Perfect Weekend for Fetching

After a week-plus of extremely cold weather (highs around 10 degrees fahrenheit), this weekend we finally had a bit of a warm-up, 20 on Saturday, 39 on Sunday- nice! It worked out perfectly because I finished my Fetching wristwarmers on Friday and was able to wear them all weekend. I really loved this project- it was fun and quick and the resulting garment is lovely. They were perfect for ice skating this weekend and will be great for watching soccer games on cool fall days. Oh, and I knit these without a cable needle, my first time with that particular technique. Once I got into the rhythm of it, it went pretty quickly.

The yarn is already looking a bit worse for wear, however, and they feel pretty stretched out. I think if I were to make these again, I might go down a needle size to a 5. I'll try throwing them in the washer to see if that helps. Both J and the little guy really liked these and have asked for a pair of their own (all black for J, red and black striped for the child, both without the cables).

Meanwhile, I finally got started on the Urban Aran Cardigan for J with the Elann Peruvian Highland Chunky. I changed the original Patons pattern to a cardigan, and have altered the pattern so that rather than the back and fronts being knit separately and seamed together, I'm knitting the fronts and back all at once on one long circular needle. It took some time to reconfigure the pattern, but I know that I'll be happy when I don't have to sew those long seams down the sides. It was a bit daunting to have 234 stitches on the needle and carefully setting up the pattern, but once that was done, things were going along pretty easily. Although its a men's sweater (translation- lots of knitting), I'm hoping it will go quickly due to the chunkiness of the yarn and the relatively large needle size.