Category: fleeps

Closeup of the bind-off edge of a blanket, where it transitions from double-knit to single stranded.

blanket / double knit / fleeps / hands / shawl

In Which the Pirate Is Warm.

First: my new Warmer Fleeps are, indeed, warm enough! The exact shape of the mittens could use some adjusting (the mitten top needs more overlap, and the thumbs are too long) but we walked half a mile to breakfast in 14°F (-10°C) weather and none of my fingers froze. Nice. Second: I got to finally wear my Breathe and Hope shawl in public. We...

Flip-top mittens knit in charcoal gray and teal. The back has a zig-zag pattern and the front has a 1x1 pattern. One of the mittens is shown with the top and thumb cap flipped open; the other is closed. There are many yarn ends that need to be woven in.

fleeps / hands

In Which the Pirate Is Almost Done.

I put seaming the stripy sweater aside to focus on these Warmer Fleeps, because I wanted to get them finished in time for a work-related trip next week. For some reason we’re having a teambuilding event in Oregon, in February. It may be a case of bonding through frostbite, but hopefully these will help me stay warm. I was pretty sure that I’d have...

Two gloves with a set of DPNs and a tiny ball of leftover yarn between them. The gloves are handknit in a dark charcoal gray yarn. They have partial fingers for the thumb, index, and middle fingers. The ringfinger and pinkie are fully covered.

fleeps / hands

In Which the Pirate Makes Warmer Fleeps (Take Two).

Right, so, I made the inner gloves in a grayish green yarn for a pair of Fleeps (flip-top glove/mittens, for those of you who are new here) that will be warmer than my usual single-layer ones… and then I decided that the grayish green looked awful against the coal and teal I’d picked for the outer mittens. So I started over, and knit a...

Two gloves sit on a wooden table with a tiny ball of leftover yarn between them. The gloves are handknit in a lightweight grayish-green yarn. They have partial fingers for the thumb, index, and middle fingers. The ringfinger and pinkie are fully covered.

fleeps / hands

In Which the Pirate Makes Warmer Fleeps.

I know I’ve mentioned it before, more than once, but I love my Fleeps. I love them. One of the best parts of the weather turning colder is that first time I put on my warm coat and find the Fleeps in my pockets. Buuuuut… they’re not warm enough for the depths of winter. So I decided to knit a warmer pair: a double-layered...

Pirate's hand, wearing a new blue Fleep and holding a small pair of orange-handled craft scissors, is ready to cut the magnet-snap off an old, worn, much-repaired green Fleep.

fleeps / hands

In Which the Pirate Makes More Fleeps.

After many repairs, my old Fleeps were ready to retire. I had some more of the same yarn (Jo Sharp Silkroad DK Tweed) in a dark blue and decided that now was the ideal time to knit it up. I’ve got lots of notes for custom-fitting this yarn into Fleeps for my narrow wrists and long fingers, so it was just a matter of...

A collection of small balls of yarn in shades of greens, purples and blues.

colourwork / design / fleeps / hands

In Which the Pirate’s Knitting Doesn’t Go Well.

I have a collection of Cascade 220 leftovers, and thought that it would be a good idea to make a scrappy pair of Fleeps (convertible glove-mittens) with stranded colourwork for extra warmth. First I charted out a colour pattern and then I colour-coordinated the leftovers with the remaining yarn from my Acres Wild hat, which will be used as the lining for the cuff...

Six completed skeins of yarn with a bundle of unspun fibre perched on top.

design / fleeps / hat / spinning

In Which the Pirate is Almost There.

I have just one last skein of the Unicorn Spit fibre to spin! 840 yards of finished (though unwashed) three-ply yarn and just over a hundred grams left to go. It’s really neat to see how the big stripes of colour in the fibre get so blended into the yarn, which is exactly the heathery desaturated colour that I was hoping for when I...

A partially knit mitten in four colours.

colourwork / design / fleeps / hands

In Which the Pirate Will Have to Start (Mostly) Over.

Some time ago I started designing a pair of flip-top mittens to match the Moorefield Hat. Instead of knitting the glove first and then picking up stitches along the back of my hand for the mitten top, as I’ve done for all the Fleeps I’ve made, the plan for these was to knit the mittens first, including a strand of waste yarn across the...

fibre / fleeps / spinning

In Which the Pirate Finishes Spinning a Yarn.

Eight (oops) years ago, I bought eight ounces of soft Corriedale roving with silk carded into it, thinking that I would make an airy tweedy yarn. Then I realized that I didn’t know the first thing about how to spin woolen, and I didn’t want to “ruin” the fibre by spinning yarn that wasn’t what I wanted. But now I *do* (sort of) know...

fleeps / hands / hat / sock

In Which the Pirate’s Handknits Go on Vacation.

Michael and I visited friends earlier this month. We both worked on our socks on the plane, which was a good conversation starter with our seatmate (she crochets!). One of the flight attendants commented, “Whatever it is you’re making, I wear a size medium,” which was both funny and not at the same time. I know people mean that sort of thing as a...