Quickie Gauntlets

You know how when people see something you've knit and are all, "wow- that's awesome! Make me one in blue!" and you just cringe on the inside because you know they have no idea how much time and effort goes into it? Well, imagine the opposite- one of your favorite people in the world, who supports your knitting and your general bloggy geekiness, sees a picture of some handwarmers that you've made and comments that he would absolutely adore a pair in charcoal gray. That was my situation, friends, and I was so crazy excited that I dropped all of my Christmas knitting to get these done in time for our holiday party on Saturday. Luckily, they were super quick and I had them finished, blocked, and wrapped up with plenty of time to spare.



Pattern: Symmetrical Braided Gauntlets
Yarn: One skein of Filatura Di Crosa Wave (75% wool, 25% silk)
Needles: Size 7 DPNs
Modifications: Because yarn was DK weight, I cast on 39 stitches instead of 35.
Lessons learned: I learned to cable without a cable needle and I have seen the light! It is so easy and saves so much time.



I've made this pattern before (see a pic here), but this second time around I realized that I actually didn't follow the directions the first time- I continued the ribbing throughout the glove instead of switching to stockinette as the pattern instructs. It's all good, though- I like it both ways.

I was a little iffy about the yarn at first, but I picked it out because it was the perfect color. I knit up a couple inches and had some serious misgivings about how it would look, but I persisted and I'm so glad I did. After wet blocking, the yarn bloomed up and the cables popped out. Also, I think the slubbiness of the silk creates a more manly look.

If there ever was a boy who could rock the fingerless gloves in Miami, it's Kris. He wore these to brunch yesterday and looked positively adorable.



P.S. This picture was taken at 11:30 a.m. and he is totally drinking red wine out of that mug. See now why he's one of my favorite people in the world?

Textured Circle Shrug

I've been working on this shrug for months- I got hung up on the step where you have to pick up almost 300 stitches. I finally got back in the game when the Lion Brand blog had a knit-a-long that Stefanie Japel herself led, which inspired me to pick this up again and get going.



I have been wearing this around for about a week and just loving it, so I was really hoping to get some great pictures to show off its awesomeness. Unfortunately, our camera is on the fritz so these are going to have to do.



Pattern: Textured Circle Shrug from Stefanie Japel's Glam Knits
Size: 36-38 bust size (second-to-smallest)
Yarn: 6 skeins of Bernat Soy Natural Blends in Oatmeal



Peacock Chic, a blogger I love, always describes her projects in terms of the good, the bad, and the ugly. I am going to steal that idea to describe this.

The good:
- My friend Kris, who is fantastic in every way, brought me Glam Knits when he came to visit a few months ago. It somehow made it more fun to knit this, because it made me think of him.
- I really like how functional this piece is. I think it's going to be great for the fall; I can see myself wearing it at work all the time.
-I got this yarn on major clearance at Michael's a few years ago so I believe this shrug cost about $12. It's 50% acrylic, but the soy makes it soft and I actually kind of liked it. I decided to use it for this project because it has a nice drape and I wanted the shrug to be drapier and silkier than the one in the book. I think it worked!

The bad:
-The miles and miles of 1X1 ribbing- it was cool at first because I needed some mindless knitting in my life, but after something like 70 rounds of k1p1, with around 300 stitches per row, I was SO ready to have this finished.
-I really don't like the holes that are made by the M1P increases. I would absolutely do these differently next time.

The ugly:
-I am kind of famous for my problems understanding spatial dynamics, so it is no surprise that I wasn't thinking about how the shrug would lie on my body and ended up weaving in all the ends on the collar incorrectly. There were tons of knots in the yarn and therefore tons of ends to weave in, so when I got finished and put the thing on there were 7 different places where you could totally see the messy ends sticking out. I had to take them all out and re-weave them in on the other side of the fabric.
-These pictures are kind of ugly, too, but I went ahead and included them to show how it fits. Please ignore the strange lumps under my tank top and the weirdo look on my face.



All in all, a great project that I'm happy to have finished. I just started Sexy Vesty today and guess what? I am thick in the middle of more 1X1 ribbing!