Free Armwarmer Patterns

Gotta love free patterns. I’m making some things for me for a change too. With the cooler weather(August??), I need to keep my arms warm when I knit. I started these last week and they are coming along nicely. The pattern is April May by Cider Moon. No more Patternophobia for me. It was one of about 15 or so on my list of possibilities from some talented designers. The links are below.

Gratuitous cuteness courtesy of the baby bunny near our birdfeeder just now, sorry about the haze from the window but she's very timid. For reference - that step is five inches high.

Click the bunny to make her BIIIIG.

April May armwarmers

spookycabledmitts

Clapomitaines

Fetching

Dashing

Purple Skein

warm_cable_armwarmers

Wrist Warmer Pattern Generator

Web Surfing Mitts

Simple Wrist Warmers

Cabled_Fingerless

Diamond handwarmers pattern

fingerless_gloves

Bowhunting Skills

It was a tough decision.

I work on other things in-between because I need to concentrate on the pattern with the YO. It really isn’t bad though, and is shaping up nicely. It’s got just enough YO to look lacy without looking like they’ll catch in everything. Another inch or two and I’ll increase for the hand. I’m making them a bit longer than the pattern calls for because my arm circumference shortens the length a bit even though I added two repeats of the pattern. I want them plenty big to allow some shrinkage.

I’m using the Green Mountain Spinnery 20% cotton yellow yarn I got at Maryland Sheep and Wool. # 2 needles – my smallest yet. They feel kinda rough now but should wash up nice and soft. I like that I can toss them in the washer – and although I plan to avoid it, if they end up in the dryer all is not lost.

I went to the Kiwanis Group today. I needed a small project and Miss Betty suggested Preemie hats - they're always needing more and will use up small bits of yarn. While I was rooting around, she suggested Orioles colors. What fun! I may do some little pumpkins for Halloween too.

I took my copy of Simply Knitting over to the Ladies too since I was done with it. There was much oooing and aaahing over the patterns, but Miss Betty is from England and got the honor of taking it home first. I really got a kick out of sharing it - I don't think most of them buy such things and they thought that my husband was quite amazing for picking it out for me.

But then I knew that.

But, he doesn't knit

So. Last night I finished another Red Hat Society - No Hair Day chemo hat. They're a quick knit and I needed something mindless the other day.

I cast on the little Down by the Seashore Preemie Hat again. I've been in touch with another knitter at Ravelry who made it. (did I mention that I really like Ravelry?) She is giving me some help with the pattern. The wonderful woman even offered to make another one and donate it to a charity so she could better help me. What an amazing gesture from someone I don't know. I cast on (the third time for this pattern) and was telling Bobby how sweet it was etc, etc. He asked me to explain the problem, which I did.

It's a lace pattern and has a section of stitches that repeat over and over. There is wording in the pattern that confuses me. Now, I've knitted Fair Isle with no trouble. The first row of this puppy reads:

1: p1, *k1, p2. repeat from * around. end p1

After my last repeat of the *pattern* I kept looking for one more stitch to purl. It got even worse later on in the pattern when yarn overs and K3tog came into play.

He got it.

He really did. Oh, he hasn't magically decided to knit and his hands are one with the needles. However the math part was clear to him. He picked up a pad of graph paper and wrote out the numbers 1 - 56 for my cast on stitches. Then he filled in a K or a P underneath to represent each stitch. I could see it. He made a knitting chart on a huge scale. He told me that his next step would have been to tape the ends of the pattern together to make a continuous loop - but I got it without that. Now I can boldly go forth.

This was the revelation: The statement " end p1" simply means the last stitch before the stitch marker should have been a purl. Kinda like a Spell Check. Sheesh!

My husband. I love him.

Lace Expectations

Am I dense? I'm on my second pattern with lace and the repeat doesn't make sense. Either the designers left two unnecessary stitches in BOTH times or I'm just reading these things wrong. The little preemie hat doesn't say to place a marker but does speak of the pattern in "rounds" so I know I'm not mad. I've ripped it out and started over (this time with Clive Owen and Jackie Chan) and got the same result. My biggest puzzlement came when I was left with three stitches to go. According to the pattern, my next move was k3tog. No problem right? Oh yeah, what about the general directions for the row which read "end with p1"??? Where do I get the extra stitch? When you look at the area where the rounds begin, there is an awkward flat area.

I went back over the entire row and checked to see if I had made a mistake. Nope. I can't explain the math part, it hurts my brain. The only thing I can figure is the original directions were written to be knitted on circular needles and someone tried to add stitches at each end to make it a flat pattern? That wouldn't work. Every other row would be backwards. It would explain the extra stitches - they would be used for seaming. Since the pattern is a wavy thing anyway, I'm gonna mush on and see what I got. "end with p1" be damned.

Now my problem is I have one fewer stitches than what I cast on after the k3tog decrease row. The pattern doesn't state any reminders like "54 stitches now" or "53 stitches on the needles". I'm moving on and if the next row comes out one short I'll "M1" and fudge it next row. It's a teeny tiny hat puffy and hopefully an error will get lost in the folds of the waves. I could chuck the whole thing and use another pattern, but now it's a matter of knitterly honor.

But I'm liking the lace part.

haiku

a note to myself
while watching Kevin Costner
do not knit lace hats

a note to myself
the lace hat is put aside
for Kevin Costner

I don't know which one expresses the idea best. I was knitting the lace cap last night during a DVD The Guardian. It was better than I expected (probably because I knew nothing about it) and the effects were excellent. You guessed it.

Tink, tink, tink. . .

First Lace

I started my first lace project last night for another chemo cap. The hat is a cloche pattern from headhuggers.org and again I’m using the lavender “I can’t seem to get bored with you” yarn . It’s stockinette with about two inches of lace around the brim. It’s feminine but covers nicely. I’m through one and a half cycles of the lace pattern and haven’t screwed it up (that I know of anyway). Oooooh. I like lace. The rhythm thing is addictive and no wonder folks churn out this stuff.

See more progress on: Knit something lace