damn. Damn. Damn. Either I get to frog it back (I don’t think I wanna), or that glove will have to become mine… but will the mistake annoy me forever? Or will I be able to achieve a zen-like acceptance of it?
Me and the Jaywalker pattern aren’t having much luck. I didn’t think I had particularly thick ankles, but they’re obviously not as slim anymore as some people’s are, because even knitting the Jaywalker on needles two three sizes larger than those recommended in the pattern, it’s coming out too tight. I can get the sock on, but it’s not the comfy type of sock sizing I like. I phoned my sister in Canberra, asked her to measure her ankle in case hers is a lot smaller then mine, but there’s not that much difference.
So, I’ve decided to frog the merino/cashmere jaywalker sock that I’d almost finished. Sniff.
To ease the pain, however, I’ve already started using that yarn for some fingerless gloves. I promised my friend Kerry some warm ones last year, but the merino/angora that I spun for the purpose is too fine. So, I’m trying out the merino/cashmere on a glove pattern. I found the free Serpentine mitts pattern, which is the right yarn size, and general style. I wasn’t too keen on the particular cable pattern, so I’ve just used the pattern for proportions and structure, and am doing a different cable pattern. I’m pleased with how it’s coming along so far:
If Kerry doesn’t like these, I’ll be more than happy to keep them myself!!
I’m still planning to use the handspun angora, but think I will knit it along with a strand of 2ply wool. When I dig out the 2ply from the depths of my cupboard, I’ll knit a swatch with the two together and see how that goes. I’m hoping it will knit to the equivalent of a 5ply or thereabouts (light worsted in US terms?) I don’t have a heap of the angora, so there won’t be enough for gauntlet-type gloves, but if it works, there should be enough for a pair of basic fingerless gloves.
