gauntlets – Elliebelly Knit & Dye Works

I'm down to knitting sleeves on Ellie's Tiny Tea Leaves Cardigan and Ollie's Ragman, but, through whatever quirk of knitting adhd I seem to possess in great supply, I've detoured onto two small projects. I'll get back on the sweaters next week, and finish them in time for the advent of cooler weather.

These cabled gauntlets are a fun, quick knit. Not overly challenging (unless you are totally incapable of reading and then remembering a simple, well-written pattern as I seem to have been on the first one). I love these and the yarn, a lovely blend of Alpaca, Silk, Camel and Cashmere.

This is the start of my Storm Cloud Shawlette. I love the elongated garter stitch, and although I told myself I couldn't start one more project until I finish the sweaters, I succumbed to the allure of this simple, comforting knit and the pretty colors of the Sea Wool that had been at the top of my list of yarns I wanted to knit with. When I stretch it out, as though blocked, the colors look like a cloud of rainbows. It's going to be hard to avoid knitting this one straight through.

I finished the Reversible Cable Scarf, that I started earlier this week, last night. There was just a bit of the second skein left — enough to add a small pair of fingerless mitts. The mitts are short and bulky, and altogether wonderful.

The yarn, which continues to be onf of my all time favorites, is Malabrigo's Rasta. This is the Indecita colorway. It is really, really soft.

The scarf is completely reversible, which is accomplished through the simple device of knitting through out, including the 12 stitch cable, in a 1×1 rib. The yarn is lovely and bulky, and this makes for a very warm scarf, with a lot of visual interest. The cable is simple enough that it doesn't compete with the colorway, but it does make the scarf fun to knit.

Pattern note on the mitts: I cast on 16 stitches and knit 6 rows in a 2×2 rib. Then I knit 10 rows in stockinette before doing a stretchy cast off. I liked the rib so much I decided to use it up on the fingers. Here's what you should probably do differently if you knit something like this: The rib really does need to be at the wrists for a better fit (I will probably rip the seams and turn these around, although I do love how the poufy part looks on my fingers). If I knit another pair of these, I think I will try either a 1×1 rib, or two knit stitches to one purl as the rib. I'm tempted to do the entire mitt in 1×1 and do a total of 30 rows, which would put these just at my elbow. Also, I think they would be greatly enhanced by a decrease of 2-4 stitches around row 13 where the hand begins to narrow into the wrist. Finally, these would be lovely with a silk ribbon woven through the wrist as I did on Ellie's Victorian Gauntlets, so I think an eyelet row in that area would be a nice addition.

Tag: gauntlets

New Works in Progress

Cabled Scarf: Finished, with a Surprise