Monday, February 27, 2012

Some Cross-Stitching

I got some lovely little colourful picture frames at Michaels and I have been trying to figure out what to put in them when I stumbled upon this great pattern for a blackwork strawberry.


The Blackwork Strawberry pattern is from The Making Spot blog and the post also includes an explanation of blackwork. Now I just have to find patterns for my 3 other picture frames!

Friday, February 24, 2012

New Gloves

     With school being so time consuming, I haven't had as much time as I would like to knit (or do anything for that matter). I did get a chance to knit these incredibly cute gauntlets, the pattern for them was great and simple so I was even able to knit during class.


Cute Gloves:
Yarn: Stitch Nation by Debbie Stoller - Bamboo Ewe
Needle Size: US 3 (3.25mm)
Pattern Source: Emma Gloves - Your Knitting Life Magazine 

     Even tough this pattern was great, I do not like seaming a lot, especially when I don't have to. So instead of knitting the body of the gloves flat and then sewing up the sides as the pattern called for, I knit them in the round. So to do this I modified the pattern slightly, I still CO 35 sts, joined to work in the round and I worked in stockinette stitch for 1". Knit the picot row and then I knit another inch after the picot row. Here is another change I made to the pattern: I picked up and knit the corresponding CO st together with the live stitches on my needle (thus creating a picot edging without all the messy sewing business). If you would like a more complete explanation on how to do a picot edging I found a great little tutorial over on Possessed to Knit.
     After completing the picot edging I continued to knit in stockinette stitch until it measured 6" from the beginning. If you intend to follow this route, please note that your binding off should be extremely loose! I made the mistake of binding off too tightly, and I can just barely get them on.
     Even though the BO is a bit too tight, I absolutely love these gloves and I can't wait for spring when I can wear them and show them off!