Craftoholic’s infamous Mermaid Gloves were a challenge to make, especially for such an OCD knitter as myself. The person I made them for wanted them super long and to use up all the yarn. So I did 4.5 total pattern repeats before the thumb gusset. Since the pattern doesn’t specify what kind of thumb gusset was used, I followed the gusset directions of the Nereid Gloves at Sutherland Studios until I had 21 stitches for the thumb. I “absorbed” the yarn overs from the fourth horizontal pattern repeat to do this, thus pinching in the hand a bit for a snugger fit.
Once the 21 stitches were formed, I put them on spare yarn and had to build back the “lost” horizontal repeat and work the rest of the palm (thus working rows 1-22 again).
The gloves were finished with twisted rib. Now with the extra half repeat in the body of the glove, I started to run out of yarn. So a full 10 rounds of twisted rib for the hands and thumbs didn’t work out. I think I averaged 7 rounds before the bind off. It was sort of touch and go for awhile. I binded off using a 3.25 needle for a looser bind off.
I also reversed the pattern for the left glove replacing the k2tog tbl with a plain k2tog. This worked out mostly, although I can tell a difference, but was the most common substitution people used on Ravelry and the easiest.
The other variation was after the last k2tog of each pattern repeat segment (so when the pattern reversed directions), instead of working a ktbl, I knit plainly, so the union would lay flatter. Then on the next round I continued the twisted rib pattern. It sounds confusing, but it really made sense once I started knitting.
The other variation, thanks to FurrPurls, is to twist the yarn overs every round you knit a ktbl into it, so it faces the other direction. This way it lays on top of the work, instead of underneath, and mimics the original pattern more. If you work it the other way, you’ll notice an additional difference in the pattern, a sort of sunken in pattern instead of the raised ridges.
stash knit down 2009 total: 45 FOs
Be inspired.
Kate has an incredible amount of drive when it comes to LoganSquarist. In the six months that I’ve been involved, I’ve watched the site grow from a pet project to a respected community publication. This success can be attributed to Kate’s technical and leadership skills. From building out the site to off-hours community management and a consistent flow of content, the site improves by leaps and bounds on a weekly basis. When it comes to team management, Kate delegates tasks in an organized and efficient manner, making her an all around great and inspiring person to work with.
I met Kate through the Association of Women Journalists (AWJ) and immediately was impressed (and inspired) by her creativity, drive, work ethic and use of social media. Her passion for journalism, digital media and communications overall is evident in the projects she takes on, including LoganSquarist, an online news outlet that she founded that uses social media to socialize the neighborhood. What I admire about Kate is her vitality as well as her desire to keep learning and growing personally and professionally. Kate is a modern-day renaissance woman who is multitalented (ask about her travel, knitting and marathon exploits!) and who brings instant value to any team or organization.
Kate is a wealth of knowledge who served as a tremendous mentor for all of our team members while constantly improving processes and workflows. She’s a tremendous project manager, pays great attention to detail, and is able to demand results from her team with respect. At LoganSquarist she has built and led a team of dozens of volunteer contributors committed to her vision of a community resource. I would happily work with Kate again anytime!
Kate did and excellent job with our website. We have received several compliments on how nice it looks and how easy it is to navigate. She also went above and beyond to make sure that we were able to update and the website ourselves through Wordpress. I cannot gush about how awesome she is and how happy we are with the site and her dedication to the project.
Kate is a real professional and a pleasure to work with. She is a great communicator and always put her client's (my company) interest first. She is tremendously personal and had a great understanding of our business and how she could help it. She is great and is a tremendous asset to any company.
I worked with Kate during my time as a community manager at Lightspan Digital while Kate was my direct manager. Kate’s communication practices really taught me how to navigate the sometimes complicated agency world. As an account manger, Kate smoothly orchestrated 10+ accounts at one time as well as help me manage and prioritize tasks in my role. Kate was a role model during my first few years in the professional world and continues to be so to this day.
Kate has been a fantastic resource for all things digital, whether redesigning my website on Wordpress, fine tuning my social media profiles, or understanding Google Analytics. She's an excellent communicator, and I will absolutely hire her again in the future.
One of the best things I've ever done in my career is work with Kate Hamilton. Her enthusiasm for all things editorial, not to mention her energy and passion for any project she's involved with, is contagious. In addition to being a natural born leader, she's also a creative type, a thinker, a stickler for details, and someone with incredible vision and the drive to get things done. I always marvel at how she is constantly teaching herself new things. She always seems to be ahead of the curve on anything related to social media, and she also has an eye for design. This lady rocks! And she continues to be a mentor to me and others in journalism and communications.