Version 2s, or new and improved

Let's face it, like a lot of knitters out there, I am a bit lazy. I really should start by reading the pattern carefully, thinking about any modifications I want to make, drafting them and then starting. Sometimes I read others' comments on Ravelry. Most of the time, I skim the pattern, start knitting and then realise how I could have changed it to make my life easier (its always about making my life easier!).

This is partly why the second time around is always easier. So for my friends' Christmas knits this year I decided to make the modified versions of a few projects I have made in the past year to see if there are any improvements.

First was Almond Comfit. For my version I used a variegated yarn and I made the medium size, which makes it more beret-like because there is a lot more body to the hat. For my friend I opted for the smaller size because her head is, I think, smaller, but after trying it on myself I decided that I would have preferred this one too. It still has an element of slouchiness (so its not quite a beanie) but its more tightly fitted and I think perhaps more flattering. I also used plain colour yarn and so the flower is now far more visible. All in all, I would say an improvement!

Next were the Lush Lace mitts, which I also made earlier this year and I love! But I figured that they can easily be made on the round throughout, and still add the buttons for prettiness. At first I converted all the stitches to knitting on the round (so knit all round for stockinette, purl all round for reverse stockinette and knit on RS/purl on WS for garter). Then I realised that the garter stitch was only there to 'house' the buttons so I decided (around row 6) to switch to reverse stockinette and reduce the number of stitches so that there are only 2, as with the reverse stockinette in the middle of the pattern (in between the two blocks of lace). 

So, to cut a long story short, if you want to convert this one to knit on the round, cast on 30 stitches instead of 32, and do two stitches in reverse stockinette (so purl all rows) in between the two blocks of lace (which should be in knit throughout). I added two buttons but because its made in the round you can get away with just having them plain.

Finally, we have Catching Butterflies, which have become my favourite lightweight mitts. When I first made them I had thought that the body didn't need to be as long, and so that only two (rather than three) repeats before the thumb would work just as well. I had also considered making the top a little longer to increase finger coverage for warmth. For these, I only shortened the body but kept the top the same as I have found that I quite like the length for those not-so-cold days (the yarn is not warm enough anyway when its actually cold). 

These were probably my least successful V2s, mainly due to the yarn choice rather than the modification. The original was made with a merino yarn (Debbie Bliss Rialto 4-ply), which is softer and has better stitch definition than the yarn I used here (I had had it in my stash for ages, I am not 100% sure what it is but I think its Regis wool sock yarn). I also have a feeling that this yarn was a bit finer than the one I used for the originals. 

Regardless, it is clear that they work just as well shorter, so if you are feeling a bit lazy or are short of yarn, then go for it. 

I also messed up the thumb slightly (its in purl rather than knit, or rib, which I think is what the original pattern called for), but we can pretend that this was a design feature ;)

Barter economy with an old favourite, Fetching

I got a knitting commission! Well, actually this is not my first, but it's the first that I actually completed in exchange for something. I call this 'barter economy' because the exchange was with my yoga teacher, and she is paying me in classes :).

Her request was simple: fingerless gloves, in bright pink (thankfully still have lots of the pink Manos yarn), with minimum finger coverage. I personally am not a big fan of the non-thumbed fingerless gloves, so I wasn't really aware of any nice ones that were constructed in the round and did not have a thumb (and as you know, I tend to avoid seams in knitting, so did not want to knit them flat). By browsing trusty Ravelry, I came a cross a few patterns that constructed a thumbhole by including a few rows of knitting back and forth, and so I decided to use that logic to modify an old favourite, Fetching.

At the time of writing, Fetching had 20,314 projects on Ravelry! There's a reason it's so popular: the pattern is well-written, the gloves are simple and fast to knit, yet still look impressive because of the cables, and unless modified to be longer, they use very little yarn. I myself have made them twice already, and have also knitted the popular Fetching-inspired Owlings a couple of times. The benefit of this is that I know that 45 stitches it far too many (especially because they stretch a lot - although now I realise that in the past I cast on 40 stitches but this time I did 35... they still fit though).

