Call me so I can finish this darn monkey

Wow, what a busy couple of days! I've been knitting knitting knitting! I finished the fingerless mitts for my KAL in Ravelry. I love love love them! I was so excited to have them finished. I thought, while I was working on the first one, the right one, that it was my favorite... but upon seeing the colors in the left one, I like it so much more! They don't even look like they came from the same skein of yarn... but not only did they come from the same skein, glove number two started exactly where number one left off. I did the thumbs last, and I'm glad I did, because there was enough yarn left to pick exactly what color I wanted for them.

Pattern Notes: Cabled fingerless mitts from Carissa Knits. (There's also a link in the sidebar in my FOs of 08 list!) Cast on the 2nd, ripped back the 3rd, and re-cast on... so I guess you could say I started on Thursday, the 3rd. Finished Early early early this morning, before bed, Saturday morning. So they took me a little over two days. I used Patons sws in Natural Geranium... and I LOVE this colorway. I see many many things that match these in my future. Many. I used my trusty size 8 dpns. I worked the pattern... mostly. It was a little finicky, but only because I changed how many stitches there were rather than change my gauge, because I know my gauge with that yarn and needles, and like the way it looks. I only cast on 32, instead of 44, so I had to adjust how I did it. The second one was much worse, because first I forgot and twisted the cable the wrong way, then I twisted the cable the right way but put the thumb in the wrong place, then I put the thumb in the right place... but it didn't look right, so I readjusted it AGAIN. So technically I've probably knit these babies at least twice. :) It used a lot less than a skein of the sws, so it's a perfect project for that stuff. See, it's too expensive and a little too itchy for a sweater or something, so you can just buy one skein here and there and make some of these!

It took me forever to get a picture I like of that one. I couldn't get the color just right, so I had to adjust it after I took the picture. They aren't quite that dull, but if I didn't do this, the dark pink looked red. There IS a red spot, on the left glove between the two light pinks. Reminds me of Valentine's day.

My cast off edge, which I did in pattern, was a little tight, so I decided that after they're dry, I'm going to go back and pick it out and cast off in this way that I think I must have learned from knitting Icarus, because it's SORT of like that cast off, but I'm really not sure where I learned it, or what it's called. Basically, since it’s k2 p2 ribbing, I’ll knit two, insert the left needle into the two stitches on the right needle, and k2tog. Then, purl 1, and do the same thing but p2tog, and then just do the same thing for the whole needle. It makes a very stretchy edge.

Yay for the first FO of 2008! Stay tuned to see Angie's first FO of 2008. Have a good weekend!