Thursday, October 19, 2006
In Which I Thank You And Describe How I Altered Fetching
Second, as promised, here are my first pair of Fetching fingerless gloves:
Sorry for the crappy photo. The one in Monday's post is much better.
Pattern: Fetching by
Yarn: Classic Elite Wings (yellow, overdyed by me with Brilliant Blue ProChem dye)
Needles: 3.5mm double points
Pattern Alterations: These notes won’t make much sense unless you have the original pattern in front of you.
- I didn’t like the fabric I was getting with the 4mm needles called for in the pattern, so I went down two needle sizes to a 3.5mm (U.S. #4).
- The yarn I used, Classic Elite Wings, had a bit more yardage than the yarn called for in the pattern so even though I have very small hands, I decided to make the gloves just a bit longer since I read that other knitters have found they are somewhat short in the cuff. After I completed the last cable of the cuff, I knit the ribbing for 21 rounds instead of 18.
- I loved that the cables for the left and right gloves were crossed in the opposite direction, but I didn’t like that the thumb was not centered over the 4x1 ribbing. I didn’t realize that until I had completed the first glove (which is the left glove). So when I knit the right glove, I inserted the waste yarn for the thumb near the end of the round instead of at the beginning. Specifically, on that round I worked 37 stitches in the 4x1 ribbing, inserted the waste yarn into the next 7 sts, then purled that last stitch. This resulted in the thumbs of the two gloves being mirror images. See:
- As an added bonus, the change I made to the thumbs also resulted in the end of the round being positioned on the palm side of both gloves which means it is less noticeable
- After I placed the waste yarn for the thumb, I worked 6 rounds of 4x1 ribbing, worked the cable, then worked the thumb. Because I completed the thumb first and had already split the single skein of yarn into two smaller skeins, I just knit the hand until I ran out of yarn. I was able to work 6 rounds of 4x1 ribbing after the cable. I would have liked to make a second cable, but I didn't have enough yarn.
- I abandoned the picot bind off and just bound off all the stitches in purl to prevent the top edge from rolling
- When I worked the thumb, I picked up 3 sts in each corner instead of two, and knit the thumb for 8 rounds instead of 4. I picked up the corner stitches by lifting the stitch and knitting it through the back loop. This twists the stitch and minimizes holes. I bound the thumb stitches off in purl, too.
That’s about it. I think the pattern is a clever use of a single skein of yarn. I love the gloves and will probably make a few more pairs after I finish my current crisis knitting. I’m thinking Classic Elite Lush would be a nice substitute for the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran since it has a whopping 123 yards in each 50g skein but knits up at about the same gauge.
Tomorrow or Saturday I’ll show you the second pair I made and tell you how I altered the pattern just a bit more.