Burgundy Fetching Fingerless Gloves

Not much crafting going on in these parts.  Somehow there are too many other things to do and I'm exhausted by the time evening comes and my eyes don't want to do anymore close up work.  Hoping this is a temporary lull, but we'll see.  Maybe it's also due to the new Verizon Fios Triple-Play installation that has me playing with the TV more!

I did manage to knit a new pair of fingerless gloves from the "Fetching" pattern that I love.  I thought I had lost my favorite purple pair, but I found them again after I was half-way through knitting.  No problem... I can always use another pair.  These are made from Paton's Classic wool in burgundy.  A little snug, but they 'fit like a glove' as the saying goes.  I'm sure they will stretch some as well. 

The wristwatch does actually have a face and hands.  The camera just couldn't see them.

Reindeer Ornament and Mitts

So two finishes to show today. I'm amazed I rallied to do this.  Ezia Gladstone of New York Dreamer had a very cool reindeer design in the 2015 JCS ornament issue.  I didn't plan to stitch it since part of its coolness was due to the hand-dyed threads needed and I wasn't up to mail ordering those just for the purpose.  Then I saw a finish of it on a FB group that looked quite different from the one in the magazine.  I'm not sure whether the stitcher changed colors or not, but I got inspired to pick my own colors for another look.  I stitched it over-one on 30 ct Northern Cross natural linen.  This is a very stiff linen, almost akin to needlepoint canvas.  I didn't really mind that, but it was unexpected.  The major change was to a darker gray for the reindeer's body.  I went for a flatfold finish.. good companion to the two little Bambi's in my previous post.  Again, I did the 3-color braid for the trim.  This will make a cute little gift as well...somewhat non-traditional colors (DMC 3787, 738, 4140 , 938 for the highlight on the scarf and 815 or 816 for the nose).

I had bought a ball of Paton's Jade Classic Wool last year to knit a couple of pairs of fingerless gloves, but I never got around to doing that project.  Something made me pick it up recently and I did a really quick and easy pattern called Wabi Mitts.  The link will take you to the free pattern on Ravelry.  The interesting thing was the thumb gusset done in reverse stockinette.  I had a little trouble with the odd instructions for the thumb, but these are for me so no problem.  I wanted a pair that  fit and didn't have long cuffs for indoor wear.  I think I reached my objective. These are really more of blue-green than the way they look on my monitor.   

Wrist warmers & fingerless gloves

Finally the frogs took a holiday and I managed to finish the wrist warmers I had been knitting, knitting and re-knitting.  They certainly are not without errors, but at least they are finished.  I think they are good enough to give as a gift.   I'm hoping the recipient will appreciate the effort anyway.  These are the Phytolith Fingerless Mitts, a free ravelry pattern.  The yarn is Knit Picks Swish worsted in Indigo.   No thumb or thumbhole.  Easy to slide back up your wrist if you want to get them out of the way.  Easy to knit if you don't go all Walter Mitty and make tons of mistakes!

Fearing that I wouldn't want to give them as a gift, I knitted a pair of old, reliable Fetching Fingerless Gloves as a backup.  I think I can knit those in my sleep now.  I've made this pair in the same Paton's Classic Wool as I did a couple of years ago.  Now I can give these to someone else and I've knocked out another hand made gift.

 

I also finished up a card from one of the motifs in the Prairie Schooler Button-up Snow series.  I think this little guy making a snow angel is my favorite one of those.

 

 And I leave you with the latest appointment reminder card I received from my dentist.  Apparently they no longer use the term 'recall cards' for the negative connotation that word has acquired over the years.  

 

Wrist warmers and lighthouses

It's about that time of year when I get the urge to knit or crochet.  Of course, since I do this so seldom, I feel like I have to re-learn all the little tips and tricks and I figured out last time.   I bought some chestnut colored Wool-Ease to play with and tried out a couple of fingerless glove patterns that I had saved some time ago.   The first is a knitted pattern called Malabrigo Hand Thingies that I used to practice the double-pointed needles knitting in the round.  Had to make three gloves to get two to fit, but these are really warm and snuggly.  They don't look much like the samples from knitters on Ravelry so I must have misinterpreted something in the way I did the slip stitch, but I'm happy with them all the same.

 

Next, I tried a crochet pattern that had been on my radar for a long time.  These are shell stitch wrist warmers by Drops. Kirsten first showed them to me, but the pattern was in German with a crochet diagram and I was too intimidated to try it.  The pattern has been translated to English now, and I am better at reading diagrams, so I gave it a shot.  It was still a bit difficult to understand, but I looked at the photos of finishes very closely and figured out what I couldn't follow from the directions.  After that, it was a breeze.  Crochet zips along so quickly that I finished these in no time.  Another very warm pair.    I might not keep both pair for myself, but I do like them both.

And not to neglect cross-stitch, I signed up to do a square for a lighthouse-themed quilt at World of Charity Cross Stitching.  The theme didn't appeal to me, but when I discovered I had a suitable design of just the right size in Sue Cook's "Wonderful Cross Stitch Collection" right on my bookshelf, I considered it an omen.  It's stitched on White Monaco.  I changed the blue sky background to half-cross stitch to make it go faster.  The effect of that is to make the lighthouses really pop.  Couldn't escape doing the porthole borders.  They were small at least.

Valentine Birdie

I can't let Valentine's Day go by without making at least one Valentine's card. For this one, I used the Valentine Bird design from Heart In Hand Needleart. I picked all my own colors and added that funky little striped heart.. free form heart stitching. The brown is a little lighter chocolate than the photo would have you think. I like the sparkly stickers too, although you can't see the glitter in the photo. I'm not always happy with my cards, but this is one of my favorites.



