Lately I have been into making gloves and mittens (I don't really know what the difference is). My lovely friend Petitmains gifted me gorgeous Malabrigo sock yarn (I especially love the colorway) and I made it into fingerless gloves that I'm wearing essentially every day, although the weather right now calls for warmer ones. This is the world's end pattern (rav).
I modified it just a little bit, and substituted the original lace panel with Grecian Plait, which is so adorable.
Another friend liked these gloves so much that she decided to make a pair herself. Unlike me, she doesn't actually like to knit with tiny needles and with such fine yarn (this one here is light-fingering) so I thought I had plenty of time to knit her one myself and give it her as a Christmas present before she gets around to even casting on hers. I was not mistaken ;)
I decided on a different pattern, though, when I found the Bronte's Mitts (rav). I thought she would like these Victorian-era-style fingerless gloves. Again, I was not mistaken ;). Doesn't it make you really happy when someone likes what you knitted for them? They are made from off-white fingering plus light-green lace weight yarn, which gives them a soft green look. You can't really tell from the picture, though. I learned the provisional cast-on for these babies. In the end I did a normal cast-off instead of the picot edges from the pattern because picot is so high maintenance.
I buy most of my yarn online because I get less crazy with the spending. Often I look at yarn without buying anything (yay me!), which is great because 1. I have a whole lot of unused yarn already, and 2. I live on a grad student salary. Not so much when I walk into an actual yarn store. I always end up buying something. Like the Thrum Mittens kit by Fleece Artist, which was strategically placed near the cash register, and I couldn't help but noticing it when I was about to pay for my five dollar acryllic yarn that I came there for. I confessed the splurging to my bf right away when I came home. It's not that I am spending any of HIS money but I asked him to be my conscience in times of temptation (for above mentioned reasons). Doesn't work when he's not with me, and he's not very fond of yarn stores.
So, I was eager to start the thrummed mittens, and it went really well. Thrumming is a lot of fun! I also made a pair of thrummed slippers for my mom, but that's a different story. Before I was finished with those mittens, I fell in love with another fingerless glove pattern, the Endpaper Mitts, and I am burning to cast on those. I am going to be using yarn from my stash only because as I have mentioned, I have plenty, and should work on knitting it up. And since I have so much, I can't decide which to choose. Life is hard sometimes ;). As anyone can tell now, I got distracted and almost lost sight of the thrummed mitts. Which reminds me that I have a couple of other WIPs waiting for me (that don't have a deadline, so it's harder to stay focussed). I am currently also actively knitting on the socks for the bf, so I promised myself that I won't start the new gloves until I cast off the thrummed ones (especially since I actually need some warm gloves). JUST finished. Ta-da:
Another reason for better not starting yet another project is that I also have to work on my dissertation :P. If I have to choose between spending my evening on the computer or spending it with knitting .... ah well.
