Behold! This really is a knitting journal!

[msmcknittington]

I completely spaced on time while knitting tonight, and somehow ended up knitting for two and a half hours without taking more than a five minute break. Stupid "League of Their Own"! Being such a good movie that I lost complete and total track of time.

In that time, though, I got the bulk of the knitting done on the second frilly cogwheel cuff. I would say it took me about two and half hours to knit to the picot bind-off, and that time includes eating dinner. Unfortunately, it took like half an hour to do a third of the picot bind-off, which means that binding off is going to take nearly as long as knitting it. Why, O cruel world? Why?

All this knitting means that either tomorrow is going to be a no knitting day or a pattern writing day. I wrote out the charts for the cogwheel frill cuffs* after dinner, and I realized that their construction is a lot more complicated than I thought. The skills involved include: knitting in the round, knitting on DPNs, lace, reading from charts, two different decreases, picot bind off, and ribbing. Some of those are really basic ones (knitting in the round, DPNs, ribbing), but I know that reading from charts and lace really scare some people. I just sort of whizzed through the first one, despite ripping the whole thing out two or three times for gauge reasons. It was kismet? I dunno. Like most things I do, I feel like I could probably have worked harder on them, but I can't find anything to change, even given my directional decrease goof-up that I ended up liking.

Anyway, I have knit another (very simple) fingerless mitt, and I need some input on it.



Yarn: Cascade 220
Needles: Size 4 US

That above is the prototype, but it's the first picture I wanted to show you, so there. Click on it for a bigger picture.



It's all black, with a picot hem and a picot welt above that, so it's got two frill/ruffle thngs on it. There's an eyelet row at the wrist to run a ribbon through. The top is finished with a sewn-down hem. (Which is bulky and horrible and uncomfortable. So, that's a no go.)

Very fetching, no? Unfortunately, I do not have enough black yarn to knit two all-black frilly mitts -- I'm short by like eight rows worth. I also didn't want to order any Cascade until I knew what was going on. So, on the second draft, I went with a two-color frill in black and HOT PINK! (Actually, it's Cascade 220 in Flamingo. Great color name.)

The result:







They need to be blocked. I dropped a stitch on the back of that hand, and it's a little rough. (Also, please ignore my bug bite.)

The top here is finished with a sewn cast-off, which rolls a little, but not too badly. I might sew some ribbon to the wrong side to help mitigate the roll, but probably not.

So, questions. Is the pink cute or should I just bite the bullet and order more black yarn? I can see these being more popular than the cogwheel cuffs, just because it would be easier to wear them on the street. The hot pink takes away from that a little. Personally, I like the pink, having recently come back into my love for the color.

Violet probably would have been a more appropriate Victorian color combination, considering how often black, white, and purple appear in fashion plates.





Er, yes. Look at all this knitting that has suddenly appeared.

_{*These so need a better name.}

Comments

[jennnlee.livejournal.com]

I really like the hot pink. The pink in the yarn picks up on the pink of the ribbon and makes the whole thing a little more "girly." And I like how it's an accent, and practically hidden, so it's just this hint of pink.

And the cuffs remain awesome.

I, myself, am knitting little drawstring bags for all of my husband's camera lenses, so they don't bang into each other in his bag. they're not nearly as interesting.

[msmcknittington.livejournal.com]

When I think "Victorian", I think about how the dresses could be quite reserved and understated on the outside, but then on the inside they're a mess of ruffles, lace, pintucks, and embroidery. Of course, that thought goes to hell when I think about women wearing things like this.

You should throw some eyelets and ruffles onto your husband's lens bags. You know, so he can tell them apart. "Oh, honey, the one with the cat's paw lace is the biggest one."

ETA: Forgot the URL. Grrr!

[jennnlee.livejournal.com]

Wow. That dress is amazing. Just....wow.

The lens bags are made out of all different colors out of odd balls from my stash. I offered to make them all one color, but he likes the idea of the inside of his camera bag looking like a box of crayons. I'll probably stick them on my Ravelry page eventually, even though they're not all that exciting...

