FINALLY: Cabled Chartreuse Knotty Gloves

"They remind me of rubber dishwashing gloves."

Said my husband, innocently enough, as he photographed me doing the dance of knitting victory with my FINALLY complete spring-green merino wool Knotty gloves.

It wasn't exactly what I wanted to hear about the gloves I had started over a year ago and finished on size 000 needles after three false starts. Maybe it was the color, or the length, or my pose?

Anyway, they fit perfectly now and I just love them. Chartreuse makes me happy!

These gloves were made to fill a serious wardrobe gap. I have several pairs of me-made fingerless gloves, but on truly chilly days I needed real finger coverage. So I've always ended up wearing ill-fitting cheap acrylic RTW gloves that were too short and left my wrists exposed to the cold.

Hence, the Knotty Gloves by Julia Mueller -- a free pattern designed for fingering-weight yarn with actual fingers and lovely cables and just the perfect length (she also has many other gorgeous glove patterns, all currently available for free since she closed her business).

I made mine with Studio Avenue 6 Bellwether Sock in the Spring colorway, a 100% merino wool hand-painted fingering weight yarn that seems to be discontinued (boo!).

My husband made up for his comments by taking an inordinate number of photos for me. We struggled with lighting and focus, though -- most of the outdoor photos (we're visiting my parents, so there actually IS an outdoors) came out terribly, so we came indoors:

Oh, and here's a closeup, but it's preblocking, so the stitches look a bit wibbly wobbly:

And why FINALLY? Well, I started these gloves in February of 2014, and gave up on them halfway through the first when they were coming out way too big even on size 0 needles. I finally found size 000 double-pointed needles (none of my local yarn stores had them, but you can find them on yarn.com or Amazon) and started them over again in January 2015 while I was waiting for baby and needed some serious distraction.

It felt like I was knitting with fragile bits of straw, and I went SO slowly for fear of the needles just snapping on me:

And they were STILL way too big, so I ripped back to the beginning AGAIN and added in lots of decreases (modification details here on my Ravelry project page).

So: hurrah for finishing UFOs, hurrah for chartreuse, and hurrah for the spring weather that means I will need to pack these up pretty soon.

My current creative focus is on the Small Human Being Sew-Along for April, but my next knitting project is finishing up the Hetty cardigan by Andi Satterlund last seen on this blog when my waist disappeared mid-pregnancy:

She just needs sleeves, and then she will be Me-Made-May ready.

P.S. Has a casual comment ever made you feel bad about a just-finished sewing or knitting project that you put a LOT of effort into? I certainly won't be taking these gloves anywhere near soapy dishes!

Ill-Fitting Bathrobe or Stylish Peplum Jacket? (McCall's 5529, aka my oldest UFO)

So my oldest unfinished sewing object is finally finished... and I can't decide if I totally hate it or find it mildly acceptable.

I mean, there are a few pros here: it has raglan sleeves, it's an adjustable wrap style, and it's made from a stretchy (but not too stretchy) chartreuse RPL doubleknit. Plus: a peplum!

But... there is a big con here, and that is the poor fit. It's just way too huge all over—in the sleeves, the shoulders, the body, the front. Even when I wrap it as carefully as I can, it feels more "ill-fitting bathrobe" than "casual, yet chic jacket" to me.

This could be because I muslined and cut it out when I was seven months hugely pregnant back in 2010. I thought it might still work now because it is a wrap and a knit, but... I think it's also the pattern. The examples on the envelope look equally large and rather baggy and wrinkly in the sleeves—it should have been a warning sign that the model has her sleeves scrunched up:

The basics

Pattern: McCall's 5529, a self-belted unlined raglan-sleeved cardigan/jacket with peplum, designed for wovens or stable knits. I believe it's out of print in the envelope edition, but I bought it as a download from SewingPatterns.com and tediously taped it all together. I made View C, with self-fabric belt and smooth non-gathered peplum. But I don't think I really recommend this pattern. The collar doesn't seem to know what it wants to do, the belt is rather "meh", and the peplum could be more fun, but isn't.

Fabric: Chartreuse Sophia doubleknit rayon/poly/lycra from Fabric.com (similar here on sale for $8.99/yard). It's a great fabric... BUT I think this would have worked better in a softer knit—like a sweater knit or stretchy French terry.

Size: According to my old notes I made a size 14, did a 2" FBA (adding four inches across the bust total), shortened the body by about four inches to hit my short waist... and added quite a bit of width to the front to accommodate my then-huge pregnant belly. I also took in the too-baggy sleeves by an INCH each but apparently that was not enough.

Instructions: Just fine—nothing exciting.

Construction notes: Back in 2010 I had originally been making this on the serger. When I picked up this UFO a few weeks ago the body and sleeves were together and all that remained to be done was attach the peplum and collar and sew up the belt. I finished it on my machine with a narrow zig-zag stitch.

I did the topstitching and hems with a regular long straight stitch since this doubleknit is so stable.

I slipstitched the inside of the collar by hand and it took me AGES—I ended up carrying it with me to playground excursions and such. A lot of work for such a mediocre result!

Wear: As lackluster as I feel about this make I do still think I will wear it, mainly to work. It's warm and cozy and I got quite a few compliments on it when I wore it to work Friday—mainly due to the color, I think. Chartreuse is kind of my thing, to say the least.

I have a theory that scrunching up the sleeves might help—thoughts?

Successes: My first jacket! OK, so it's an unlined unfitted knit belted wrap jacket--a glorified girly sweatshirt. But still--my first jacket!

Room for improvement?: The FIT! Next time I make a raglan-sleeve top, I want to see if I can make the armhole more comfortable, perhaps by adding a gusset.

I suppose I COULD take it apart and alter it to fit better... but I'm just DONE with this project. Whatever. At least the unfinished object pile is TOTALLY EMPTY. For now, anyway... I doubt I will ever make this pattern again and I can't say I recommend it.

My next knit jacket project bodes much better for success, as I KNOW the style is just perfect for me—the Cake Patterns Carmine Jacket (which I drew the cover flats for, naturally):

Knitting again: Knotty cabled chartreuse gloves (in progress)

My cheap and flimsy acrylic gloves have NOT been serving me well this winter, and after getting horribly cold and soggy fingers while sledding with my daughter last week, I decided to take matters into my own hands. This beautifully cabled design is the free Knotty gloves pattern by Laris Designs. The eye-searing chartreuse yarn is Studio Avenue 6 Bellweather Sock in the "Spring" colorway. (See my Ravelry project details if you so choose).

The cables are super pretty, but I will admint I had to rip back and reknit these about three times so far due to lopsided chart-reading mishaps whilst watching the last season of True Blood with my husband late at night. (Clearly, it is all the fault of those vampires, fairies and fairy vampires).

My winter-glove-making timing may seem a bit off, but as I type this it is snowing outside my Brooklyn window. I'm sure I will finish them JUST as soon as they are not actually needed any more this season.