How to Knit a Glove

Posted on November 30, 2013 by cpeezers

I probably should have titled this post how “not” to knit a glove. I knit my first pair of gloves about 4 years ago. I hadn’t been knitting very long then, but I gave it a try. I made a lot of mistakes one being that I used a really soft camel blend yarn which served to emphasize every single blemish (and there were lots).

This time I used Cascade 220 – that nice superwash wool. I used the same pattern as I had used for my first pair of gloves. It did go a lot better than my first pair, but you know what’s tough? Where the darn fingers attach to the hand. My photographer captured my frustration well didn’t he?!?

The gloves don’t look too bad though do they? They really turned out pretty good. But – I have a new plan of action for my next pair. A friend advised me to pick up lots more stitches then the pattern calls for when picking up the stitches for each finger. I know I should know this! I just didn’t do it. Next pair I will for sure. Then you just decrease them out over the next round or two. This should prevent those large gaping holes which are so hard for me to sew up neatly when I am done.

I also used some conductive thread in the index fingers and thumbs. This is so I can use my phone with my gloves on. The conductive thread does not blend too subtly though.

While not subtle, it works really well. I can definitely use my phone although the extra bulk makes it a little difficult to type (I have enough troubles with this with my bare fingers). Next time I think I am going to try a fingering weight yarn (this yarn is a light worsted). I also found some conductive thread at my awesome LYS, and it looks a little more delicate. I may try it instead. (this thread worked well, but it’s very “wiry” – I ordered it from Knit Picks.)

The best part of the gloves was that my photographer agreed to take pictures of me. Here he is:

He loves it when I let him wield my “good” camera. He’s been taking pictures with it since he was about 3 and he could barely hold it up. He is rapidly gaining expertise!

As one final idea for better gloves, I think I should use a self-striping yarn next time. The stripes would distract from any small imperfections that might occur. These solid colors leave little to the imagination.

Gloves really knit up quickly. The fingers are tricky and a little fiddly, but gloves make me feel like a real knitter despite the imperfections.

Thanks photographer Davey!

Happy Thanksgiving 2013

Posted on November 28, 2013 by cpeezers

We’ve had a nice day. It was the three of us here for Thanksgiving dinner. I attempted to make a real turkey. I did ok. The turkey was kinda dry. In past years, I’ve been getting a turkey from Honey Baked Ham. This year, I didn’t want to drive over the mountains to Bellevue to get it, but I think next year I will. Still – I’d be happy with just all the great sides that go with the turkey. I made a cranberry sauce that I really like that comes from the Pioneer Woman. I made her sweet potatoes too (they are like dessert with dinner!).

Davey even tried just a little of everything. That was a first. He helped me make the rolls. This consisted of arranging two rolls in each muffin space (spot? hole?) in the muffin pan. He did a great job and was very proud of his handiwork. They were frozen when he was arranging them, so he had to find pairs of rolls that would fit. He said it was like math. He loves math.

We watched the Macy’s Day Parade and the Westminster Dog Show too.

Davey made me a really sweet card. I love how he “draws” out “I love you”.

David and I tried to take some pictures with Davey, but he’s not big on sitting still for a picture these days. This is what it is like basically:

It’s a little bit impossible, but we kept at it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Emma’s Big Ole Mittens

Posted on November 16, 2013 by cpeezers

It’s gotten cold in these parts, and I need a pair of mittens. I probably should have knocked out some utilitarian snug plain old mittens, but no, I thought I needed to do something a little fancier.

I chose a pattern from ravelry called “Emma’s Mittens”. I had some worsted weight yarn from Tahki Stacy Charles called Sedona. It’s a wool/silk blend. Really nice to knit with.

So I finished a mitten. It was lots of fun. Cables and bobbles both! Here’s the top. It could use some blocking so that the bobbles pop up better.

The palm of the mitten was fun too. It was a seed stitch pattern. The thumb was an afterthought thumb – also seed stitch.

There’s a problem though. This mitten is enormous – and the reason I haven’t blocked. I don’t need it huger! My hand flops all around inside it. David tried it on and it’s kinda big on him too. (He referred to this as more of a “gauntlet”.) It’s very disappointing. It’s my own darn fault of course. I should have either done a swatch (it would never have crossed my mind to swatch a mitten – although it probably should have).

It occurred me that I could see if it would felt up a little but I’m afraid that would mess up the cables and bobbles. The silk in the yarn probably won’t lend to good felting either.

Ugh. I haven’t frogged it yet, but I am not knitting the second one either.

Lesson learned. Pay attention. Swatch. Or take into account that I am a loose knitter and adjust accordingly. Also my yarn selection was probably not ideal either.

I may go more utilitarian on my next attempt. Although I am thinking about doing some gloves and putting in some of that conductive yarn at pointer and thumb finger tips.

Happy Veteran’s Day!

Posted on November 11, 2013 by cpeezers

I have great appreciation for our veterans, but there’s nothing like seeing it through the eyes of a 6-year old to make you extra aware of how special Veteran’s Day is.

