Well, this is a long overdue follow-up to my Christmas knitting projects!
First of all, I want to show you all that my Mom's sweater did indeed fit - perfectly! I hope she really likes it and actually wears it! (Sorry they're a bit blurry - apparently I was not at my photography best Christmas morning)
Next - the hand warmers I made my sister out of Artyarns Cashmere 5 in color 162. Mm mm mmmmmm...I can tell you - these were hard to give away. I probably tried them on myself at least 10 times.
I started out planning to do the Wrist Warmers in the Last Minute Knitted Gifts book, but had to tink the pattern quite a bit to be what I wanted for my sis. First of all, I wanted them a bit bigger, both around and lengthwise (mostly b/c I wanted to make sure I got the most use out of the one skein of cashmere - no sense wasting that stuff with little leftovers!). To do that I casted on 4 more sts than called for, and knit for another half repeat before leaving the thumb opening. Then on the hand I knit for an additional full repeat so they would go all the way to the knuckle. I also wanted to add a thumb, because I feel like they're sorta incomplete looking without the thumbs. So after casting off I went back and picked up 12 or so sts around the thumb hole and knit a few rows, throwing in a couple of decreases on the thumb "instep" for shaping, and then bound off.
They were a great success, and now I have a nice skein of black cashmere set aside for myself to match my new coat (more projects related to that coat coming up!).
your mothers sweater looks beautiful on her!!
and yes, um, those hand warmers would ave been IMPOSSIBLE for me to give away. lovely!
Posted by: leslie | 2008.01.23 at 07:49 AM