Wednesday 28 November 2012

WIP Wednesday 121: The Misbegotten Glove

Druidcraft Tarot
 

                                                                                   


 The soundtrack for today's post is martial and triumphant, and in no way a reflection of my personality:






Since the James C.Brett ball of Moonlight Sonata yarn is 500m long, not only has it enabled me to knit The Hat, but also a Neckwarmer, and 3 fingerless gloves for Mini Diva, who was enamored with the idea of a matching winter set of accessories.

No, she does not have 3 arms or hands. I made 3 because this was the first one:




It is not a sad and pathetic unloved mistake, it is a character-building Learning Experience we fondly call The Misbegotten Glove.

Using the pattern 'Raging Fingerless Gloves' because the gloves are knitted flat and then seamed (anything to avoid the dread DPNs of Doom or the Magic Loop of Lunacy), I found it to be somewhat slipshod; I am no Virgo perfectionist, but even I raise an eyebrow at instructions that say ''Don't worry if there's a little 'hole' where the thumb attaches to the body - it will blend in nicely with the lace pattern''.

Umm .....

No, it doesn't. 

And if you don't purl through the back of the loop on the thumb gusset yarn over increases ie. ptbl each YO, then you get a whole bunch of other extra holes that do not look like purposeful lace holes. You don't have to ask me how I know, as the Misbegotten Glove above is the proof.

Things I also learned from Misbegotten Glove was that it needs a really stretchy cast on and a really stretchy bind off, unless you want said gloves to also act as a tourniquet resulting in the loss of a limb from blood starvation. The bind off was a cinch, as I'm now an old hand at the Yarn Over Bind Off. But one of the new things I learned how to do (needs must when the Devil rides) was a Long Tail Cast On:




I watched Steph do this when she started The Hat for me; in fact, I watched her do it several times including in Super Slow Mo. It made me feel like Mr.T, and looked like a Cat's Cradle game gone terribly, tragically wrong and the Cat was strangled.  But me and You Tube persisted, and in the end I managed it, but not without lots of gleeful crowing.

Since I had carefully picked the pattern because it is seamed, I neglected to anticipate that a thumb gusset might not be part of that whole Flat Earth ideology as it's pretty much a 3 dimensional item:



 
I Magic Looped the thumb gusset. I know ! I can hardly believe it myself ! Hence the photographic proof.

That means I have slain two whole demons in as many days: go me !

Brimming with irritated confidence, I embarked on the two Pretty Sisters of the Misbegotten Glove; with which Mini Diva was so chuffed, they didn't even get washed and blocked before wearing them to school.

Hop on over to Tami's Amis for more tales of conquest ...




10 comments:

  1. Well, I think the music adds a certain gravitas to the scenario. And if I could produce something like the glove pictured here, I'd be happy as a bug in a dog.

    Long tail cast on......Yarn over bind off *foreign language face*

    Welll done!!!!

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  2. You'll be wanting a winged helmet now then

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  3. Very pretty - both yarn and mitt!

    I have three Flutterby mittens - we should start a three-handed club!

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  4. Huzzah for the magic loop! Triumphal music is indeed in order for today.

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  5. Excellent! There is nothing quite like getting it right in the end.

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  6. LOL! I love it when victory is claimed. Now go forth and slay more dragons!!!

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  7. Hooray for new skills! I am a huge fan of magic loop. If you're interested in tackling more dragons, I have a giveaway for a book with 54 cast-on/bind-offs going on over on my blog. ;-)

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  8. I can hear that music in the background as you presented Mini-Diva with her fingerless mitts ... and she immediately runs away will putting them on. :) I just finished a pair that I also seamed, but I used a cable cast-on (my favorite stretchy cast-on). My pair didn't have a thumb gusset and they worked out fine.

    And yeah for magic loop mastery!

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Thanks ! I love comments :-)