With that half skein of Patons Classic Wool blue denim yarn left-over from the last pair of gloves I made, I figured I'd try out a different pattern. These are made from the Honeycomb Wristwarmer pattern. I love them! They are a bit longer than the Fetching pattern and very warm. The thumb gusset fits just right! They worked up really fast too. The honeycomb pattern is an alternating knit one, slip one stitch so you really reduce the number of stitches from stockinette, say, by 25% if you consider the slipped stitch as 1/2 a stitch. Plus the body of the glove is all stockinette so no referring to a pattern constantly and no pesky cables! The thumb didn't require any extras stitches to be picked up and knit so no big holes to worry about either.



The color is more true to life in these photos:

Autumn Button Baby Sampler

Another new baby boy arrived in November for my friend who had her first one a couple of years ago. I decided to make a companion baby sampler to go with the one I stitched for the first baby. You can see the first one on this post. Both designs are from the Homespun Elegance Button Sampler series. For the latest little bundle of joy, I stitched the Autumn Baby Sampler. I did this mostly in the suggested DMC alternatives. Several of those used the blended needle technique to give a tweeding effect. For the pumpkins, I used DMC color variations. The fabric was a piece of Rue Green 36ct Edinburgh linen that had been waiting in my stash for a good use. I added a little wooden leaf button at the bottom since I omitted the squirrel buttons in the corners as shown on the original pattern.


The trickiest part was the squirrel tail and acorn top. They are done in French knots just packed in to give that textured effect. This would have been a disaster if all the French knots had to be the same size, but not a problem for this kind of thing.


One of my non-stitching friends happened to look at my blog one day and grew very fond of my Fetching fingerless gloves. I told her the knitting fairy might help her out. The knitting fairy doesn't usually like to knit the same thing twice, so these gloves were done in Patons Classic Wool, New Denim. These knitted up smaller than the ones I made for myself. It's a good thing because my friend's hands are about half the size of mine.


I've decided to participate in a year-long SAL on the San-Man Board called "The Birthday Village". Each month will bring a different building in the village. Someone on that board started the SAL on linen banding and when I saw a piece that would work and was on sale at 123 Stitch, I couldn't resist. The piece is Mill Hill 27ct Simplicity Banding in Natural. It's 3.5" wide and almost all of that area is stitchable since this banding has only a very narrow selvedge. Here's the January house all stitched up and waiting for it's next door neighbor to arrive in February if the schedule is upheld.

Diamond Wrist Warmers and Elephant Coin Purse

With a whole ball of yarn left over after the last set of fingerless gloves, I decided to knit a second pair with a thumb gusset. This pattern was designed for a much larger hand than mine, but I didn't feel like ripping it out after I had finished the first one and made this discovery. So I just knit the second glove with fewer stitches cast on and it came out perfect. One of those patterns you have to concentrate closely on to ensure you don't mess it up. Still find I have some large holes to stitch up where the thumb joins the base. Maybe I'll figure out why that happens eventually. These are the Diamond Hand Wristwarmers by Micah Hazlett.




I recently discovered that a friend of mine collects elephants (not live ones thank goodness). Always wondered why she had a giant plush elephant on a chair in the living room, but I never noticed the curio cabinet behind it that had the most amazing collection of figurines. As a little New Year's gift, I crocheted the Crochet A Little elephant again, this time in pink. I made a quick little zippered change purse and sewed the motif on the front. On the back I sewed another of Wendy's tatting motifs. It has just enough batting to give it a little body.

Fetching Fingerless Gloves

We were very lucky in the DC area to escape the monster snowstorm that wreaked havoc along the East Coast. But it has been very cold with extremely high winds. So I am delighted that I finished knitting a pair of fingerless gloves to cope with this weather. I love wearing them at the keyboard, when I'm reading and when I do needlework. They make me feel warm all over.

I used the free Fetching pattern from Knitty.com. This is a very popular pattern among knitters and I can see why. It's fun to knit and fits pretty well. The name is based on the fact that the cables on each glove twist 'fetchingly' toward each other. I love the picot bind off edging at the top too. This is my first foray into gloves knitted in the round on DPN's. The thumb was the trickiest part and I still need to work on that. These are done in Knit Picks worsted weight Swish yarn, Amethyst Heather.




I signed up to grant a mini-wish on the San-Man board. One of the members wanted a heart-shaped coaster. I planned to crochet one, but I didn't like the results. So I stitched this little freebie heart from Mausimom and added a crocheted rick-rack border. The fabric is a piece of hand painted 18 ct Khaki Aida from Sassy's Fabbys. I'll back it with felt or maybe fun foam.

Knit/Crochet Fingerless Gloves

My hands are freezing at the keyboard as I type this. It's a great winter for those trendy fingerless gloves, whether for texting on the subway, working at your desk or even for stitching. Before I dared try the double-pointed needles, I made this pair for Kirsten. These are a combination of knitting and crochet. They are stitched flat and seamed on the side leaving a space for the thumb to poke through. I first saw them while watching the Knit and Crochet Now tv show. You can find the pattern on the site, but you have to register. It's shown on Episode 222. The pattern as designed included beads at the cuff, but I omitted those.

They are done in Knit Picks DK weight Swish yarn in Marble Heather. This is a soft super-wash wool. I'm becoming quite a fan of Knit Picks.

They turned out a little large, but Kirsten has worn them already outside so I guess they stayed on! The hand in the photo is mine, not Kirsten's.




I sent them with this holiday card made from the Sweetheart Tree design in the JCS 2010 Ornament issue.



Yea for the international mail! This package took less than a week to go from DC to Germany.