pepperknit

On Friday, I cleaned up my knitting basket–the one that sits next to the couch and houses my most current projects and random knitting piffle–and even formed some loose balls into new balls. Then I looked at the stash and thought, “What can I get out of this?”

Easily enough, I can make the very sweet “Garter Stitch Jacket and Bootees” from Debbie Bliss’s Quick Baby Knits. I’ve made the booties from this pattern before, but I have enough of this yarn to do a matching set. I’m not entirely sure who the set will be for, yet. It’s one of two people with babies–one is pregnant, and in fact 2 years ago I bought this yarn for her then-pregnancy, but she miscarried. So it seems natural to give it to her, but we’re not as close as we once were, so it might be weird. The other is for a friend who’s already had her kiddo, but who will be 9 months around Christmastime, so I’m making the 9 month pattern. Anyway, it’ll all work out.

I just started it late Friday night, and I’m about halfway thru, I believe. It’s so super easy, what with being just garter stitch. I can actually watch TV while doing it, and I’m actually watching TV. Or I can have a conversation and look my friend in the eye. The best thing about a baby sweater in garter stitch is that as soon as you get really bored with just knitting, you have some shaping to do.

I’m using Rowan Cotton Glace in a discontinued color–it’s name is “fizz.” I really love this yarn; I made a baby sweater for a friend’s kid with it last year, too. (Here’s a pic of that. Color “sunshine.”)

It was the cover sweater for Quick Baby Knits–the ballet top. Yeah, for a boy. It works. Plus I’m not into enforcing gender stereotypes.

As I said, I finished these on Wednesday, I simply didn’t have the camera handy. I’m really happy with the way they turned out; they fit my hands like a glove! (ha. ha. ha.)

The nitty gritty of the pattern was:

• size 3 dpns
• CO 39 stitches; k2 p1 rib for 2.5 inches
• increase to 44 stitches
• work 3 rows of pattern
• begin thumb gusset; continue working thumb gusset until it has 13 stitches, then remove to a stitch holder
• finish hand
• pick up 8 stitches along top edge of thumb hole, work thumb.

I used my ball winder for the very first time today! It was a highlight of the day, most definitely.

While my momentum is actually here, I am thinking about my next project. Knitty’s all-men issue has an awesome pair of mittens–the manly mitts. I’m no stranger to stranded knitting (someday I’ll post the photo of the Christmas stocking I made last winter), and I’ve been wanting new mittens. I still really like my double-thick mittens, but they are falling apart, and I’d like to try making a new type, anyway. (New challenges and all that.)

Must revamp the pattern, though, to fit my girlie hands, rather than the manly hands they’ve been designed for. The pattern’s smallest size is 9.3 inches around. Without measuring, I’m pretty sure my hand is about 7 inches around. I should go measure it. I was nearly right! 7.5 inches.

Looks like 56 stitches are worked around once you’re above the thumb gusset. (Pattern would be nice if it gave you this amount!) So 56 stitches = 9.3 inches. So about 45 stitches would be 7.5 (scale-down factor of approximately 0.8). But if I need it to be divisible by 4, then . . . 44.

But now I need to determine the caston amount. Proportionally, going from the pattern’s 48 stitches, I’d want approximately 38. I could do 39, then. Increase proportionally to about 41, but it should be a multiple of 4, so we could increase to 42. Is that too small a difference? Why make the cuff a smaller number of stitches if it’s that close? I guess every little bit helps. Then when I take out the thumb gusset stitches, I only need 2 to cover the distance.

I don’t know if this makes sense–I’m tired!–or if it’s at all useful to anyone else. But there it is. That’s how I scale down a pattern. I need to find my stash of worsted weight yarn. I swear I put it all together in a box, but when I look in the storage closet, that box is not immediately apparent to me.

The gift package for mom ended up looking like this. Papery didn’t have any gift boxes, so I went with this nifty heavy-paper bag. The bow is atop a leather butterfly affixed to the bag. I thought it was really fun. The tissue paper, though you can’t tell, has just a little bit of sparkle. Fabulous.

I finished it! You’ll notice that the ends on the straps are not woven in; I decided to leave them all long and then if it’s too long or too short Mom can then either change it herself (nice gift I’m giving, huh!) or I can fix it later. Either way, I need the extra ribbon there so that I don’t have to attach a new end or anything.

Apologies for the quality of the shot. It’s late, I don’t have great lighting in the apartment, and, well, I can’t be bothered. I’ll take more shots, I’m sure. Plus I’ll need to get one of mom in the sweater. It’ll never look great until then.