What the Heck is a Fourchette?

I was knitting my Treads (free pattern on Ravelry!) and got to the semi-fingers when the pattern said to cast on 3 fourchette stitches.  What the heck is a fourchette???!?  Actually, let me back up.  I got to the semi-fingers and, dreading the tediousness of this part of the glove, put it down for a while.  I have avoided knitting gloves or tipless gloves for a very long time, because I thought that knitting the fingers would take forever and be very fussy.  And....I was partially right.  It is very fussy.  But it didn't take forever.  Probably because they are tipless gloves and only four rows high.

Back to what the heck is a fourchette???..... Apparently, in addition being the French word for "fork" and a part of the female anatomy, fourchettes are also the stitches that bridge the front and back of the glove at the finger, and are very easily created by using the backwards loop cast on.

Here is the glove with a couple of fingers done:

And here are a couple of pictures of the fourchettes:

 Each finger has between 11 and 17 stitches - different for each finger; who knew? - and involved making fourchettes as well as picking up stitches from the fourchettes of the previous finger.  UGH.  VERY fussy.

HOWEVER.  I love how it turned out:

Love the design.  Love how they fit.  Love the snugness of each of the fingers. LOVE!
In addition, knitting all of the fingers and the thumb took about an hour and a half.  Not too bad.

HOWEVER (again).......

It took me about another hour and a half to weave in all those ends.

Next post:  Our latest vacation!

Knitting Overload....Again.

My brain is on knitting overload again.  I'm knitting a lot.  While I'm knitting, I'm thinking a lot about knitting.  And thinking about knitting a lot of things.  What I'm going to knit next, with what yarn.  What things that I'm going to knit that I can teach in a class.  How much time I have to knit.  How much time I don't have to knit and how I can change that to more time to knit.

Remember that post where I said I loved the Knitter's Pride Karbonz needles and I was going to go out and buy more?  I did and I now have a second sock going:

...which I worked on when I visited my family in Connecticut this weekend and got up early:

Can you even see that???

I will say it again.  I. LOVE. THESE. NEEDLES.  The tips are pointy but not too pointy that they hurt the tips of your fingers.  The join to the rest of the needle is smooth and the rest of the needle is made of I'm-not-sure-what but it  is smooth but not slippery.  A nice combination of needle attributes.  You should get some.  If you knit.  Ooh, and I think I'm going to try a new kind of heel on these socks.  But, I'll tell you about that when i get to them...

I also bought them in a larger size so I could start the Treads tipless gloves:

...and I still love them.  However, I didn't love the yarn for this project.   To clarify, I love the yarn.  Just not for this project.  Aslan Trends Royal Alpaca is 100% alpaca.  But it was a little too dark and too fuzzy.  Too dark to see the braid and linen stitch pattern, and too fuzzy for the same reason.  I also thought it would be difficult when it came time to do the tips - lots of picking up of stitches in a small area.  So I switched to Cascade 220 and it looks much better.  See?:

Cascade 220 on the right. (ok, the light could have been
better...)

And now I'm cruising along, having just finished the thumb gusset:

Better light.  That happens in the daytime.

Look at this cool sideways stitch:

It is a braid and involves all kinds of acrobatics with the needles.  But, it's worth the effort because it's pretty.

And I finally finished my Cozy wrap, AND blocked it:

Blocking.  Yes, I know it's uneven, but it won't be worn
so you can see the whole thing like that and know
it's uneven....see pics below...

It turned out to be about 80 inches long and 22 inches wide.  A really nice size for wearing it like the model above.

I also finally got some good pictures (on a foam head) of my Mystic Spiral Hat:

I've got to get one of these.  So handy for pictures, and blocking too.  And then I started another one:

I'm sure you were wondering about the garden.....  Tomatoes galore.  And an eggplant.

Still no books to tell you about, but hopefully soon.  Loving the one I'm reading and I also started listening to another good one.  I mostly listen in the car, and now I'm trying to think of reasons to get in the car! Never mind that I can just listen with earphones on my phone, but for some reason that never happens in the house, what with The Food Channel and HGTV and all.

Knitting. It's a Sickness.

Knitting.  It's a sickness.  It really can't be helped.  Here is some proof:

1) I bought these double pointed needles recently:

They are a new-to-me needle, metal tipped.  I finally remembered I had them, and tried them today. I. LOVE. THEM.   I already have many many many sets of double pointed needles.  And three other sets of size 1.  But tomorrow, I'm going to buy another set of size 1 of this type so I can knit both socks of the pair at one time. And I'll probably get some in other sizes even though I already have those other sizes.

I just can't help it.

2) And I'm also thinking of getting the interchangeable set of circular needles in this brand.
Guess how many sets of interchangeable needles I already have?:

Three. Plus a whole lot of individual circular needles in all the various sizes an interchangeable set (or three) has.  But......

I can't help it.

3) Spinning is a sickness too.  I bought some roving to take to my spinning bee.

But, then this was there too, so I bought it:

I just couldn't help it.

4) I have a lot of yarn:

There is more in the blue squares.  And on a shelf to
the left....and the right.

But The Spinning Room recently had a sale:

I just couldn't help it.

5) I have several projects started, in progress, not finished yet:

This is not all of them...

But I'm going to cast on for this one instead:

Ravelry.com pattern picture

...probably tonight after I re-do the bind off of my Cozy wrap which I finished last night but the bind off was too tight and which I will show you in the next post (or the one after that) after I block it.

And I'll  probably cast on  this which I was obsessing about recently but I have to find beads for:

Ravelry.com pattern picture

I just can't help it.

See?  A sickness.  I CAN'T HELP IT.