Sock Yarn Fingerless Gloves

Sock Yarn Fingerless Gloves 

This pattern was actually designed when I wanted to use up the yarn left over after knitting a pair of socks.  At the time I was using Red Heart Heart & Sole sock yarn (50g/195m).  I wasn't sure if I would have enough to complete anything more than a wrist band, so be forewarned - I can't promise that you will have enough yarn when you have leftovers from your socks!  But you can use any sock yarn and definitely get a pair (maybe even 2) out of a full 50g skein of sock yarn.

These were designed to fit my hand - wrist = 6", hand measured below knuckles = 7.5".  Be prepared to tweak it to fit the hand you're knitting for!

Using size 2 double-pointed needles, cast on 56 stitches.  

Distribute stitches evenly across 3 or 4 needles, join in the round and work in K2, P2 ribbing for 3", or to whatever length you want the wristband portion to be.

Switch to stockinette stitch and knit for another 1.25" or so, depending on how much you want your thumb to stick out - go longer if you want your lowest thumb knuckle covered.  I could have gone another .5" to be even with my first thumb knuckle...

Bind off 6 stitches for the thumb hole.  Big thumb?  Bind off more!

Now work back and forth doing the stockinette stitch for approximately 1" or so, leaving the gap for the thumb hole.  When you finish a purl (wrong side) row, cast on 6 stitches (purl-wise is how I did the cast on), then flip the glove over to the right side and connect the cast on stitches to the stitches other side of the thumb hole by knitting in the first stitch there.  Now you can go back to knitting in the round again!

Work in K2,P2 ribbing for approximately 1.25", or for as long as you want!  My gloves just cover my knuckles.

Bind off loosely.

Sock knitting frustration, and a happy "invention"

First of all, I have to say that it's a good thing that I LOVE the color combo of this "Green Envy" yarn, because I have been spending a lot more time knitting with it than I should have.   I finally finished the socks while we were out at the ocean for mid-winter break, and sadly they are just too big.  I don't know if you can tell at all from the comparison above, or the side shot below.  I look like I have a paddle foot.  This is after starting over once already because I was originally making the socks with my usual number of stitches and they were going to be too small to be able to stretch on over/past my heel.  I tried them on as I went along, but it's hard to tell the fit with the needles still there.  Anyway, I've ripped sock number one back to its ribbing.  I want them to fit right!

Meanwhile, when I "finished" the socks I had the remainders of two skeins of the Green Envy yarn that I just had to do something with because I love it so much.  I decided to start with wrist warmers and see if I had enough yarn to continue up to some snug little fingerless gloves.  Ta da!  I did it, and here they are - 

Oops!  I'm wearing my watch under the glove in the first picture above, so it's a little fat in the wrist.  I'm pretty excited about this little pattern creation, especially since these gloves in this yarn should be fairly durable and most definitely machine washable.  

If I'm lucky I'll get the pattern on here to share soon.

One final little vial melting project

This last experiment was inspired by my wonderful neighbor Carol.  When she was over looking at my flattened insulin vials that I ended up making into the windchime she commented that it would be cool if there was enough room left in the flattened bottle to fit a little flower in it, and then you could hang it on the wall as a tiny wall vase.  What a great idea!  So I slumped a couple of batches of vials, trying to not let them flatten too much....

Some bottles are a bit flatter than others, but I'd say the partial slumping worked just as I was hoping.  From afar the group of bottles looks kind of like bubbles landed on my work table.

Since there aren't any cute little flowers blooming in the garden right now, I scavanged dried lavendar for my test flower -  

I just wrapped some copper wire around the neck of the bottle to hang it on the wall.  I'd like to try using some finer gauge wire strung with some beads to wrap the neck of a bottle, maybe.

I think this will be one of those things where every one is finished a bit differently.

Here's a nice artsy picture with a penny next to the vial for an idea of scale - 

Another potential etsy item?!

Flattened Insulin Vial Wind Chime

I finally put together a wind chime using all of my slumped-until-they're-flat insulin bottles.  I was disappointed that the glass ended up being so cloudy, but I heated the heck out of them, so I guess that's an unfortunate side effect.  The spirals at the end of the copper wire are sandwiched between the layers of glass.  That was the inspiration for this project - fusing a wire inside the flattened vials so that they could then hang from that internal wire. 

I tried recording a couple short videos to show the nice clinking sounds that these little bottles make when they knock against each other, but unfortunately the sound didn't come through well at all.  

I just love these flattened little bottles.  They are just over 2 inches long when flattened.  Hmmm...I just realized that they are kind of the shape of an old-fashioned hot water bottle.   

Luckily when the bottles aren't slumped so extremely they seem to stay clear.  Stay tuned for one more slumping project with these babies that I'm still playing around with.  And I have an idea involving LED lights, but that's a whole new direction for the future.

The Hot Seat

I have finally finished my felted seat pad that is the gigantico version of the hot pad that I made recently following a pattern in the "Alterknits Felt" book.  Once again, I forgot to take a "before" picture....grrr.  This looked like a large sheet of colorful bubblewrap before it was felted.  All of the circles were originally domes.

For the record, this piece started out 16.5" wide by 19" tall.  After the first wash it was 14.25" x 14.5", and after a second wash it ended up 13"x13".  It is pure luck that the stripe pattern that I wanted to do worked out to be a perfect square.  Knitting shrinks more vertically than horizontally when you felt it, as proven to me by this piece!  And I guess you can see why I will call this "the hot seat".  I was lucky that my yarn stash included all of the fire colors that blended together so well.

I am finding that my knitting-while-riding-my-bike (on the trainer, not down the street, in case you missed that earlier blog entry!) exercise plan is working out quite well.  I'm getting more knitting done.  And even though the darn Wii said I gained weight yesterday and today, at least I know that I'm exercising!

Plagued by Air Bubbles

Thinking I had this air bubble situation, or apparent lack of a situation,  figured out, I did a batch of heart pendants last night without frit in the middle of the hearts.  Arrgghhh!  Bubbles galore, and larger ones this time, which is what I expected in the first place.  I think it was a fluke that my "control" in the first batch didn't have a bubble trapped in the middle of the heart.  So back to the frit idea tomorrow.  These pictures seem to be darker when I upload them, but you can still see what I'm talking about....

My favorite is this one.  I did it on a whim using clear glass for both the top and bottom layers.  It kind of looks like a heart frozen in ice: 

Anyway, enough whining about these pendants.  So far I have been hanging pendants on a black vinyl/fake leather look cord with silver latch findings that you slip onto the ends of the cord and pinch tight.  But I might also look into that metal bead cord, too.  I've been obsessed with that stuff since I was little and my grandma's bathtub plug was attached to the tub with a length of it.