Here is what I did to omit the thumb:

- On row 12, start working straight, knitting back and forth. This means that on WS rows you need to purl the knits and knit the purls (ie purl 4, knit 1).
- Continue like this up to the row where the thumb opening is made.
- Knit 1 more row straight in rib pattern, then join back in the round and continue as in original pattern.

One other modification was to omit the first cable in the pattern, but this was mainly because I had started making a different pair of gloves which I didn't like, and didn't want to rip all the way to the start.

A new life, and the Lush Lacy Mitts to go with it

Its been a while, again - I would have thought that being a student again would mean having lots of spare time to do my knitting and sewing projects, but with post-work travels, freelance work and getting to grips with philosophy, I have been pretty busy. However, there is always time for knitting, and with temperatures dropping I decided I needed a new pair of fingerless gloves (a girl can never have enough pairs, clearly my favourite thing to knit!).

These are the Lush Lace Mitts, which I saw on craftsy's facebook feed and immediately had to have. I was drawn to the lace (as usual), as well as the aran-weight yarn, which together make for a pretty and fast knit. The buttons make them look quite dainty as well, they remind me of my Veyla gloves, which have been my favourites for quite some time now but sadly are starting to pile.

I was a little sceptical of knitting them with 5.5mm needles, as most of my fingerless gloves are made with 4mm needles, but I couldn't quite get the gauge so I settled on my 5mm ones and hoped for the best (winging it as usual). In fact I read somewhere that this yarn is quite stretchy after blocking (will come to this in a moment) so I figured it would all even out eventually.

Aside from that, I pretty much followed the pattern, but made them slightly longer at the top by adding 4 rows of stockinette before binding off.

On to the yarn, Drops Big Merino, which I bought from the Nest stall at the Alexandra Palace Knitting and Stitching show; I had in fact planned to take lots of pretty pictures and write a blog post about the show, but as usual I got completely overwhelmed with yarn and fabric joy that I didn't. What can I say, I'm weak! Anyway, the yarn is very soft and and has a lovely springy quality to it which I absolutely love (I suppose this is why others have complained about it getting too stretchy?). And its a bargain at £3.10! (why are Drops yarns so cheap??). I think it did stretch a bit after blocking but they were a little tight initially so I was sort of counting on it. The only issue might be that they might stretch out with wear (I have a hat made with a similar yarn which is so enormous now, its unwearable).

The buttons I had completely forgotten I had, and found them in my sewing box when I was looking for thread, I think I bought them at the knitting show last year? They are bigger than what I had planned to use, but the tiny buttons I used in Veyla keep coming undone so I figured bigger ones might stay put more easily. I should mention that the gloves don't have buttonholes, I just squeezed the buttons through the lace stitch.

So, overall, I love them and I am sure we will be very happy together! (I am wearing them right now in fact) I don't think they will be very useful when it gets very cold (lace, and fingers quite exposed), but they will be an excellent friend for cold-ish weather.

Link to Ravelry project

Owlings to the rescue

I am generally a very organised person, but for some reason I leave knitted presents to the last minute, which means that I:

1. Get a bit flustered when trying to decide what to make and
2. Have to knit like a maniac to get the project done.

I was very happy when my friend asked me to knit her something for her birthday rather than buy a gift. But, as per above schedule, I started thinking about it less than a week before the gift was due. Again, as per above schedule, I looked at loads and loads of patterns of fingerless gloves (at least I had half settled on a type of gift) and even started making one until I decided I didn't like it.

So, its Tuesday night and the gift is due to be given on Saturday. You continue being overwhelmed with patterns. What do you do? Go back to an old faithful! I have made Fetching twice already, and you can tell how popular it is from the fact it has been made over 20,000 times (and that's just on Ravelry). It's just an easy, quick and very satisfying pattern, and rightfully deserves to be so popular.

I have also made its other incarnation, Owlings, once before, and being an owlette I decided that it was fate.

