« October 2007 | Main | March 2008 »
So a little while ago the Yarn Harlot posted a lovely pattern for a bulky-weight cabled hat, which she called the Unoriginal Hat.
I saw it and thought, I bet that Rowan Big Wool that's been languishing in my stash for a year now would work!
I knitted up the hat on the flight to Weatherwood last weekend (yes, it's that fast of a pattern). But it only used one skein of Big Wool, and I had two. Hence, the armwarmers in the picture above, and featured in the picture below.
They're as easy to knit as the hat, and use the same yarn, same needles, same gauge, even the same amount of yarn. (I had 4 yards left from the first skein after my hat. The mitts used all but 7 yards of the second skein.)
Pattern and notes under the jump.
I've been trying to figure out legwarmers for Miss T. They're useful; she twists and crawls, so there's often a gap to fill between socks and pants. Also, she has a pair of rainbow striped Babylegs that she loves.
I've made two pairs now, one from Lovesticks Frankensock (yes, I joined the Sweet Sheep's Self-Striping Sock Club -- I think my issues with stripes have become obvious by now):
and one from Artful Yarns Candy in Bubblegum:
Basically same pattern; the combination of ribbings is stolen from Nancy Bush's Madder Rib Socks, in Knitting Vintage Socks, and there are some increases along the leg, and a picot-ish bindoff on top.
So, the hard part for me with child knits is whether the child likes them. She loves both pairs as armwarmers. But screams that the first are "too tight!" if we try to apply them to her legs. The Babylegs have a degree of elasticity that can't be achieved in handknitting. In some sense the legwarmers are big enough; they fit on my arms comfortably, and are snug like socks on her. I wondered if the wool was the problem, which was why I switched to something as wildly different as the soft, nubbly, mostly cotton and slightly elastic Candy for the second pair. I also knit them to be much looser.
She will at least wear the new ones on her legs, which feels like a small victory.
Stash enhancement this weekend: locally raised and handspun worsted-weight alpaca. Each color they had felt different, and this has just unbelieveable body and a little sheen. I'm hoping to get a mesh scarf out of the 250 yards I got... I'm not normally a yarn petter, or an alpaca lover, but in the car on the way home I couldn't stop myself from pulling this out to stroke and admire. (Then again, the project I'd brought along had been making me carsick, so I didn't have anything I could just knit on.)
