The Knitting Pirate

I finished the first “As I Go Along” armwarmer last week, working with the notes I’d scribbled down when I started it. While I saw some room for improvement in the fit, I was happy enough with the way it came out and decided to knit the second to match. This yarn doesn’t seem like it would be happy about being ripped out and re-knit, anyway, so my decision was based on that as well as on the fit. Trendsetter Tonalita is a soft and loosely spun yarn, not very sturdy at all, and unfortunately I don’t think the armwarmers will last very long before they get fuzzy and pilly.

I decided to save weaving in all the ends until I was done with both, and as it later turned out, that was the best decision I could have made, because I ended up using every single inch of this yarn. The full ball of Tonalita would have been enough for both armwarmers if I hadn’t taken a dozen yards out of it for the top of the Hurricane Hat.

The colours of the first armwarmer are nicer than the second. On one hand, I like that the Tonalita doesn’t have a repeating colour pattern in the skein. On the other hand, why did they have to put all the silvers, greys, and beiges together at one end of the yarn, and all the lovely greens and blues together at the other end? In the Hurricane Hat, the lack of repetition was perfect, and the higher stitch count meant the grey and beige parts were less obtrusive. But here, it almost looks as if the two armwarmers were knit from different colourways, and I like that less.

The second armwarmer got all the dull colours. I knit most of it on a four hour train ride on Sunday afternoon, and as I got towards the top of the hand I began to worry that I wouldn’t have enough yarn to finish. The more worried I got, the faster I knit. I tried to tell myself that I’ve had this concern before and that everything has come out just fine, but the little voice in my head kept saying no, I was going to run out of yarn before I ran out of armwarmer to knit. I knit even faster, because that’s what knitters do when they’re afraid the yarn will run out – don’t ask me why! – and had worked everything but the thumb before my train pulled into the station.

No one on this train ride commented on my knitting. First I sat next to a woman who lived one town over from where I grew up, and we talked about that a bit, but by the time I pulled out the needles and yarn she was deep into a movie on her laptop. After she got off the train, a man came on with a box of cookies. He offered me one, but didn’t say anything about my work. As introverted as I can be, I’m almost disappointed! I enjoy when people notice my knitting, and the conversations that often come of it. I’ve met so many nice people that way.

The little voice turned out to be right. On Monday evening I sat down to knit the eight thumb rounds, and had only enough yarn for five. The ends from the first armwarmer came into play here. I wove them in and scavenged what was left to splice onto my sadly short yarn tail, and managed to get the thumb finished and bound off… only to find that the double thickness in some places had conspired to give me a thumb that’s considerably larger than it ought to be. There’s no way of pulling this out and redoing it, so either I’m going to ignore it or I’m going to take it in with some sewing thread. I’m leaning towards ignoring it, because if I sew it up there’ll be an unpleasant lump on the side of the thumb. The only other thing I could think of would be to ask on Ravelry if anyone has an extra ten yards of Tonalita in the same colourway that they’d be willing to send me. Then I could snip out the thumb, pick up the stitches, and try it again.

These are good little armwarmers, even with one oversized thumb, and I actually have them on right now to keep my hands warm as I work. It’s often cold in my office; I expect to get a lot of use from them. The best part about them, though, is how much I learned from making them up as I went along. It’s given me more confidence to begin the design work on the pattern I’m dreaming up.

At first I couldn’t decide what to knit on the plane. While I was thinking about it I took out the leftover Tonalita and idly knit fifteen rounds of ribbing, then some stockinette, then started to increase for a gusset. I just sort of made them up as I went along, and I wrote down everything I’d done so that I could have some hope of making a second armwarmer just like the first one.

By the end of the flight I’d gotten up to the part where I would set aside stitches for the thumb, decided that I wouldn’t make individual fingers on these due to the thickness of the yarn, and written down what I think will be the rest of the pattern. I could probably finish the first one in less than an hour, and the second one will take about two hours to knock out.

If I were being more picky about the “as I go along” armwarmers, I would put four more stitches into the ribbing to make it easier to get over my hand, even though it’s the right size for my scrawny wrist. I’d spread out the gusset increases over a few more rounds, because I reached the target number of stitches before I’d reached the base of my thumb. But I’m not being picky, because they’ll look totally fine, and I have no plans to write up or publish this pattern.

Last weekend, while my house in Virginia was buried in more than two feet of snow, I went to Canada. Ironically, the weather there was beautiful and clear, if really cold. It was even too cold for me to want to skate on the canal. Instead, my sworn-sister the Ninja and I, along with our friend Amy, took an afternoon to visit yarn stores.

Our first stop was Wool N’ Things in Orleans, where I was thrilled to find some of the discontinued Jo Sharp Silkroad DK Tweed, the same yarn that I used to knit my Fleep-Tops. I picked up two skeins in Cedar, a gorgeous dark green with red and yellow flecks. They’ll probably become another pair of Fleeps, as backup for when my first pair inevitably wears out. The green totally doesn’t match my dark blue winter coat, but it’s time for a new coat anyway. Perhaps something in green, or preferably black. Black goes with everything.

