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Glove Will Keep Us Together

Earlier in the week I meant to show you the lacy "Vanalinn Gloves" I was working on. Designed by Nancy Bush, you can find the pattern in Meg Swansen's A Gathering of Lace. Mine are in my favorite color of Koigu.

More experienced lace knitters than I frequently comment on the futility of working lace in varigated yarns. They say the lace pattern gets lost. Be that as it may, these gloves are for me, and I know they're lacy, and best of all, green! Here's a close-up for you, though, so you can decide for yourself.

It's been too busy here this week to return to these gloves, but I expect to have time to work on them over the weekend. I adore the Koigu color. The lace pattern is a lovely zig-zag, with a 5-stitch repeat over 16 rows, so it's easy and interesting. FACTOID: Vanalinn means Old Town in Estonian, according to Bush, and it is a part of Tallinn, the capital. You can learn more about Tallinn and its medieval architecture here. You can learn more about knitting in Estonia from the book Folk Knitting in Estonia by Nancy Bush.

In other knitting news, a new Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf! This is the third one I've made, because I'm very fond of Karen Baumer's pattern. Thanks again, Karen! This one is working up in some luscious Australian merino, handpainted in the colorway Grape Arbor.

Look how smartly my green Vanalinn gloves go with!

Pups

Della and Mike say Mwah!Kiss!Kiss! Happy Friday and Happy Weekend!

Rushing Around

We're rushing around like mad here, trying to meet school deadlines and knitting deadlines. Not much knitting news again today, except for an awesome OOP Book Score! Knitting in the Nordic Tradition is heading toward my mailbox even as I write. I don't know how I missed this book when it first came out, but once I heard that I'd find something on every page that I wanted to knit, I just had to have a copy. I'll let you know if it's truly a must-have when it arrives.

Happy Thursday! The pups and I will bring you some spicy knitting content tomorrow. In the meantime, have you seen Judy's awesome gloves at Pink Tea? Fabulous!

You Give Glove a Bad Name

The Christmas Glove in white and turquoise is too small, I think. I have a drawing of the recipient's hand, and while it fits on the drawing, it doesn't fit on my nephew's hand, which fits on the drawing too. Hmm. So I'll rip it (rip it good) and start over with different wool. But not right now.

Pups

Mike, Jack and Della are entertaining themselves today, because I have a ton of schoolwork.

Perhaps you'd like to entertain yourself with this informative article about cashmere?

Or perhaps you'd rather entertain yourself with some tidings of comfort and joy?

Whichever, we wish you a happy Wednesday.

Scarf Attack!

While gloves-to-be await fitting, I was smitten by Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf knitting (oooh! I'm rhymin' like Maisey!).

What an excellent pattern. Thank you Karen Baumer, wherever you are. I made one last night out of some of that hand-spun recycled sari-silk stuff, narrow, and about four-feet long, and it's quite cool. No photo. Up too late and my knitting has puffy eyes. But what fun! Short rows fun! Who knew!! I know Wendy's making one that's lovely, and Shelley is too. Go take a look at Shelley's vibrant colors. I love her scarf! Scroll down for her Scalloped Pineapple recipe.

This is a fast knitting project if you make it a skinny-ish size, plus, it's perfect for A Christmas Story-watching, as you don't have to look at your knitting too much while waiting for that kid to put his eye out.

Pups

Mikey says Let it Snow, let it snow, let it snow, but all we get is lovely 70-degree weather. Hoho-hum.

Have an excellent day! Good knitting to you.

What's Glove Got To Do With It

Not so much knitting to report; I was homesick for snow over the weekend and spent lots of quality knitting time gabbing with friends in the Northeast. I did manage to finish one Christmas Glove (from Folk Knitting in Estonia), and here it is:

Well, that's the front. Here's the back:

This glove has a mitten-type, or afterthought, thumb; you put the thumb stitches on waste yarn and then pick them up to knit after the fingers are finished. My hands are too big for this glove, so I'm looking forward to seeing Sister so she can check the fit for me. It was difficult with this glove to prevent holes from forming at the finger, um, crotches? So I'll be using the circular suture idea from Lucy Neatby's toolbox of techniques to close up holes. "Anu's Christmas Gloves" is a great error-free pattern, and so the only problems with this glove are from my knitting! I've decided I'm a rather sloppy knitter, and one of my knitting resolutions is to knit more carefully rather than more speedily. On the other hand (heh!), these gloves need to be finished for a Christmas present, so I'm giving myself permission to hope for happy miracles in the blocking process!

In other knitting news, I started the Estonian Lace Gloves by my favorite Nancy Bush from A Gathering of Lace. I'm using Koigu, and I think they'll be lovely. I'll try to remember to take a progress photo to show you tomorrow.

New Old Books

I suddenly have a heap of vintage glove pattern booklets from a number of sources, including generous knitters Kate and Nanette. Except for a couple of new sources that I've talked about here (Folk Knitting in Estonia and Homespun, Handknit), I think I prefer these old patterns to newer ones: everything about them is on a finer scale. I have enough glove and mitten patterns and fingering weight yarn now to knit gloves and mittens for probably several hundred people. (Perhaps you've noticed that I'm really enjoying glove-knitting; they are more interesting at this point than socks, and so have replaced socks in my knitterly affection.) Austin has a rather large homeless population, so there will always be someone for whom to knit gloves (or mittens). Wouldn't it be wonderful if everyone had warm hands?

Pups

It was slightly chilly here over the weekend, and the pups love the cooler weather, because their coats are still heavy from being little northeastern dogs.

Mike and Della say It's Monday, so sniff around for the good stuff!