omg--it's not stripey!

I've had this skein of Malabrigo Sock for at least two years now, and I've tried to knit it up into various things, but I haven't liked any of them. Finally, in complete despair, I knit it into a fairly plain shawl-thing: The Age of Brass and Steam Kerchief.



I modified the pattern for fingering weight--basically I did 30 rows in each stockinette section--and it turned out a decent size.

I still don't like it much. I tried it on, you know, with the point in front all stylish and whatnot, and I look like such a poser.



I did have some fun with the macro feature on my camera, though! And here's how much yarn I had left:



I think this may end up in the handmade grab bag this Christmas, unless I figure out someone who really needs it as a gift before that. I do have one friend and one cousin who really really like purple . . .

a fit of the stripeys.

You guys. I can't stop. I might need an intervention.



I have several color combinations I still want to try.



And I'm making a purple thing out of this damn Malabrigo Sock that just won't look nice no matter what I do with it. Let this be a lesson to me: Don't Buy Variegated Yarn.

Stripey Mitt Recipe

Because what the heck, right?



Anyway, if you want to make your own Stripey Mitts, here's the general scoop. And by the 'general scoop' I mean this is How I Made Mine. Your hand size and gauge may vary.

Fingering Weight Stripey Mitts

I used:

Patons Kroy FX in Clover Colors
Patons Kroy in Black
Knit Picks Palette in Garnet Heather (the Palette is noticeably thinner than the Kroy, but it works out ok)

US 1 (2.25mm) dpns

My gauge appears to be 8 1/2 stitches per inch. I would say these mitts would fit a ladies small or medium hand. My palms are about 7.25 inches around.

Here's what you do:

Cast on 57 stitches, join to knit in the round. Don't twist them!

Knit 5 rows seed stitch.



Start striping! I did five-row stripes, and you'll probably want to do jogless joins, where you knit one round of the new color, and then on the first stitch of the second round of the new color you pick up the stitch below it (in the old color) and you knit those together.

Knit stripes for as long as you'd like your cuff to be. My red-and-rainbow mitts have seven stripes before the thumb gusset.

Now decide where you want your seam to fall. If you're jogless joining, it won't be much of a seam, but I like to put them on the palm of the hand anyway. So for one hand you'll want to start your gusset about sixteen stitches after the start of the round, and on the other hand you'll want to start sixteen stitches before the start of the round.



For the gusset, knit to the desired spot, place a marker if you want, and then M1, K1, M1. Knit two rounds. Repeat these three rounds--still striping!--until your gusset is the size you want. I increased to 19 stitches, at which point I was about halfway through the red stripe. I finished the red stripe, not increasing any more, knit one round in the rainbow stuff, and then on the next round put the 19 gusset stitches on waste yarn, cast on one to cover the gap, and striped to the end of the mitt.



For the final stripe, knit one round plain, five rounds of seed stitch, and bind off.

Now go back to the thumb and put those stitches on your dpns. Pick up two stitches to fill in the gap, and knit the four rows of rainbow stripe, decreasing a few stitches if you need to to make it fit. Re-attach the red, knit one round plain, and then three or so rows of seed stitch. Bind off, sew in all the ends, and there you have it!



Clear as mud, right?

The worsted gloves are pretty much the same, only I cast on 36 and did stripes of four, with two or three rows of garter stitch as the 'cuffs.' ETA: Oh, and unless you have ginormous thumbs, you'll probably want to keep the gusset around 13 stitches. :)

stripey things.

Ok, so the first thing isn't stripey. The first thing is a bunch of drying yarn that I have reclaimed from other items. The purple is from a sweater I decided I didn't want to finish, the blue is some Trekking from the second pair of socks I ever made (they were ankle socks, and I didn't wear them anymore, and I feel the need to stripe that blue with some off-white. OMG they are going to be fabulous mitts) and the black was my very favorite sweater in the early bit of this century, but it got a bit chewed so I shall now turn it into something else.



And now we get to the stripes! Some nice worsted stripes. These mitts took no time at all to make. I have no idea what I'm going to do with them, but for some reason I had to make them.





Seriously, I'm having this weird obsession with stripes. I don't even know what to do. I don't know if anyone but me would ever want the SUPER LOUD pink and green ones, but the red + rainbow ones are for a friend who has been sadly hinting that I never make her anything. (There are reasons why I never make her anything, but we don't need to go into all that here. Suffice it to say that I think she'll like them, and it lets me knit some stripes, so everybody wins.)

pictures!

I got a little camera-happy today. Check it out! Here's the stripey sweater:





And some stripey mitts:



And my Firebird Lace Socks--well, one of them--all tested and looking spiffy:

by the way

I forgot to mention in the last post: I finished the stripey sweater, and it blocked beautifully and is kind of awesome. Of course I have no photos, but believe me, it's pretty sweet. Sure, the body could be a little narrower, and I really wish I had enough green for long sleeves (there is a chance I will see if I have enough yarn for long sleeves by knitting the forearms and grafting them on) but on the whole I like it a lot.

I'll take pictures soon, because I do wear it a lot. Maybe I'll even wear it today! We'll see if I have a decent long-sleeved shirt to wear under it.

And now I need to think of a new Big Project to make, even though, yeah, have not finished any of the things I'm supposed to finish. We're having a bit of Family Health Drama, so I am a bit distracted.

stuff I am knitting!

Do I win a prize for the Most Imaginative Post Title Ever? My apologies.

Anyway, here's what I'm working on now!

I'm test-knitting a pattern for the lovely Greenethumb (oh hey, if you scroll down a bit at that link, you just might see some items you'll recognize!) and here is the toe:



There's some v. pretty lace going on on the rest of the sock.

And here are some stripey mitts I'm making. Just your basic mitt pattern, made awesome by some striping action and Patons Kroy FX. I've had the idea for these mitts in my head since before Christmas, and I'm quite pleased to say that they look just like they looked in my head. This doesn't happen all that often.



These mitts are a Yay Chemo Is Over! present for a friend of mine.

Ugh, and I really, really need to finish the Goldfish Mittens before winter is over, but for some reason I can't gin up any enthusiasm for doing those wee thumbs, even though I very much enjoy the 'magic' of an afterthought thumb.