Tuesday, November 01, 2005

A glove and swatches and LYS reviews

Here's a glove made with Trekking sock yarn on size 0 needles (I switch to 000 after the top finger joint to help shape the top of the fingers without extra decrease rounds):



1993 called, it wants its plaid shirt back


It'd be a good idea to knit the mate before I forget what all the numbers scribbled down on paper mean. That's an asymmetric thumb gusset. It's my favorite because the increases are done on just one side (every other round) and the increase line is hidden under the thumb. Use M1R for the right hand increases and M1L for the left hand. Instructions for this gusset, and a few others, are in the Winter 2003 Interweave Knits.



detail of gusset on right glove palm


The IK Winter 2003 article on basic gloves is pretty good but the math formulas don't work for small gauges and they don't tell you to start the pinky finger a few rounds before the other fingers. Gloves fit better if the pinky has a head start. I work the pinky finger and then knit 1/2" more on the hand before starting the ring finger.

Swatchin' Time


(L to R): Nature Spun Sport, Dale Baby Ull, Nature Spun Sport


I swatched for the Ullared hat from Hats On! using Dale Baby Ull and Brown Sheep Nature Spun Sport from the stash. I love working with the Baby Ull (which is fingering weight) but I prefer the high contrast between the Nature Spun pale blue and black. Also, the Baby Ull is so soft it should be used for a pair of gloves. The Baby Ull blue is not at all true in the photo, it's darker and prettier than it appears here.

New Yarn Shops

There are a couple new yarn shops in Bellingham. Marilyn's Yarn is on Northwest Ave (across the street from Yaeger's Sporting Goods). Northwest Handspun Yarns is on Commercial, three blocks from the downtown bus station.

Yesterday I stopped by Marilyn's Yarn for the first time and the workers left me alone for an entire hour. Some people are offended if they're ignored in shops but I prefer to browse in peace. Surely they would have helped me had I asked for help. (One employee was on the floor sorting through 100+ skeins of some type of Noro, looking for the last two skeins of a specific self-striping colorway for a customer.) Personally I can't stand it when people hover and ask what I want to make, what I'm looking for, etc. They have a pretty good selection of yarns, including several I haven't seen before, but no Dale Baby Ull or Brown Sheep Nature Spun fingering/sport and those were the only yarns I was looking for. There seemed to be a lot of novelty yarns but plenty of good staples too so it's not like the fluffy stuff was taking over. Prices seemed normal for a LYS.

Afterwards I walked to Hank & Bolt, a few blocks away, and was disappointed to see their selection of Baby Ull has shrunk to just a few colors. They probably weren't exactly thrilled about Marilyn's Yarn opening up down the street. That had to hurt.

Northwest Handspun Yarns opened a couple weeks ago so I stopped by on Saturday to check out their yarn. I was pleased to see their selection of Brown Sheep Superwash. I don't see the LP Superwash very often in yarn shops so I was happy to find it right here in Bellingham. The prices are inflated above the norm, no doubt to help cover the cost of renting downtown. This shop actually used to be located in another building downtown but it was hidden in a converted basement closet (really!) and they had very odd hours (open only one night a week) so it didn't exactly count as a LYS. Their new location has room for a lot more yarn and there's a second floor where people can sit and knit or spin. I'm not sure if college students will respond to the prices but the convenient location and hours (open 7 days a week) might win thrifty students over. Maybe they don't need college students to survive anyway.

Wow, I went to three yarn shops in the last week and didn't spend a dime! No, that's not true, I also went to Wool Station on Saturday and bought an Inox size 2 16" circular for the Ullared hat. I already have 16" circulars in every size from 3 to 10.5 so of course the hat needs a size 2.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Pretty colors! :)

-scott

Life's a Stitch said...

Thanks for the link to Marilyn's My daughter told me she thought she saw a new yarn shop around there.
Li

Maus said...

That's a gorgeous glove! I too love that asymmetric gusset, it looks very nice and fits quite well. Good idea to use smaller needles at the finger tips, that'll make them more durable too.

Unknown said...

Can you tell me more about your preference of asymmetric gussets? I am curious about the fit and wear of this type of gusset after reading a rather discouraging opinion.

Anonymous said...

Hi Lilyan, I prefer asymmetrical gussets because they look better and feel better on the hand, imo.

The downside is that the gloves/mittens are hand specific, so they might wear out faster on the palm side. If a glove can be worn on either hand then one day side A will be the palm side but maybe the next that glove is put on the other hand, so side B is the palm side. That makes for more even wear.

I mainly wear gloves and mittens when I am walking for exercise, so I am not concerned about uneven wear patterns.

Unknown said...

Kristi. Thanks so much for the insight. If I might trouble you with one more question :-) I have been using the Interweave 2003 article as my primer. Can you give some pointers on how you altered the instructions for the asymmetric gusset for smaller gauges? I've got a 10sts/in gauge and am wondering if I can just double the numbers in the instructions as I think they are written for their hypothetical 5sts/in glove.