Then we headed over to Yarn Forward in Ottawa proper, where I bought two skeins of this super-soft (and superwash!) Lang Merino DK in a gray so dark it’s almost black. My first thought was that it might make a pair of Fleeps for Michael, but he wanted something thicker and tweedier, so I’m going to use it for a pair of classy office armwarmers for myself and pick up some Rowan Felted Tweed in as black as it comes for him. Not that I mind being able to use this pettably soft stuff for myself, not at all! I am thinking about making something like these Cafe au Lait Mitts from SnapperKnits, or perhaps I will come up with my own pattern for them.

I did have a disappointment this year: My old Stellar Toque, now over four years old, may be nearing retirement. It’s gotten stretched out and too large, and lets the wind through to my ears. I am thinking that before next Winterlude, I will knit a colourwork hat with earflaps and line it with fleece. We saw many of them in the Byward Market when we were there for the Stew Cook-Off on Friday, and I was seriously tempted to buy one – but why buy what I can knit? Pirate-Husband suggested that I could salvage the Stellar Toque by knitting earflaps onto it and lining it with fleece, instead of making a whole new hat. I could also felt it a little to shrink it and make it more windproof.

Because it would be a pain in the butt to try to measure out a length of heel color stripe against another stripe, I think I’m just going to start the entire heel over with the next stripe in sequence. Not only will this be easier than measuring, but it will be easy to reproduce on Sock #2.

Today, I was complimented on the policy I have on the Highwayman Armwarmers pattern: Distribute the pattern freely but don’t sell it. You may sell armwarmers made with this pattern if you give me credit for having designed it. Since I don’t plan to make and sell armwarmers, it’s not taking any money out of my pocket if anyone else wants to do so. Feel free! Have at it! Enjoy!

I feel like such a dork saying it, but omg! people are making the armwarmers! I saw someone on the LJ knitting community recommending them, and someone on a UK knitting forum did the same, and someone on Ravelry has cast on for the pattern too! I should probably relax a little bit, but I can’t help squeeing just a little!

It’s still not cool enough to wear the Stripey Striped Scarf, but I’m sure it will be soon! I’ll try to get some pictures of its public debut, possibly under the trees which are just now starting to turn pretty colors.

My wrists have been hurting, so I’ve been trying to knit and type a little less. This is frustrating, but I’d rather take a few days off knitting than have to take a month off after I really overdo it.

And lastly, I know this isn’t exactly knitting-related, but in about ten minutes the realtor is going to pick us up and take us to see our first bunch of houses. I’m *so* excited!

I thought about this for a while and decided that the Highwayman pattern really needed some kind of included copyright information. So I put this on there. Since I don’t plan to make and sell armwarmers, I have no problem if anyone else does – it doesn’t take money away from me. However, it’s important to give me credit for the design. Here’s the copyright notice I came up with:

Important Copyright Information:
This pattern is © 2007 The Knitting Pirate. You may make copies for your own personal use, but you may not sell copies of the pattern. You may sell the armwarmers you make provided that credit is given to the Knitting Pirate for the design. If you have any questions about what you can or can’t do with this pattern, please feel free to contact the Knitting Pirate.

I wonder why most pattern designers don’t want people selling objects made from their pattern?

Thursday night I saw the Yarn Harlot at Borders. As soon as I pull the pictures off my camera, I’ll post them with a recap of the evening. It was fantastic!

Pirate-Husband asked me to design “manly black armwarmers” for him to wear while riding, and explained that he needed something to close the gap between his leather jacket and his gloves. Cables were the first thing that came to mind. He liked them so much that I made a pair for myself as well! These are just the thing for scenic motorcycle rides in the country – or blustery fall days in the city. Made of 100% wool, they are warm without being too bulky, and fit tightly to help keep the wind out.

SIZE: S [L] (shown in size S)
FINISHED MEASUREMENTS: To fit an arm that’s 6 [7.5] inches around at widest point of forearm. Negative ease is included in the pattern.
YARN: Patricia Roberts Lambswool [100% lambswool; 50g/168 yards;] charcoal gray; 1 skein or Filatura Di Crosa Zarina Extrafine Merino [100% merino; 50g/181 yards;] colour 1490: blue; 1 skein or any other sport-DK weight yarn to get gauge.
AND ALSO:

• 1 set(s) US #3/3.25mm double-point needles
• Cable needle
• Tapestry needle
• Round marker

GAUGE: 30 sts/42 rows = 4″ in stockinette stitch

Download the Highwayman Armwarmer Pattern – .pdf format

Highwayman page on Ravelry.com

Important Copyright Information:
This pattern is © 2007 The Knitting Pirate. You may make copies for your own personal use, but you may not sell copies of the pattern. You may sell the armwarmers you make provided that credit is given to the Knitting Pirate for the design. If you have any questions about what you can or can’t do with this pattern, please feel free to contact the Knitting Pirate.

Some more pictures: