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

[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. :)