A Glove Experiment Finished

I have finished my gloves! An experiment for me, turning my Mothers old glove pattern that was knitted on two needles into one knitted on double pointed needles. They are a much better fit than the last pair, & no seams to sew up. Just lots of ends to work in because I changed colours. Why do they fit better? Well, for one thing I used the size needles that they said in the pattern instead of what was suggested on the yarn label. I also made the little finger a few rows shorter.

For an even better fit for the next pair, I think I will knit the little finger first next time & start it a few rows lower. Now I have worked out the stitches for each finger, it will be quite easy to knit them little finger first.

A little too warm for these gloves now, but at least they are finished & ready for next winter.

A Tissue Cover

I have been busy stitching a cover for those little tissue packets we all tend to carry in our purses. One of the ladies in my embroidery group has been showing me how.

Worked on Dublin fabric with Perle thread in a pulled thread style of embroidery, they look so much prettier than plastic with brand names written all over them.

 

This is how they look flat, before being stitched up.My apologies for the quality & colourof the top pic, it was taken with my phone. The actual colour is more like the bottom pic which was done with a scanner.

Fabric

I wonder what I will make with this?

Colour

I had such a fun day on Saturday with my creative stitching group. One of the girls led us though a discussion on colour with some exercises to follow. I chose to use a pic from a food magazine & picked out the colours using some coloured pencils. I'd seen this done before of course but had never actually done it myself. I'd always seemed to miss out on this step in my colour choosing before. Later I matched up my colour swatches with some thread & fabric colours. It would be so interesting to play with these colours in a series of stitching exercises, where the colours are moved around from background to stitch, using different proportions of each colour in each stitching exercise.  Mmmm................food for thought!

My Feather & Fan Scarf Finished

My feather & fan scarf is now finished & ready for next winter. Just in time too as the weather is really warming up already & my hands were starting to sweat on occasions.

I've knitted feather & fan patterns before but not as a scarf. If ever I do another one I'll think about the pattern more. I'm really not happy with the ends looking different & am not quite sure what I could have done about it. I could perhaps have started in the center, knitted one way then the other, but I am not sure how that would have looked at the cast on area. Maybe a few rows of garter stitch would help & I am sure there is a method of casting on that will let you knit two ways.

I guess I could also  start two ends separately then graft them together in the center. At least then I would end up with two wavy ends the same with the pattern going the same direction when the scarf is being worn. Mmmm........... food for thought.

Note to self:- make notes on my pattern, practice some grafting, & research cast on methods.

A Glove Experiment

Back in June when the weather was cold I made an effort to knit my first ever pair of gloves. At the time I followed the pattern, changing only the yarn and needle size. The end result were these, complete with seams up each finger and one side of the hand. I declared then that my next pair were going to be without seams, & knitted on 4 needles.

So behold my 4 needle glove experiment. I have used the same pattern as before, just adapting it to 4 needles. So far so good. Then one day at a lace meeting, (which has been combined with a knitting group), someone had a book on knitted gloves which they had borrowed from the library upstairs. In this book it mentioned about knitting the little finger first if it was set lower into the hand. My pattern knits the index finger first. When I looked at my own hand I found that my little finger is set a good 1cm lower than my other three fingers. Mmm.......... what to do.

To knit from the little finger first I will have to sit with my pattern & really work it out. To knit  the index finger first, I think it will only be a little bit of adjusting the pattern, not so much thinking. Something I will have to sit in perfect quiet to do no matter which way I turn.

This pair of gloves is using remnants of the same red yarn as my previous pair, as well a a variegated yarn, both wool. Way too hot for gloves now but something else I want to get finished ready for when the cold strikes again in about 8 months time.

Knitting a Scarf in Feather & Fan

I can't believe it has been so long since I have posted anything here. I have been creating of course, every day, I've just been slack in sharing.


Above is a pic of my current knitting. Way too warm for it now of course with spring well & truly here, but this scarf will be perfect & ready for when the cold hits next year. It's in a two ply Cashmere & a Feather & Fan pattern. I purchased the yarn at the Sydney Craft & Quilt Fair back in June, and when I did so I had the choice of a few different complimentary patterns. My intentions were always of making a scarf in Feather  & Fan, & as this was one of the pattern choices, guess which one I chose. After all it saved me from working it all out by myself. The yarn sat there for a few weeks & I thought it might be a good project to take to do while away for a weekend back in July. The morning before we left I thought I would start it & have it on the way, so I could just pick it up & go. Mmmmmm............................ famous last words.

If I un-pulled that scarf once, I must have un-pulled it 50 times. The first few rows were fine, but after that I would end up with one stitch or more too many at the end of the row. At first I tried unpicking one stitch at a time, but the  yarn is fine & I was having trouble seeing the tiny stitches. I even tried using my magnifier. In the end it was easier just to pull the needles out & start again. I think I went through this process about four times on that first morning alone. Needless to say I packed some other stitching as well to take with me that weekend.

I did get some quiet time to myself that weekend, so tried again, and still ended up with the same problem, un-pulling it another few times. At one point I thought that it may have been an error in the pattern, but as the error was turning up in different rows I dismissed that idea. Can you imagine the frustration? I am not one to let a problem beat me, & usually the bigger the problem the better the challenge. My mind was thinking of all  the ways I could possibly solve the issue.

In the end, I sat in perfect quiet, with no distractions, & cheered every time I got to the end of a row with it correct. There were jumps of joy when I got the first repeat done with no errors. Yippee! Thank goodness also for my row counter, I haven' used it for a very long time but it sure has come in handy with this pattern.

My scarf is over half done now, taking much longer than I thought. The two ply yarn would have something to do with that I am sure. The weather is much too warm now for cashmere scarves, but I want to finish it before the weather gets too hot & while my hands can still handle the yarn without sweating. I fear if I leave it for something else now it will never get finished, and that is just not an option.