Don’t you love the joy of finishing a project? I certainly do!
This week, the finished object I’m celebrating is a (belated) gift for my (very patient) sister-in-law, Kaitlyn. Her office can be a bit chilly, but wearing winter gloves at her desk was too much. A pair of low-profile fingerless mitts were a perfect fit. Searching Ravelry led me to Cynthia Levy’s Resonator pattern in all its intricately cabled glory. I had never done cabling in a fingering-weight gauge before. Fortunately, the entire pattern is charted quite clearly, so I decided to go for it. I am so glad I did.
Any wool soft enough to wear on the wrists for a full shift at work was too much to risk on a project this far up my learning curve, unfortunately. I settled on Loops & Threads Woolike in Sage both for its startlingly low price and Kaitlyn’s love of leafy green colorways.
After working with it, I’ve found that I honestly adore this yarn. Unlike some similarly-priced yarns I’ve used, Woolike doesn’t split easily and the texture is lovely to work with for hours on end. Also, it held up remarkably well when ripping back to fix cabling mistakes.
I love the complex flow of cables along this pattern so much. At first, juggling five double pointed needles as well as the cabling needle seemed impossible, but I found that I enjoyed the challenge. Switching from seven-inch aluminum to five-inch Takumi bamboo needles helped immensely! Between the fingering-weight acrylic blend and wooden needles, these mitts felt lighter than air while knitting. When I picked this pattern, the tiny gauge was intimidating. Now that I’m going back to knitting an aran-weight sweater I miss the delicate scale of the Resonators.
Here’s to finished projects and plans for more tiny cablework in the future!
—Em