Cabled Gloves

I found a really cute mitten pattern online here (the pattern is available for free at the right of that page.) I didn't want to make full mittens though, since I find fingers to be quite useful. So I modified the pattern a bit, and cast on for fingerless gloves made using a slightly adjusted version of the cabling.

Here's the first little bit of knitting on them. You can see a little bit of the Harmony DPNs I was working with.

The knitting went really well. I finished the first glove without a problem, and the second one flew by as well. I weaved in the ends of the 2nd glove, tried them on, and this is what I saw:


I (accidentally) did an extra bit of cabling on the second (left-hand) glove! The result was that a) it looked funny and b) the gloves were different lengths. Luckily it was a quick fix - just ripped back 6 or 7 rows and knit the 4 I was supposed to. Here's a picture of the finished product:

(That's a picture of me behind them, unfortunately, I don't have a picture of them on the recipient.)

If you're interested:
Yarn: Telemark from KnitPicks in Cobalt
Needles: Size 4 (Harmony DPNs)
Pattern: Chevalier

Shedir

For Christmas my college friends sent me the pattern, needles and yarn to knit Shedir, a cabled hat from knitty. I really like cabling, and the pattern on this hat is beautiful. It's also pretty complex, which is nice- I like it when my knitting makes me think, especially when it is winter break and I have plenty of time to knit when I'm not studying. Unusually for me, I didn't fuss with the pattern, other than the original yarn substitution. I've seen many versions of this hat online, and most people repeated the saxon braid 3 or 4 times instead of the 5 that the pattern calls for. I repeated it 5 times- the resulting hat is very deep- it covers my ears- but I like this in a winter hat. If you prefer hats that don't cover most of your forehead, I would suggest doing the repeat only 4 times- the hat was designed as a chemo hat, so the goal is to cover over people's hairlines.
This version was knit with Cascade 220 superwash wool, color 866. The pattern calls for size three needles, creating a nice, dense hat. Nice and warm to wear out in the snow. I also have a but of an obsession with knitting yarn on oddly-sized needles, if you haven't noticed- I like the resulting changes in texture.

The pattern, if you are interested, is available at: http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall04/knittyF04surp.pdf. Happy knitting!

Star Hat

Sometimes, I enjoy a spot of color work. I'm particularly fond of fair isle, but I'm willing to try pretty much anything.

This hat is a variation on the "Sunny Flower Fez" from the book Folk Knits. I say variation because I'm generally incapable of following patterns and in this instance changed the color scheme, yarn choice, yarn weight in general, needle size, gauge, and embroidery pattern. (Don't worry, the hat still fits!) (To be fair, the substitutions were made in a calculated, planned out fashion. It fits quite well.) I knit this with Berroco Peruvia, which is a 100% wool yarn that I am quite fond of. The colors here are saddle brown (a dark brown heather), boysenberry (a purple heather), palomino blue (a turquoise heather) and abusar (a blue heather). I knit it with size seven needles (the ball band recommended size 10s, the pattern recommended 5s, I own 7s) so the fabric is a bit on the dense side, which I find desirable in a winter hat. Since the hat didn't remind me of flowers in the colors that I knit it (what kind of flower has a turquoise center?) I embroidered points instead of petals.

Because of the larger gauge, the hat knit up pretty quickly, and I can say from personal experience that it is quite warm and soft. And, most excitingly, I have a lot of leftover yarn...

Simple Scarf

In addition to doing fun cables and interesting things with yarn, sometimes I really like to have a basic project. They're perfect for knitting during movies or other times where I'd like my attention to be elsewhere. This winter, I finally used some yarn I received last Christmas, it was by Berroco Hip-Hop, a really bright multicolored thick-and-thin yarn. Here's what it looked like before knitting it up

I cast on 24 stitches on size 13 needles and knit in 2x2 rib for two skeins worth of yarn.

The result was this scarf


And here's a closeup of the fabric


I haven't worked much with thick-and-thin yarns before (or singles for that matter). It was definitely tricky keeping tension even, and I found that with this yarn I got a lot of yarn doughnuts, which was annoying. It's also very fuzzy, which you can get a sense of from that last picture.