Tuesday, November 24, 2009

"Hooray for Me" gloves - Hooray, indeed

A good number of folks chided me for my fingerless gloves (mitts) that I knit recently, saying that your fingers are the very part of you that gets the coldest, so what's the point of leaving them exposed when making gloves? Although , there are times when these gloves would come in handy to maintain dexterity, people think of mitts associated with some undesirable circumstances e.g., holding up a liquor store, hanging out with the homeless, smoking cigarettes outside a bar, or heaven forbid trying to emulate Billy Idol in the 80s. My mitts were perfect for Rhinebeck, but I realize that there is no substitute for owning a solid pair of hand-made, full-finger length gloves. So I knit myself a pair.

The pattern is "Hooray for Me Gloves" by Marnie MacLean. The pattern is actually for tipless gloves (similar to mitts, but these gloves actually have separations for each finger), but I just extended them to regular gloves. The pattern is very easy to follow, except I recommend that instead of casting on additional stitches for each finger, just make new stitches / pick up stitches so that those inevitable, small holes between the fingers require less sewing in the end. But I think it's a pretty universal pattern. Here is an in-progress photo, and a photo at completion.




The yarn is beautiful It was given to me in a swap (Swap on a Budget, #5, a.k.a. SOAB#5) on Ravelry. It's Touch Yarns Merino 4-Ply. It is beautiful material, and 100g goes a long way. I probably used no more than half the skein. Thank you to MITChick, who gave this to me in a lovely gift set. Touch Yarns is a company out of New Zealand, so I feel like it's "exotic yarn"... like I'm all "cultured" now!

Gloves do require weaving in A LOT of ends - 10 per glove, as I recall. But I think it's worth it since they came out so nice.

Now that this project is done, I will be moving all knitting efforts (other than finishing DH's second sock, which has been on-hold for months) to baby projects. I'm 5.5 months preggers! We're having a boy, which is very exciting! I don't know anything about boy babies! I know with little girls, it's all tea parties and dress up, but I'll have to figure out what to do with a little boy, since there aren't any in my immediate family. I'm counting on my MIL, an amazing kindergarten teacher for over 30 years, to help me figure out what they're into. I'll also be tapping into my friends Kim, Larissa, and Ilissa, since they both have baby boys of their own. I already have a pattern and materials for a little blue and brown jacket, but I really need to decide on a pattern for a baby blanket. Decisions, decisions....

Anyway, have a great Turkey-Day! Gobble-Gobble!

Monday, November 9, 2009

What happened to September and October?!?!?? Moving, a HouseWarming, and Rhinebeck!

Lots has happened! Mainly house-activities. We spent most of September packing things in our apartment, and unpacking them in our house. We are finally settled! I can't say that everything is unpacked,

but things we don't need are at least packed away in closets or in the basement. It's amazing how many boxes and bags of stuff we had labelled "Important" that are now sitting in closets, unopened! We had a really fun Haunted HouseWarming Party on Oct. 30th, which was great. It was good to see everyone, enjoy some festive appetizers, and relax in our new digs. My dad made his southern comfort punch, too, which is always a hit.

I think we needed this party as motivation to get our stuff put away and get the house in decent shape. If we didn't have this party to work towards, I think DH and I would have just lived amid the boxes worked around them, kind of like we did in the apartment for the last couple months, which was really awful. Thank you to all of our family and friends who helped us out!

Let's see... in terms of knitting... I did take a brief hiatus, but now that things have settled down again, I am back in the swing of it! Larissa and I went to Rhinebeck, a.k.a. the New York Sheep and Wool Festival, which was a lot of fun. There were so many vendors, it was hard to resist blowing the budget in the first hour there! I bought a skein of Socks that Rock, a beautiful skein of Briar Rose, and my first skein of Noro! I always hear people raving about Noro, so I had to buy some and see what all the commotion is about. Surprisingly, their yarn isn't that soft - kinda rough actually, but apparently they are known for their amazing color combinations. So we'll see what I can knit up with a skein of it!


Rhinebeck is a really large festival - my LYS chartered a bus up there, which was really convenient. Although the weather forecast was dismal - cold and rainy (even snowy!), we actually saw no hint of clouds until later in the afternoon when we were departing anyway. Of course I packed hats, gloves, and extra socks in my backpack, but happily we didn't need it. I must say that my fingerless gloves were perfect, because the whole day was about feeling yarns, sampling skeins, and of course accessing your wallet to make purchases. So they worked out great. I will say it was FREEZING COLD though! There were also lots of animals to check out. I say lots of alpacas, all sorts of sheep, and even some mohair rabbits which were adorable. They just looked like the most adorable balls of fluff ever!

We also saw some Ravelry celebrities, including Jessica ("frecklegirl" ravatar) and Casey Forbes, founders of Ravelry, plus Bob the mascot, which was fun, too. It was a really nice day and I'm so glad I went! It was my first fiber festival! I hope to attend one each year!


OK - I am off to work on a pair of gloves I've been knitting. More to come soon!