Meet my grandmother, the person who taught me how to crochet and knit, how to dance, which fork to use, how to play cards, and, by example, that you can figure out how to do almost anything, and do it well. She’s insanely capable, I’ve seen her fix everything from a clawed up leather jacket to a washing machine. When she makes something it is perfect, and if not she’ll figure out some clever way to make it so.
Recently I was at her house and she really liked some fingerless mitts I was finishing up, so of course I had to make her these:
Pattern: As if I even have to say it, Fetching by
Needles: US 6/4.0 mm
Yarn: Ugh, I wish I could tell you, ‘cuz I like it. I’ve looked all over the place, but no ball band, no receipt, no luck. It’s an aran weight merino, alpaca and cashmere blend, about 105 yds to 50 grams. If any of that is sounding familiar, especially if you work at Hill Country Weavers, drop me a line. It came from the back room, somewhere near the needles. ETA: I spent a little time sleuthing on Ravelry and found it! It’s Bristol Yarn Gallery King George by Plymouth, color #1042.
As much as I like the yarn, I wasn’t too excited about the mitts themselves. The loose picot bind off the pattern calls for has its own rustic, “why yes, I did make these” sort of charm that I think plays very well with the cables, normally. Not for Grandma though, instead I went with a standard bind off.
Which came out too loose, nicely matching my goofy cast on. If I would have thought about it for two seconds I’d have cast on with a smaller needle, I think I was just too excited to get started though. Whatever the reason, I messed up, but I did think a row of single crochet around all the edges would fix things up nicely. One problem:
That’s all the yarn I had left. Just enough to do the bottom of one mitt as it turns out. At least I could see that yeah, crochet would make things better.
So instead of all the edges, I pulled out the top two rows, re-bound off with smaller needles, and used the salvaged yarn to crochet just around the bottom of the other mitt. Worked out well I think.
I hope she likes them.
In other news… Thanks for all the opinions about the color scheme of my Icelandic sweater. I think I just threw the acidy citron yarn in there because I love that color so very, very much right now. You guys are right though, the mustard harmonizes better, the overall effect is cozier.
Also, I bit the bullet and frogged the problematic bits of my Oblique. One day this thing will be finished. And one day I’ll knit a sweater in exactly the time I think it should take, not half a year later. Right?
marri said,
wow! if you figure out what that yarn is, would you let us know? it’s gorgeous! beautiful job on the fetchings.
23 Jan 09 | 11:16 pm