gloves

Yesterday I quit. I gave up. I frogged this glove in process.

It wasn’t just that my needles fell apart. They fell apart because they are old and well used, but also because this stitch pattern was just too much for them, and too much for my hands. It was not fun. I was not enjoying it. (Here’s the pattern.)

I had persevered and finished the first one….

The fit wasn’t great, but I thought the second one would be better. I’d make it better. And then I got to the hand section and remembered that I could only knit a few rows every few hours because it caused my hands to cramp up. Ugh. The final straw was when DB, who was the recipient of the gloves, said, ”STOP and knit something else.” You don’t have to tell me twice.

I frogged (unraveled) the one in process but I haven’t yet unraveled the completed one. I might not bother. I think there’s still enough yarn to make gloves using a different pattern. However, I’m not going to start again until the time changes and there is more daylight and actual sunshine in the day. I need more light, and I need a break.

I’ve returned to my cabled sweater and am SO HAPPY to be knitting with US5 / 4.75mm needles and worsted weight yarn again. I’m working on Experimental Spinning 2a. Plenty of fun things to work on! Be the boss of your knitting!

The first of EJ’s gloves is finished. I think he will be as glad as I am when they are both done because I’m bugging him all the time to try it on. It is knit to fit!

The pattern is Seascape Gloves but there are instructions also for mittens or fingerless mittens in the same pattern. I used Zauberball Crazy yarn which EJ picked out himself at de Witte Engle in Den Burg, Texel. I used 2.5mm needles (2 circs) for the ribbing and tops of fingers, and 2.75mm for the hand and beginning of the fingers.

The pattern is easy to follow and in general I like the result. The only thing that didn’t go well is the shape of the base of the thumb. It was a big hole. When I picked up stitches for the thumb I did some short rows between thumb and first finger to try to fill in the gap. That worked ok, but I’d rather not have to do that. I’ll see on the second glove if I can keep that from happening in the first place.

I have started on my second mitten and once I’m past the thumb area I’ll also start on the second glove. I am really looking forward to getting back to my CARDIGAN!

I’m also spinning – working on Experimental Spinning 2, which I’ll be able to share next Tuesday. I’m already plotting ES 3. But before that I want to prepare an article proposal for Ply magazine. I hope they like it! If they don’t, well, you’ll see it here instead. 🙂