At Her Leisure

When I saw this pattern a couple of years ago, I wanted these pretty gaiters. My excuse for them is Dickens of a Christmas, though my garter-stitch green wool gaiters are probably more serviceable for that. Still, these are prettier so if we have fair weather this Christmas maybe I’ll get to wear them.

Click to see pictures on Ravelry

( And here's what I did... )

Thoughts after wearing:
These need to be snug in order for the open work between the cables to show to advantage, and these are indeed quite snug. I think I’ll stick to wearing them with shoes rather than boots because I think boots wouldn’t do well through the ankle, at least not any boots I have. I wore them around one afternoon, and I think they’ll help a bit to keep the legs warm, though my wool ones will certainly be warmer.

There are a couple of things I’m not thrilled about. (1) The gaiters don’t really lay over your shoe nicely like they do in the pattern picture. There’s not really anything to keep them in place so they shift around a bit. (2) The gauge seems a little loose. The #10 cotton doesn’t knit up very tightly on the size 0 needles. As a novice knitter (even more novice when I started these than I am now) I just followed the pattern indications. Perhaps these would work up to a more reasonable size if knit in a wool that filled in nicely on size 0 needles. Since I already spent a great deal of time on this project, I’m unlikely to test it out just to see whether that’s the case.

This week was our annual maintenance shutdown, and I got to play the part of door guard. Most people brought books to read - and I did too, though I just couldn't get into it - but mostly I brought needlework. I really wasn't called upon to escort anyone so I got a lot of time with various types of needles. It was a productive week.

I finished my 1947 green linen-look dress, my 1847 knit bustle, my 18th century teal petticoat, and the knitting on my 1857 gaiters. I also started and finished a 1780's bum pad like that posted on Before the Automobile. I started a 1780's blue wool petticoat to go over the bum pad but didn't get any further than the side seams and pocket slit hems and started a pair of cross-stitched garters that I'm copying from a pair in the Boston MFA. I even made a little progress on the "A Summer Stroll" cross-stitch piece that I've now been working on for just about a year.

Did I mention it was a very productive week?