Gloves and Mittens Are My New Socks

I'm in love. In love with mittens and gloves, gloves and mittens.

I used to make socks for quick projects. They are easy to take with, they work up quickly, feel wonderful on the feet and most often fit just right. However, people don't usually appreciate hand knit socks on another person because unless you're a knitter you're not looking at people's feet. Another down side, is if I wear them a lot they tend to develop holes and I never get around to repairing them even though I know how.

Well - the answer to this, for me, is knitting items for hands!!! I just finished my Bird in Hand Mittens (one of the mittens that is) and I enjoyed every minute of the process. I can't wait for the first cold day so I can wear them (assuming the partner joins the first mitten).

Can you find the bird? He's in there.

The gloves: before and after embellishment. The first glove was knit the first week of the sprained ankle and coinsided with the death of Michael Jackson. How fitting. I finally finished the second one, and eventually added some decoration to get away from the hand knit white wool gardening glove effect. I think I will actually wear these, and they feel good on the hands.

Now I'm moving on to the Anemoi Mittens that I had to rip out earlier. I bought some Dale Baby Ull that has the proper gauge. We're leaving town shortly, for the Hudson River Valley, so I'll do the knit, knit, knit on my Summer Shell in the car, and save the Anemoi for relaxing at the Inn. Can't wait.

Hand Work

I don't know what's brought it on, but I've got gloves and mittens on my mind. I finally finished my white woolen gloves and I really enjoyed the process. These particular gloves look a little like garden gloves to me, so I'm hoping that washing and blocking will spiff them up, and I'm considering adding some embellishments. I'll post the embellishments when I actually do them. Something for the reader to look forward to.

I enjoyed the glove process so much, that I've found a few great vintage glove patterns with cables that I'm going to make next. However, I'm home at the moment and don't have the right yarn, but I've got some yarn that I bought at the New York Sheep and Wool Festival last spring, so I'm going to move into mittens.

I have admired Eunny Jang's Anemoi Mittens for a long time and last night seemed like a good time to start them.

My Anemoi Mitten is so over. I spent a few happy hours with one of them, last night and this morning. It has that wonderful tubular cast on that I raved about. It also has this wonderful corrigated rib that I had never done before. Unfortunately, I started knitting it in DK instead of fingering so it will, as it is, fit Sasquatch. Therefore, I took its photo to remember how much I love it and ripped.

I've still got mittens on my mind, and I've got this particular yarn Snow Star Farm yarn, so I turned to the actual pattern that I bought to go with this yarn. It's a more standard Norwegian mitten, but it doesn't t have the free flow feel that I love in the Anemoi. My memory kicked in, and I recalled that I've had Kate Gilbert's Bird in Hand Mittens in my queue for a while. When I checked the needed yarn I discovered that the guage required is exactly what I was getting for my Anemoi Mitten. What luck!!!! Thanks to Ravelry and Pal Pal I got the pattern in about 5 minutes and I'm going to start as soon as I finish this post.

Anemoi, I still love you, and when I find the perfect fingering yarn, you will once again be on my needles.

A Perfect July Afternoon

This has been one perfect summer day. It started at 9:30 when my friend Linda came over and we drank coffee on the patio. When she left, I read the paper, ate lunch and enjoyed the warm air, interspersed with a cool breeze and listened to the trickle of the fountain. I continued in perfect heaven, adding a little knitting project, and I

finished one white wool glove!!!!! A perfectly satisfying summer project.

About the glove: knit in white wool sport yarn from Mission Falls. It knit up in a breeze and both the yarn and the pattern were a pleasure to work with. Unlike cotton, wool hides flaws and feels fantastic on the hands. I know it will feel good in the winter. It's a little plain, what with the white and all (it kind of reminds me of a garden glove). I had intended to add a fetching little cable, but as a first time glover I found I had my hands full with a thumb and four fingers. Can't wait to knit the second one and I have an idea for a little embellishment.

Now, to complete my lazy summer day, I'm off to fix some ice tea, grab my book and return to the patio. I may pick up the summer shell later on.

It just occured to me that if I hadn't had my ankle incident, I wouldn't have had a chance to have such a nice day. Hmmmmm..............

Knitting News

Diminishing Rib Cardigan is complete and this morning I washed and blocked it. The hard part is waiting for it to dry. I complained earlier of cotton/bamboo showing all irregularities and I hope that I'm wrong. It's looking pretty darn good already and that tubular bind off has smoothed out nicely.

Summer Shell is coming along. I'm about 5 inches into it and enjoy the color changes of the variegated nubbly yarn. However, it's knit, knit, knit with no variation on little tiny needles to get the correct guage, and I'm loosing interest. I thought it would be a nice pallette cleanser after Diminishing Rib but I'm cleansed already so...................

I started knitting gloves this morning. Now this is a quick and challenging activity. I'm using Ann Budd's directions in The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns, and I'm looking for a good cable to insert on the back of the hands. Between thumbs, fingers, cables I'll be so entertained I'll be dying to go back to my Summer Shell. Did I mention that this is my first attempt at gloves? Oh, yeah.