I'm knitting the fingers concurrently. I have just rejoined the yarn to the left-hand glove (on the right of the photo for some reason) and am knitting a couple of rounds before starting the three larger fingers. Little fingers start slightly lower down on the hand than the others, and gloves fit much better if you include this slight refinement.
I had such a nice morning yesterday with the knitters of Putney, who meet at Stash. They were having their (not-so) secret Santa swap and Christmas party. I'd been warned by Jill, so I had a small contribution to the feast, but didn't expect to join in the present exchange, naturally. It was so sweet of Lesley, therefore, to give me one of the little flower brooches she had made for everyone.
I bought a skein of Lamb's Pride worsted to make the Fake Isle hat, started it there and then, and I've nearly finished it!
I've got even further with it because I had to recharge my camera battery before I could download photos to my computer and carried on while I was waiting.
What is happening with the weather? It got as 'black as Egypt's night' (Mother's phrase) just now and there was thunder and a blast of hailstones! Now the sun's out again...
I needed a break from the A3 and have given myself this midweek off from visiting my mother. She's fairly cheerful at the moment and they keep her busy during the week. She went to an exercise class yesterday! Weekends are a drag for her, though, and she appreciates a visit then.
I've actually finished the hand part of this glove and have left it on a spare thread while I do the corrugated ribbing of its mate. I decided to do the fingers together to keep them consistent. I'm also a little uncertain of the thumb opening that I have made on this glove. It seems a little tight.
My main criticism of the Carol Rasmussen Noble book is that she doesn't give any instructions for the gussets of those gloves that have them (she doesn't always even give the chart). The gusset increases made 13 stitches, which I put on a spare thread. I then cast on 9 stitches to close the gap. I think I must have cast on a bit tight because the thumb hole does seem a bit tight on me. But I do have quite thick fingers. I'll do glove number 2 and see if it's any better and then make a decision.
I'm loving knitting these gloves but am going to take a slight detour to make the Fake Isle hat for a friend's birthday next week. I think it'll be quite a quick knit. I've got several skeins of Kureyon and am planning a trip to Stash today where I know I can get Lamb's Pride.
The colour sequence isn't symmetrical because as I got into it I realised the cuffs would be far too long if I repeated the colours. Never mind: I quite like this effect. Soon after taking this photo I ripped out the stocking stitch portion because the hand was turning out too big.
I had cast on 68 stitches because corrugated ribbing isn't very elastic. I then decreased to 64 but decided I needed to go to 60. Also, I changed to metal needles, which are slicker and I hope will tighten up my two-colour knitting a bit. Everyone else seems to knit tighter with two colours, but I seem to go looser!
The colours and pattern came together really easily. I have decided not to use the sludgy dark colour in the centre row. Instead I will use one of the yellows. I duplicate stitched first in green and then in the pale yellow to see if this was better:
The star motif is taken from Carol Rasmussen Noble's book, Knitting Fair Isle Gloves and Mittens, p. 56 and the little border pattern is from the same book on p. 54.
I have decided to do corrugated ribbing for the cuffs and found some good information in Ann Feitelson's book, The Art of Fair Isle Knitting. There are lots of ways of arranging the colours:
It looks as though I'll have most of the afternoon to myself, so I'm going to settle down to some extended knitting.
I've joined Stranded: The Colorwork Challenge, which starts today.
What are your projects for this knitalong?
A pair of Fair Isle gloves for Janet, to make up for shafting her at the Church Fair!
Is this your first colorwork project? If it isn't, what was your first, and has it survived the test of time?
My first stranded project was a pair of Latvian mittens. I gave them to my SIL and have no idea whether they still exist. Here's my second pair, which I wear and love very much.
Janet's gloves
Janet suits the autumn colours and I've been looking at my Jamieson's/J&S stash:
Not exactly a colour wheel! Inspiration didn't strike, so I went out on this sunless day and took some photos of autumn colours. I was surprised how green my back garden still is. Most of the coloured leaves have now fallen, but not all.
So now I think I'll use these colours, or at least have a go at swatching with them:
It's such a dull day that the colours aren't coming across very well. There's a dark brown, a leafy green, pale yellow, daffodil yellow, ochre, murky bracken/mud and a really bright magenta pink for contrast. I'm thinking of doing cuffs and fingers in a neutral fawn just because I've got enough of it.