[ferret-herder.livejournal.com]

Neat work. :)

I finished a Honeycomb sweater for me but haven't had a chance to take a picture of it. I'm understandably reluctant to pose outside in full sun in a mostly-wool sweater vest.

I also did one sock using Universal Toe-Up Sock Pattern, and added in the cable pattern from "Athena" out of the 2-at-a-Time Socks book. I'm starting on the cast-on for the second right now actually.

The idea behind the book is to do two-at-a-time socks via Magic Loop, so you don't have an orphaned sock when you don't want to continue after finishing one. The problem was I only had two skeins of yarn and so I wasn't sure how long the legs would end up, and the "Athena" pattern wasn't toe-up.

[msmcknittington.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

I have a sweater that I finished in April when it was already too hot to wear for more a few minutes at a time, so I'm not taking pictures of it until probably October.

I've tried two-at-a-time methods, and I've never like them enough to actually finish anything. Of course, I hate knitting socks, so that might play into it a little.

[crazycatlady76.livejournal.com]

Run with the pink, if you go all black you'll lose a lot of the detail because of the lack of contrast.

Also, next time you watch League, keep an eye out for the very best part--my cameo. In the scene where Gary Marshall and what's his face are talking about how the league will be shut down after the war, what's his face bumps into a young woman in a navy checked dress. That's my cousin. The young woman in the brown who's walking with her is yours truly. And, due to a miscalculation on our part during one take, in a few seconds we walk by again.

[msmcknittington.livejournal.com]

That's very true. The pink does make the ruffles stand out more.

Oh, that's cool! I'll keep my eyes open, because I do remember that scene, but I was not looking at the people in it.

[quincy134.livejournal.com]

Pink!!!!!!!

(that's my vote)

[msmcknittington.livejournal.com]

Hee! Thanks!

[dragonling.livejournal.com]

I think the pink is perfect. You could always do some with pink and some with purple for those who want to be more authentic. I don't see how the pink takes away from being able to wear them on the street. Then again, I wear a pair of fetching I made that are all in Aubergine except the right one ends in a sort of dark turquoise because I ran out of Aubergine.

The cuffs are kinda cute, I've seen various patterns around for similar though and I just wouldn't wear them personally. That's mainly because I hardly wear jackets which they would look good with and it's not really me.

[msmcknittington.livejournal.com]

I guess I figure that a lot more things go with black than hot pink, though if you're wearing frilly black mitts you might not be that concerned with fashion conventions.

[dragonling.livejournal.com]

It's a good contrast though. The hint of bright in the dark. I like it. :)

[tattycat.livejournal.com]

I love the pink.

Want frilly cogwheel cuffs. Waaaaant. Would be so perfect with my wine suede blazer. . .

[msmcknittington.livejournal.com]

I like the pink, too. It's other people I'm never sure of.

I am writing the charts on computer right now. I should have the pattern up by the end of the week.

[h0taru.livejournal.com]

I hate charts. :D I can deal with them but I vastly prefer just reading out instructions.

I'd definitely go with another color and not just solid black on the mitts. Part of it was the photo, but I saw NONE of that detail in the first pic. I could see them looking gorgeous in a nice grey with heliotrope trimming!

[msmcknittington.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm going to provide both charts and written instructions. Best of both worlds.

It was so hard photographing the black. If I used the flash, then you just saw a big black blob, and if I didn't use the flash then you saw slightly better detail, but not much. And I was taking pictures of my own hand, so there's that. The size of the picture didn't really matter.

Oooh, they'd be really cute in grey and heliotrope. I'm thinking natural white and shell pink, too, for the girliest pair ever.

[aikea-guinea.livejournal.com]

Holy CRAP those are adorable! I actually like the pink accent on the black one. Like someone else said, it makes the details really stand out. Violet/purple would be lovely as well.

Did you say you would be selling these?

[msmcknittington.livejournal.com]

Ah, Danielle! Thank you so much!

Yep. I'm going to be starting up an Etsy store as soon as I figure out what to call it.