Redo #6

This is the first completed Hurry Up Spring Armwarmer.  I haven't sewn in the ends yet, and it's hard to take a decent photo of your right hand.  It's fuzzy, but the colours are more or less right.

The observant may notice the purple at the top, which I didn't think was going to make it in.  You may wonder if I cheated somewhat to get the purple in, and you'd be dead right.

I ripped it back yet again after Mandy enlightened me on the better way to do a thumb gusset.  Mandy is a knitter of gloves and amazing colour work who hosted our monthly knit-together on Saturday morning.  I ripped the armwarmer back a sixth time when I found the gusset was far too small, and decided there was too much orange, so it got cut out.  This was a preemptive strike before it snapped on me in protest, like the green lower down.  I also got fed up of the yucky yellow-into-green colour further up, and cut that out to get to the purple sooner.  Spit-splice is a wonderful thing.

I made a lot of changes to get this armwarmer the way I wanted.  First off, I did the cast on and a couple of rows of ribbing in size 8 needles, more or less what was needed to get gauge.  Then I switched to size 7 needles because I have skinny wrists.  I went back to the eights when I started the thumb gusset at row 30 on the chart.

The increases for the thumb gusset were done by putting a backwards loop on the needle (Mandy's suggestion), instead of knitting in front and back of a stitch, or picking up the loop below.  Neither looked good in my opinion, both left holes.  I worked a knit plain row after each increase row, which was left out of the book but should have been included according to the designer.  I increased several more stitches than the thirteen suggested for the gusset because it was looking too tight.

These modifications may not be good for you, bear in mind I knit with an evil amount of tension.  Think guitar string tension and you're getting there.  I also have a great preference for the colour purple and small wrists.

My other FO of 2005 is the Hemp socks:

The wool/hemp/mohair yarn from DZined made it through an accidental machine-washing intact, and I love these socks.