Knotty Gloves, and Wollmeise

You may have noticed that photos of my gloves have a particular photographic style. And that the Idony gloves were published at the same time of year as the Skaði gloves. The photographic style is due to my brother being around at Christmas, and he is someone who actually knows how to operate a camera, rather than my 'point and shoot at someone with a pretty background'. The time of year is because the Idony gloves were a present for my Mum. I've reach the curious point in my crocheting adventures where I feel guilt if I follow a pattern. Something like fingerless gloves are so simple that I ought to be able to devise a pattern for them myself, rather than follow someone else's design. There are, however, a few fingerless glove designs that I intend to try once I get over this feeling of guilt - especially Aoibhe Ni Shuilleabhain's Dragon Skin Gaunlets (these also fall into the other area of crafting guilt - that I ought to be making things from the magazines that I own, last year's subscription to Inside Crochet means that I now have a whole magazine box full of patterns I have not made).

Anyway, back to Knotty. These were a gift to me. By me. I had bought a Wollmeise We're Different Sockenwolle 80/20 pack on a whim and in the heady rush of 'trying to get something Wollmeise before they all run out', in turquoise. With these packs, you aren't told which colours you are getting, just the colour family they fall in. These are also the yarns which have acted as guinea pigs, tests or don't quite match what they are meant to be. They are sold slightly cheaper than the basic colours, but you can't control which colours (aside from the colour family) that you get. I like Wollmeise - for the colour saturation, the length, the smell (I don't know what the smell is, but it's not at all sheepy) and that it is produced in Germany, meaning I can have it shipped to the UK without having to pay custom dues (what has put me off buying the Sanguine Gryphon's yarns). I ended up with two guinea pig yarns, variations on Vergissmeinnicht (Forget-me-not), which became Knotty and the Idony Gloves and Pfefferminz Prinz (which is variegated turquoise and green).

So I had some Wollmeise, but as with many rash yarn purchases, I didn't really have a pattern in mind. Thanks to Ravelry's pattern ideas function, I was able to look through what others had made and eventually settled upon Knotty.

Which is a pair of knitted gloves, which a large cable on the front. Much more advanced than anything I had tried before. I had done cables on the Brambles beret, but not to the extent that are on Knotty, and I had never dropped stitches and then picked them up again. However, undaunted, I bought myself some Addi circulars in the right size and started.

The cuffs were too big. I wanted to cry. Instead, I started again, casting on 52 stitches instead of sixty. This time they worked. When I got to the cable, I worked it on the first thirty stitches. I changed the size of the fingers to fit in with the smaller number of stitches (picked up 8sts front and back for index finger (16 total), 6 for middle and ring finger (12 total each) and remaining 12 for pinky). I think this probably meant that there were larger holes at the bottom of the fingers, but I filled these in with the waste yarn from joining on at the bottom. And more importantly, they fit and I didn't have to buy another needle!

I have waited to post until I've worn the gloves out and about for a bit. I still like them, they still hold up, they are warm. I'm not going to put them away in a cupboard. The only probably is the ends that had to be woven in - some of them are beginning to pop out.

A few months before buying the We're Different pack from Wollmeise, I had bought a single skein of Vamp. Vamp is red. Bright, unquestionably red. I hadn't known what to do with it. I'd tried crocheting a bolero, but that hadn't really worked. But this Christmas, I knitted up a lace mini-scarf with it for a friend. Then for Christmas, I received New England Knits, a beautiful book. I'm now making another scarf based on the lace panels from the Ashfield Cardigan. I will endeavour to photograph it properly and post it here. And I'm planning a big project...to knit a cardigan. But I think that deserves its own post.