Friday, September 16, 2005

Winter's coming...

W/ the cost of natural gas predicted to skyrocket this winter, I thought I'd better get started on some wrist warmers for self. (And especially after our discussion at SnB).

I figure that when z and z's dad see's these cool things, they're going to want them too.
Again, no red, only blue. Altho' I'm a product of the UC system also (UCSD), I just don't have that weird thing w/ red like the Cal alums have--must have been due to the fact that we didn't have ANY rivals since we didn't/don't believe in lowering the academic caliber of the school by actually having a football team. This little ditty from UCSD newspaper explains why UCSD is the superior school and is pretty funny. (I even forwarded to z's dad).

Oh, right. I was talking about wrist warmers. I looked through my books and various websites for ideas and found that easy wristwarmers only have a hole for the thumb. I wanted a little more coverage (no thumb cleavage for me, thanks). I went w/Last Minute Knitted Gift's wrist warmers (neat pattern) and morphed it w/ DIYnet Knitty Gritty's mitten pattern. I could have chosen any mitten pattern, I suppose. Except that I actually saw that episode and thought gee, if I were to make mittens, I'd make those. But not in canary yellow, 'cause I'm a practical lass and a mom of a toddler...no way in yellow. And of course realizing that in the beautiful Bay Area, chances are that well, heavy mittens aren't necessary.

Since I was paranoid that I would run out of yarn (as a newish knitter, don't have a very good gauge on amt of yarn required), I had gotten 2 balls of cranberry for the DNA scarf that became the DNA hat. Well, I figured I'd make the wrist warmers to match the hat.

Specs:
-maybe a little more than 1/2 skein of Woolease cranberry
-cast-on date 9/15/2005
-end date 9/15/2005
-cast on 32 stitches and when starting, can't believe that little tube will fit your arm.
-pattern: 2X2rib, shifted every 4th row (don't know the name of the pattern, but I like it)
-From: Last Minute Gifts (and Knitty Gritty TV show) but longer than they suggest
-5 stitches with waste yarn for thumb. Picked up 2 stitches (one on each side) and knit in pattern for thumb.
-for thumb, I actually knitted a tester tube to see if my circulation would be cut off. But it felt okay.

So, they turned out fine. The biggest pain, as usual was weaving in the ends.

2 comments:

Jillio said...

i concur; weaving in of ends sucks! tedious, but necessary. great job on the wrist warmers! the color is beautiful!

z's momma said...

thanks so much. The wrist warmers match my DNA hat.