this afternoon was beyond, beyond perfect for leafwatching. we stopped for some mulligatawny and a pumpkin chocolate-chip muffin at essene, and then drove to fairmount park. the clouds were perfectly blue-grey and the trees were busting out in fabulous fall color. it's a really good year for color, and a really good year to have gloves!
i'm quite happy with them. i had not thought that i wanted to use the "black" that i had used on the gauntlet itself for the half-fingers and palm, too, but i liked my options even less.... and think this turned out for the best. they are very comfortable and i see the distinct advantage of the gauntlet when trying to stay warm. love it!
i finished a gauntlet for a glove this morning. by "finished" i mean there is no hand and there is still a provisional cast-on. i don't know how i want the cuff to look and i am certain that i do not want to use either of the yarns used in the gauntlet for the part that goes on my hand.
they look great on the gauntlet though. but i can't have a white glove (not even this very natural off-white) and the "black" used here is beyond just a mottled uneven hand-dye kind of black -- it's almost space-dyed (anathema) and i can't have that on my hand either.
i like the way the unsolid black worked in the charted design, though (i often do like that), and i like the chart itself -- very nouveau. but what about the cuff, and what about the hands (which are to be half-fingers)?
i know some people who spin and dye and i'm wondering if i wouldn't like to incorporate some of their yarns into these. one individual in particular (humming in an innocent, non-pushy way, fingers sneaking towards telephone), i would love to see her yarn used in these gloves. there's nothing unusual in having gauntlets and gloves made of different yarns is there? it's not going to shift the ocean tides or anything, is it?
it felt so good to just sit down and make a "normal" thing, it's no surprise it went so fast (that and the fact that there is a particulary riveting trial on court tv this week.)
i began a pair of gauntlet gloves yesterday. they've been on the list for at least a year, probably more. i needed to work with a different yarn than i have been lately, and also, i had a need to work from a pattern, and to make a garment of some sort (rather than a head or anything esoteric.)
i'm looking forward to hunkering down with it this evening and making some discernable progress.
i made these beautiful mittens out of anna zilboorg's book last spring, but had a hell of a time with the lining. i got them out this week to try to finish them, with a fresh eye -- and once again, three tries, and that's it for now.
what is it about lining mittens that is so unpleasant? i HATE thin, mohairy stuff. it LOOKS pretty, but i don't like knitting with it. add to that the trouble of in effect knitting the shadow of a mitten -- on double pointed needles -- attached to an already existing shape... no matter what i did or how far i got (rather far on one of them, way past the thumb gusset), something felt rather "hill house" about them -- just a little off. just a little unsettling.
this project leaves my "current and time sensitive" category and falls to the "eventually" category. i want to try again -- but ben could USE mittens now, and these are double stranded and plenty warm as it is. even if it's a few more winters before i get back in the saddle with this, i'll do it, because i like the idea that knitting (like writing) can be affected by changes made years after a project is "finished".
no point in letting a frustrating project like this take time away from small holiday projects that must be finished soon. and of course at this time of year there are often new signatures to embroider onto the signatures tablecloth.
so, in short: see ben's beautiful mittens! they're good enough, and may get better.
an executive decision is being made.
here are ben's mittens. along with the mohair that is going to line them. oh, and a pair of chopsticks from my collection.
i had planned to go ahead and line these and have them ready and waiting for next winter. but my god. it's APRIL. and i had to rip out the lining once already because i screwed up (this mohair is NO fun to rip out). in light of the recent fail... unforseen dynamics of the cat basket, i don't need any more unpleasantness. and i don't need to be knitting mittens in may.
these are getting put away for now. i will get them out again no earlier than september, and finish them up with renewed admiration. they turned out nice, didn't they?
for his benjamitts. (in progress.)
i'm planning to do an angora lining, so they will be extra snug and warm -- and using the "sore thumb" type of thumb (anna zilboorg, as usual).