I work with a brilliant graphic designer called Janice, who just makes my day at work go by so much quicker and easier. Last week we went for a walk around the city centre at lunchtime and ended up buying new scarves as Janice had lost hers the week before (actually, she’d left it on a wall in Skye where she was volunteering for the National Trust). As she explained what had happened, she exclaimed, “I need COLOUR in my life! Colour!” and I suddenly decided what I was going to do for her birthday.

Pattern: Fetching from the Summer 2006 edition of Knitty
Needles: 4mm bamboo DPNs
Yarn: This was my very first skein of my very first attempt at dyeing with kool aid. I posted about dyeing on this entry. The yarn I used is the left skein in the bottom picture.
Ravelry project page: Click here
Techniques learned: I discovered whilst checking how to do the cable cast on that I’ve been casting on incorrectly for, well as long as I’ve been able to knit! That was fairly disconcerting but at least now I know how to do it properly.
I also feel that I’ve mastered how to pick up and knit stitches without leaving a gaping hole.

These were really quick to knit up – I cast on late thing on Thursday night and finished them on Saturday night, and I am by no stretch of the imagination a speedy knitter. I had to frog the thumb on the left because I somehow managed to pick up 21 stitches instead of 17 and I completed eight rounds on the thumb instead of the suggested four because the thumb barely covered my knuckle with four repeats. I did use the suggested picot cast off, but I’m not hugely happy with the effect. I think it looks pretty untidy – is it just me? Have any of you who’ve made Fetching before felt the same?

Click any of the pictures to get the bigger size.

The skein I used is the one hanging on the left hand side.


This is the best close-up I could get of the cables. To be honest, they don’t show up quite as sharply in the finished object because the colours are so dense but I like the texture.


Here is one finished wristwarmer


So I gave Janice her birthday present yesterday, something full of colour but which she could also use on her regular trips away and she says she loves them. In fact before I left the office she had her gloves on because she was cold so that’s made me very happy

Posted under dyeing wool, knitting