The beauty with making patterns that you have knitted before is that you don't need to think about it too much. I should have checked my  gauge because I was using a different yarn (Manos wool classica) but I just assumed that decreasing the cast-on stitches from 45 to 35 would still be fine. I must have small hands or knit too loosely, but 45 was just huge on me the first time I made these, and I have stuck to 35 ever since.

I also modified the pattern to add a thumb gusset because I think they work better. I wanted to think about it myself but it was 10pm and my brain was fried - thankfully, another raveler had already posted some instructions, so I based mine on hers:

1. Knit two rounds following the rib pattern after the owling cable is complete
2. K2, place marker, m1, place marker, follow pattern to end of round
3. Knit 2 rounds in rib pattern
4. K2, slip marker, m1, knit to next marker, m1, slip marker, follow pattern to end of round
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until there are 11 stitches between the two markers
6. On next round, k2, slip the 11 stitches onto waste yarn, join and follow pattern to end of round.
7. Knit 4 rows in rib pattern
8. Follow owling cable pattern
9. Knit one row on rib pattern and bind off loosely

I tried doing 8 rows instead of 4 in step 7 but they just looked a bit odd to me, too long.

For the thumb, I picked up the stitches plus and extra three from in between to avoid holes, and knitted 4 rows. I was a little drunk at the time, so they were purls rather than knits (I must have been going the wrong way round), but I though they looked quite cute so left them like that.

Shocking pink pair of owls

Owl close-up 

And a happy customer!

One for you, one for me - catching butterflies

Yes, I know, I am supposed to either be knitting my jumper or making my Christmas presents. But another one of my purchases from the Knit and Stitch show was Woodland knits, which is full of very cute patterns (most of which I am unlikely to ever make as they are a little too quirky even for me, but at half price who could resist?). So instead of pressing on with my Christmas list I decided to make the catching butterflies fingerless gloves for myself - it is getting cold after all, and doesn't every girl need a new pair of fingerless gloves per winter? They are just too cute to resist! And in my head I figured it might be best to test-drive the pattern for myself before making it for someone else.


The glove body pattern is fairly simple to follow and involves some cabling to produce what I imagine is meant to look like little butterflies. Really, they just look like Vs, but with a little imagination I guess the lines could be perceived as butterflies. The actual butterflies are then knit separately, made more butterfly-like with the addition of a body (I wasn't entirely sure what I was meant to use for that so just used some thread. The small ones are then stitched on the front and the big ones on the palm of the hand.

The pattern suggests using 2.75mm  needles for the rib and 3.25mm needles for the body, but I only have 3mm ones so I used them and it worked out just fine. Although this is for my hands, which are pretty small - I think they would just not fit someone with slightly bigger hands, so you might need to experiment a little with needle size. Similarly, for the butterfly the pattern called for 2.25mm needles but I only have 2.5mm ones, and to be honest I doubt it really matters!

As for the yarn, I went for Debbie Bliss Rialto 4-ply, which is very soft and shiny, and thus has very good stitch definition. The butterflies are made with Rowan kidsilk haze.

The front, with tiny butterflies attached

The back, with big butterflies attached

 The butterflies have caught the light very strangely in those photos and look very fuzzy. They are in fact pretty fuzzy (although not to that extent), but I think that is the idea given the use of kidsilk haze. I did consider not forking out the money for it given that the pattern only uses a teeny amount but I wondered whether the effect would not be quite so pretty. In hindsight, another very thin yarn might have worked out well enough too, and perhaps they would have looked a little less like bows and more like butterflies? The kidsilk haze is quite difficult to work with anyway, and so they were a little fiddly, especially when trying to add the body. So the small ones in particular look quite wonky, and I am not sure how happy I am with them.

Slightly clearer image, in which the butterfly is more defined.

Fuzzy butterflies aside, I am pleased with them and I do think they look pretty. If I were to make them again (another Christmas gift in theory), I would probably make the body shorter (so do two instead of three pattern repeats before starting on the thumb) as I am not sure it is necessary, and instead make the top a little longer (perhaps by adding half a pattern repeat) to make them  warmer - as you can see, the top stop quite close to the bottom of the fingers, so there is very little coverage.

Ok, back to that Christmas list!

Raverly link