Knitting Olympics

It's been non-stop Olympics in Superstarra-ville. I watched the Opening Ceremonies, almost cried when Michelle Kwan decided to go home and cheered for cross-country skier who won the silver medal after crashing in the opening minutes of the race. I didn't join the Knitting Olympics, but in honor of those who were feverishly casting on their projects when the Olympic Flame was lit, I was binding off. A sort of symbolic passing of the torch.

Backstory

Pattern:Rebecca #30 Arm Warmers [the pattern is paired with a top with a peplum]
Yarn: Knitpicks Wool of the Andes from the stash
Needles: Size 5 DPNs
Exposition: I wanted a pair of fingerless gloves and decided I would try the pattern from Rebecca. It wasn't too hard, but I did deviate from the pattern by omitting the decreases and making the thumb hole a little bigger. I also added a peep hole for my watch face. Who wants to have to tug the darn thing down when you want to check when quitting time is? Technically, you could say that I made up this pattern, but I will give credit where it's due.

I started with the striped one first, making up the stipes as I went along. I originally wanted the part covering my hand to be all red, but I was very limited by the amount of yarn I had. By the time I got to the second glove, I had so little red and black that I decided to give the striping a break. I also didn't want to have to weave in all those annoying ends [I'll admit, I did a craptastic job on the first one]. I figured if the most visible part was almost the same, that's all that mattered.

Don't you love my watch? Yes, those are stars. Would you expect anything less? For the peep hole, put on the completed glove and approximated where my watch was. I simply bound off the length of the watch face, knit back and forth [rather than in the round] and then recasted on the stitches and continued in the round. On my first attempt, the hole was too wide, so I just frogged back two rows and voila! A perfect little hole for my watch to peek out!

One more think I can cross off my list! Go me!

I also started in on the VK Zippered Cardigan for my sweetie...the size 10 needles are giving me a much needed break from the size 3 and 5's that have been my mainstay lately. Now if I could just get away from all the stockinette.