He participated in a school assembly the other day. He has spent weeks getting the Pledge of Allegiance memorized and learning to sing “The Star Spangled Banner”. He was also very excited about the special march that the kindergarteners got to do when they came into the assembly.

Today we walked downtown to watch the Veteran’s Day parade.

It was great. Davey was so excited and kept looking to see when they were coming.

He loved waving his flag and clapping for all the veterans who went by.

We are all off today and are enjoying a nice afternoon at home. David and Davey have been building with Legos for awhile. I just finished a couple of short papers. I finished reading a book (Into the Wild – really good). I think it’s time to knit.

It’s getting cold!

Posted on November 6, 2013 by cpeezers

gosh it’s getting cold here. We had some cold weather in Colorado, but we’d usually have cold and then it would warm up to 50 or 60 degrees for a few days. Here it is just progressively getting colder and colder. It’s not terrible yet – 40s – but it’s cold in the morning!

I had knitted myself some great bulky fingerless gloves.

These mitts are great. I love that they are bulky, and it’s a great pattern. I highly recommend it. However, they are not keeping my fingertips warm. I am closer to the Arctic circle now; I require mittens.

So tonight I started some, and I am getting ready to get right back to them! All other knitting projects have been shoved aside in order to get these done!

I know. I have a ways to go. Better get crackin’!

Regrowth is home

Posted on November 5, 2013 by cpeezers

I finished Regrowth a few weeks ago, and I finally mailed it to my friend the other day. I’ll miss it!

But now the shawl has arrived at its new home. I am so happy that Debbie loves it!

Sponge

Posted on November 4, 2013 by cpeezers

David caught a rare quiet Davey moment yesterday during his birthday party.

We are just enjoying how he is absolutely loving school. The progress he has made in just over 6 weeks is incredible. When he brought home his first sight word list, things were not clicking yet. It was a little difficult the first time through. We played lots of games, and eventually he mastered those words. I will always remember how much trouble “me” and “my” gave him.

The second list went much more quickly. He got into the swing of learning them, and it came pretty quickly to him. Now his third list? He’s gotten to the point where he is sounding out many of the words to help him figure it out. He knew the list of words almost as soon as he received it.

He loves numbers. He loves to organize them. Recognizing some of the digits between 11 and 20 is giving him a little trouble, but he knows what they represent. It’s just remembering their names that is giving him a bit of a challenge.

He is starting to read signs everywhere he goes. His handwriting has improved by leaps and bounds. He was never really interested in coloring, drawing or writing before he started kindergarten, which was absolutely ok with me. He was into other things like reading with us and expanding his imagination. But he had a little work to do to get those fine motor skills going. He’s quickly getting them, and now he wants to write and draw all the time.

I want to document all this so I can remember it more clearly when I think back to these days someday. He is a kindergartener who loves learning, and he has the greatest kindergarten teacher to guide him. There are such great teachers out there who are doing their absolute darndest despite big class sizes and having to adapt to changes like the Common Core Standards (I don’t know enough about it yet to say whether I think it’s going to be good or not – but they have to adapt either way!). I always want to remember how committed and awesome his teacher was as well, although that’s pretty unforgettable already.

Birthdays

Posted on November 3, 2013 by cpeezers

Davey turned 6 today. Presents, playing with presents, more playing with presents – he had a great time. This afternoon we had a little party with our great friends. I made a bunch of cupcakes, and they decorated them. David took a lovely picture. Our guests were a little older than Davey and had more cupcake decorating stamina, so more of these cupcakes can be attributed to them (Davey’s is that lovely red blue and white one in the front though!). They did beautiful work!

They brought him an art kit, and so he wanted to try it out immediately!

David got a “calm moment” picture somehow out of this excited kid.

He had such a fun time though. He loved loved playing Headbanz with us. He laughed so much.

It’s a busy time around here this time of year. David had a birthday a few days ago too.

Davey also had a lot of fun celebrating Daddy’s birthday.

I realized that I needed to focus the camera on the birthday kid!

We made him mini cupcakes. Davey enjoyed decorating these as well. We had some mini cupcakes, sang, and opened some gifts.

I like this picture.

Happy Birthday David and Davey!

NaBloPoMo and Reading

Posted on November 2, 2013 by cpeezers

I’ve decided to participate in the NaBloPoMo challenge. That stands for National Blog Posting Month I think. It runs concurrently with NaNoWriMo (a challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in a month). That would be cool too but –

a. I don’t know what I would write about, and

b. that’s a lot of words!

So here lately, I have only been posting about once a week. The days just disappear before I can get a chance to write my blog. Hopefully the challenge will help me keep on track. Not that I need to write every day, but I thought it would be fun to try.

I just read about this about midnight last night, so I missed November 1st. So I am attempting NaBloPoMo -1.

And then – I am having so much fun watching Davey take off in his learning to read. He is learning his lists of sight words faster each time as he really gets the hang of sounding out words. It’s amazing and so neat to see.

I saw him reading Eric Carle in his room a few minutes ago. I think it was Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See? He can read it all by himself now, and I loved listening to him read through it.

Cpeezers

Family, School and Yarn

Monthly Archives: November 2013