What Are You Working On? is a community forum for all things hand-made, home-made, and creative in a variety of mediums.
I've been working on a variety of projects. The first and foremost recently is a cast toe cover for my hubby who broke his ankle 3 weeks ago. He is currently in a soft cast / splint until next Tuesday they do the rigid cast. I wondered how to knit one of these. Enter the Internet for a pattern and it is quickly done. It is after all just like a small cap.
Finishing the toe cover / cosy for the hubby was the primary focus of this last week. NormAl broke his ankle in a fall from the roof while painting trim 3 weeks ago. After a trip to the ER it was determined that he had broken the medial malleolus bone of the ankle. Thirteen days ago he had surgery to put 2 screws in to hold the broken bones together. A soft cast was put on for 2 weeks, after which he gets the hard cast. At first the weather was mild enough here in the Midwest, but it was turning cooler so a toe cover for those exposed toes was needed.
The pattern I used is from Fiber Gypsy I changed a couple of things. I did a double row of purls to give a ridge after the K1P1 ribbing (a design feature, but maybe it makes the cap looser?), and changed to bright red at the end to have it stand out more so people hopefully wouldn't bump it.
The pattern is knit flat on size 5 needles and then sewn together. The pattern was for a 13" cast, which is what NormAl has at this point, but we have found that the little "cap" can pop off, so I'll be putting elastic on each side and running it around his heel. And I did make it 3.5" before I started the decreases. I think the difference between this and a head cap is that you rarely catch the edge of your head on anything so a head cap is not as likely to pop off.
I've also been working on Christmas gifts, including a celtic knot scarf for a friend, a pair of socks for a niece and a lace scarf for my sister. I've also been finishing up a counted cross stitch of pears for our kitchen. The last is because I am not supposed to knit more than an hour at most a day due to arthritis. And the socks and the celtic knot scarf are actually harder than most things on the hands to knit. The socks because it is a tightly twisted 6 strand yarn of 80% Merino wool with very little give and the Celtic knot scarf has some interesting cable crosses that are very demanding on the hands.
Celtic Cables Scarf
Lace Scarf
As this is still in process, I've stretched it a bit to give an idea of what it will look like when I've blocked it. This is being knit with 2 strands of lace weight wool -- one in rose and one variegated pale lilac to dark purple. It gives it a nice tweedish look I think.
What are you working on?