The knitillating history of Fetching/Dashing Evi of Broadstreet

1/27 ~ So i actually knitted a swatch for this (twice), and it turned out that for the pattern's gauge i will probably need to use needles in size 1 1/2... but i'm using size 2 and will have 24 sts per 4" instead of 20. i decided to have the cuff come to mid-forearm, where my arm measures 10" in circumference. As it turns out, since i have big bones and am overweight, i can't cast on 40 like the pattern calls for. i figured out that according to gauge i need to cast on 64 sts and will gradually decrease to 44 at my wrist. So i'm still using 16 sts of pattern, but have 48 sts divided evenly on my other two needles (24 sts on each). i also plan to create a gusset and add some interest inspired by Fetching. To cast on i also used the long tail method for the first time, which as it turns out is super easy, but when my Grandma tried to explain it to me some 15-17 years ago made absolutely no sense. Now i think i'll use it every time.

1/28 ~ i guess i'll go with the convertible mittens that i've been meaning to do for forever: i'll use Broad Street Mittens as a guide. So far, i am ready for round 10 and to start the cable pattern. In round five i did a cable round like in the Fetching pattern once (instead of repeating it 3 times on the wrist, i just did it once, and because i don't have a knit 4, p1, repeat going on i slip 2 k sts, hold to front, p2, k2 off cable needle). And because i'm backwards and contrary i'm knitting the right mitten first, which is mostly because i plan to reverse the Evangeline cable pattern on the left mitten so that the cables cross the same way i do up my sneakers (outside laces on top). Yes, i know i'm anal.

1/30 ~ After a false start with runaway cables on the inner wrist, i have cast back on and knitted to the wrist. i dropped a purl st once and had to undo 3 rows worth of cable pattern to fix my mistake. ): Luckily i saw a video on YouTube the other night that showed me an easy way to quickly un-knit. As it turns out, i accidentally repeated row 5 on my second repeat, but i liked the way it looked so i did it for my fourth repeat as well. i've been decreasing 3 sts every 5 rows and now have 46 sts on the needles: i plan to dec 2 more sts at the inner wrist and start the thumb gusset next.

2/4 ~ The thumb on my first mitten is complete and i am getting ready to knit the pinky next, but i have to do a couple more rows of pattern first. After the pinky, of course, comes the ring, middle, and index fingers, then the convertible part. The crazy thing is that the palm is baggy but i cannot extract my hand from the current slot. i do not think that i'll have enough yard to actually knit the fingers up properly, but i'm not sure. i plan to rotate the thumb decreases 90 degrees. i feel a bit embarrassed when i hit walls like this in my knitting. So far i'm not entirely impressed with this yarn, the gauge seems just a little loose, but i'm hoping that it will work well on the slopes once i complete the project.

2/19 ~ i have been really unhappy with this project for over a week now. The cables look awesome, but the thumb gusset it in the wrong place, and i don't like the way the ribs look on the wrist. As much as i hate to do it, i think that i'm going to be taking out the right mitten and start over on it, but probably not before knitting up the left mitten so i can use it for a guide to see where my improvisations went wrong.

10/12 ~ Cast on again (frogged this long ago), this time 40 sts and not intending the wrist / forearm section to be as long, and basing the design on Dashing so far.

10/13 ~ Round 12: Dec 2 sts, once on each side of wrist (opposite each other), by turning 4th k st in rib pat, then placing it back on left needle. Knit k and p st tog tbl.
Round 16: Cable over same place as decreases (4 over 4, LT for right hand).
Round 20: Cable over inner wrist (first quarter), increase 5 sts on back of hand to beg Evi cable pattern, put incs back in between k4 ribs, and inc 1 more st to begin thumb. Cont. working cable section and inc 1 st for thumb each row.

September is here...

...and once again i have an itch to see snow and strap on my board. In fact, the itch started before September did, in a rather typical fashion for me, that is no doubt amplified by the fact that i spent most of my last winter in warm Savannah, GA (it also doesn't help that the leaves are starting to change early this year). So i've been browsing the usual places for new gloves for when i hit the snow. i have horrible luck with gloves, and seem doomed to always lose one glove right away, or discover that i have paid too much for a product that is going to start falling apart the first time i wear it, or even more annoying is the tendency for my hands/gloves to get wet and freezing long before the rest of my body is. Snowboarding requires one to put her hands in the snow a lot, far more than when skiing. Every time one sits down, gets up, turns too sharp, grabs, scrapes the excess snow off the top and out of the bindings, straps in, you're probably going to get snow on your hands and/or gloves/mittens. Even so called "waterproof" materials allow far too much moisture to accumulate in the place where i get cold first... my hands.

So i don't want to pay $50 for some nice gloves that i'll probably just lose and/or won't keep me dry and warm. And because i'm crafty i'd much rather be able to knit something at a fraction of the price. Browsing at all the handmade things at Etsy got me thinking... even wool yarn gets wet, right? Maybe i've found a solution.

The Knitter's Reviwe wrote Yarn Profile: Dalegarn Hauk four and a half years ago... and it looks promising. Not only is it wool, it's teflon coated so it repels water. Other water-repelling options seem to be tencel, yarn spun from ecospun (fiber made from soda bottles), jellycord, or fuax cashmere (though i'm not sure how warm all of these choices would be). i think that as soon as i find a job i'm going to have to buy some of this Hauk and knit myself some gloves or mittens. Yarndex features some Gryffindor colors, as well as some choices that would match my board nicely (it's even an affordable price). i'm excited that i discovered this! Thanks to Knit Lit and the power of Google!