Sunday, February 22, 2009

Captain, my Captain!

HEB did manage to find some yarn to reknit her second glove, so I feel like I can post about mine without being too much of a jerk. (Though, sympathy for the missing glove and having to reknit the thing still remain in my heart!)

Knotty Gloves, in Plucky Merino Cashmere Nylon, colorway Captain Wentworth


Out here in "Drive to Snow" California, there really isn't a need for heavy duty hand gear. However, there are a few times where handwarmers make it clear why they are not called finger-warmers.

Hence, gloves. They make me pretty happy, though there haven't been many times I've really been able to justify wearing them, especially this relatively warm winter. People complained once when it rained for three days straight, and sure it's annoying, but dudes, at least it wasn't below freezing for three weeks straight.

BUT back to knitting!

This picture shows a more real-to-life color of the yarn.


A note on the color: Captain Wentworth is a character from Persuasian, as I'm sure we all realized. So, I took the opportunity to watch the three movie versions of that book that were available on netflix over the course of knitting these gloves. (And I wonder why I'm not farther along on my thesis...) I must say that overall, I think the production from the 90s was the best. I was quite surprised to find that the most recent BBC production totally changed one of the crucial scenes--I'm never quite sure what compells screen writers to do that, but then, it's unclear why we needed a new version at all. The Captain Wentworth in my mind will always be the slightly weather-beaten faced, elegant and reserved man from the 1995 version.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

at least we'll always have Chicago

I had a different title planned for this post. I was going to write about how I took EW's advice and took these gloves along on the plane to finish them (and motivated myself by not bringing any other gloves/mittens along to wear in Chicago). And then I was going to write about how the flight attendant said to me, "Miss, that looks sharp!" while I was sewing in ends, prompting me to fear that he would take my needle away until he clarified that he meant that my glove was good-looking. Which then led to the man sitting next to me telling me that they were very elegant and I could wear them with an evening gown. (He was from Vermont.)

So that was my plan. Plus pictures of the gloves by Lake Michigan, thanks to CH. But I can't pull it off anymore. Because, as I went to put on my gloves leaving the office today, I could only find one in my purse. No big deal, right? The other one must be in my car, left there as I rushed into my 4 pm meeting (only 50 minutes late, after another meeting ran long and my 45 mile drive was slowed by snow). Not being in my car meant that it must be in my office, under some pile of papers that I'd lugged between meetings. Right? Right?

Well, at least I got to wear them for a lovely long weekend in Chicago. I also thought that I had enough extra yarn to make another glove, but it turns out that I'm about 10 grams short. So I'm begging on Ravelry for some of the same color, but don't plan on holding my breath. I guess not having the extra yarn means that I don't have to decide whether I'm too careless to own handknit gloves (losing one within a week of completing them?!?). That was my first inclination, but then I remembered how cute they were with my tretta hat

Here are the deets: improvised glove pattern based on Grumperina's tretta hat, using Plucky Knitter MCN Fingering in Golightly.

I'm trying to remind myself of an earlier inspirational blog story of knitting lost and knitting found, and am trying to remind myself that it's only yarn, but can't lie: I'm discouraged nonetheless.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

sending out an SOS

I really want to be done with these gloves (rav link) so that I can wear them, but am super overwhelmed by the number of ends to weave in.
Any suggestions on how to get my finishing mojo going?

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Homework is for people without knitting blogs


Plucky Merino Cashmere Nylon, colorway: Hear Me Now*

Tonight I wound up my birthday yarn instead of doing reading. (Nostepinne = such fun!) I had some thoughts for what I could do with this beauty. I would love to hear your thoughts or recommendations!

Yarn on the Nostepinne.


The options I was considering tonight include Grumperina's new Mother of Pearl scarf (rav link) and the Point's Claudette Hat (rav link only, sorry!).

The scarf:
Pro: I was checking my google reader just before class today and thus spent the boring part of econ thinking about this pattern. That's got to mean something.
Pro: The colorway totally fits the idea of the pattern! It's not the pinky white kind of mother of pearl, but it's shimmery and ocean-like all the same. While I would normally hear "brown and green" and think forest, this yarn has hints of turquoise and greyish green that really says "ocean forest" to me.
Pro: I was thinking today that I love how scarves drape and flow and get tossed over one's shoulder.
Pro: Grumperina's patterns are always nice, and (so it seems) are good with plucky yarn.
Con: The pattern calls for 600 yards of DK, and I have just less than 400 yards of fingering. I was thinking how I love long scarves!

**
The hat:
Pro: I mean, take a look. Freaking cute!
Con: Do I have enough yarn? Is this fingering the same as what the pattern calls for? (It seems much thicker to me!)
Con (secret pro): This is a pattern I could see myself making with other yarn and being perfectly happy.

Ok, so maybe the hat isn't really a contender. (Except, the yarn would look lovely in that pattern, I'm sure of it!) But despite my list of mostly pros, I'm not totally sold on the scarf for the yarn. What to do?

*Elizabeth's autoresponse: I WILL ALWAYS COME FOR YOU! *swoon*
**Picture totally stolen from ravelry--I'll take it down if anyone wants.