Craft Enabled, Domestically Disabled

My fingerless gloves.

You might be wondering: what, she made mittens?

Nope. After looking around at patterns on Knitty (this one in particular), I thought, "Huh, it could be useful to have slip-on covers for the fingers." (I would like to do the Broad Streets, but my hands are probably way too small for that pattern.) But I wasn't sure if I'd want the tops permanently attached or not, so I just made covers and pinned them on, so I could remove them if I didn't end up liking them.

I am thinking of using this in order to design my own half-fingered gloves, since the patterns I've found that I liked were man-sized. I will make an attempt.

Slipper attempt #2

I took 10 rows out of the slipper to make it smaller. While that made it more likely to fit my foot...it still doesn't exactly look good ON my foot. Or fit it very well at all compared to the photos I've seen of everyone else's slippers on the Internet.

The heel comes up oddly high, and the toes just look funny, and the ribbing on the edge just looks weird.

*sigh* I suspect this pattern was just not meant for the small-footed (if you're not a baby/toddler, anyway).

These things are just not working.

My second attempt at Twinkletoes came out about the same as the first one. My feet are apparently just too small. I am probably going to try to think of some way to take out 10 rows in the middle. Somehow. Not as easy as making them bigger would be *sigh* Either that or I make myself toddler-size.

In other knitting failures, I am having problems with the pattern for the lace-up opera gloves. For one, following the instructions means I have VERY VERY VERY long arms. It's not around my elbows, it's around my armpits. For another, it seems like it's not quite wide enough to fit my arms even at the right gauge. And for the third, trying to put in the bit for the thumb, well... the count just comes out off. I do NOT end up with 12 stitches between the markers. Argh. I may have to give up on this one entirely, or frigging wing it on my own or something..

In the meantime, I WANT SOME FREAKING FINGERLESS GLOVES OF MY OWN, DANGIT. It is cold, cold, cold out there of late, and I need gloves, but I can't DO anything with my fingers (you know, operate my iPod, flip pages in a book, answer my fucking cell phone) encased in gloves. So I am using my leftover yarn from the cropped sweater (which matches this year's coat) to make a pair of bulky fingerless gloves in Speed Knitting, which I got for Christmas. Hopefully THOSE will go as planned. Luckily for me, the biggest DPN's I had in the house work for the gauge for it. I need these sooooooon.

I screwed this up somehow.

So, I am trying to make Twinkletoes.

You may ah, notice a problem between my first slipper and the original photos.

I am not sure if it's that my feet are too small (size 6) compared to the creator's/most people's feet, or my stitches were too loose, or what went wrong. The gauge was right, but the length comes out an inch bigger than it's supposed to be. It wasn't the tightest fit on the toes, but the heel is REALLY bad.

I am going to try remaking it again to see if I can get it to come out any better the second time around, or if I just can't make the sucker.

Incidentally, I highly suggest that instead of doing the cable cast-on for the laces, that instead you find a smallish crochet hook and make a chain of 110 stitches, then single-crochet back the other way. It makes the laces all cute and curly.

The hat on its owner

Luckily for me, he seems to like it. I've been told he was spotted wearing it even when I wasn't around.