Pattern: Fetching (but I modified it some)
Yarn: Knitpicks Merino Style (slightly more than one 50 gram ball per pair)
Needles: size 5 (3.75mm) 5" dpns
Modifications: With the yarn change and the small hands of the recipients, I knit these with 40 stitches and I added the fingers using the instructions in Ann Budd's pattern book. I cast off the fingers when they reached my knuckle (guessing my hands are about the same length as the recipients' ;-).
The white mittens have a braided cable pattern that's probably in a stitch dictionary somewhere but I fiddled it out at a knitting guild meeting (Candace Eisner Strick was talking that night - it was a special treat to sit and knit and fondle her designs - she even bicycles every morning :-) Wish I was dedicated enough to bike every morning. So for the braided cable mittens, I cast on 40 stitches but ribbed in a K3 P1 pattern (instead of the K4 P1 used in the Fetching pattern). Here's the cable pattern:
round 1 *P1, K3*, repeat until end of round
round 2 *P1 C2L K1*, repeat until end of round
round 3 *P1 K1 C2R*, repeat until end of round
repeat rounds 2 and 3 until the cabling is tall enough (for the cuff, I did 5 repeats so I had 5 cables crossing left and 5 crossing right over 10 rounds)
C2L and C2R are standard abbreviations but confused me a bunch when I first saw them. The C means 'cable' the 2 is the number of stitches involved and the L or R means which direction the top stitch crosses the bottom stitch.
C2L means the first stitch is crossed left in front of the second stitch
C2R means the second stitch is crossed right in front of the first stitch or the first stitch is crossed left in back of the second stitch
So C4L (found in the fetching pattern as C4F) means that 4 stitches are manipulated but 2 are crossed left in front of the other 2 which cross right in back. I like to take deep breaths when I read cable patterns - I think charts are definitely the way to go when it gets more complicated.
And I'm so behind that I haven't shown my one Thanksgiving picture. I got to spend it with my husbands' family (sadly I forgot to get my camera out of my bag) and my family. My mom decorated the tables beautifully - here's a picture of one of them
Until next time...school, the Tobey dog, Christmas knitting, and the dining room table project are calling
Can you see Tobey's paws crossed over one another? I could watch him sleep all day.
I originally posted this entry on stringtheories.wordpress.com
