Friday 7 November 2008

Running the Gauntlet(s)

Once upon a time there was a little yarn shop in the middle of a medieval town. They had lots of pretty wool, but they were very dear, so Little Red Fraggle-Hood could only press her nose against the window and sigh with lust after the myriad of marvellous merino and mohair...  Then one day she saw IT.  Yarn the colour of all the berries she could think of, yarn which called out to her over and over until she had to go in, shyly proffer her next month's rent allowance, and then, finally, take two little bundles of joy home with her to make into these:

berry glovelets in noro kureyon 124

Seriously - I never buy these colours... Pinks and reds?  I like them, yes, but I never wear them, so, well... I never buy them.  But that was before I'd been drooling over a pattern by Meg White called Cabled Glovelets.  Big luscious cables, chunkily knit toastiness, all-around gorgeousness...  It needed something distinctive, something special, something beautifully coloured.  And then I saw the yarn. Noro? Scratchy, coarse Noro for next-to-the-skin snugness? Well, I’m as shocked as you are!  Even more so, in fact, because it seemed I had bought the only 2 balls of already soft and squishy Noro that exist in the world…  I know... I had to take a moment, too...  But the colours... the colours...

raspberry, bramble, redcurrant, strawberry, blackcurrant, 
cranberry, mulberry, elderberry, gooseberry...

To add an extra bit of definition I sewed some wee pink beads to the centre of each cable... I used thin, invisible plastic thread, so it took bloody ages but now at least those wee beads should stay on and not gurgle down the drain when I have to hand-wash them... 

beads of the wee and pink variety

But not content with ONE pair of mittens/gauntlets/wristlets/fingerless gloves, I made these wee Gothic ones, pattern by Robin Melanson from the book 'Knitting New Mittens & Gloves', published by Stewart, Tabori & Chang.  (A great book, by the way!)

 
channel island cast-on, no less!
(version: messy)

I couldn't for the life of me figure out the directions to make the diamond at the top, so I cabled it instead.  It looks the same as the pattern, so that's good enough for me!  I may add a little beading in the centre of the diamond at some point...

So, Mr Winter, do your worst... with my hands warm and my feet toasty (thanks to the incredibly and smooshily calescent fluffy slippers my DS sent me) I am armed (ugh - sorry about that) and ready...

3 comments:

Anonymous Friday 7 November 2008 at 14:19:00 GMT  

Gorgeous! I love the cabled glovelets especially. I can't blame you on giving up the rent money for that. I would have too. In fact, I'm pretty sure I did at one point or another. (Now it's mortgage payment money.)
I think I'm going to have to queue up those glovelets, but it looks like it will be a while before Mr. Winter gets here. It's been in the 70s here lately. Ugh. (Srry. Dumb American. I can't convert that to centigrade in my head.)

Anonymous Friday 7 November 2008 at 21:16:00 GMT  

Love! They're both awesome! Now, when are you coming to London? x

Jocelyn Saturday 8 November 2008 at 06:24:00 GMT  

Those are both lovely.
I wouldn't choose Noro for anything worn next to my skin either but this colourway is such delicious *thinks of al the berries*. And here I thought you did beaded knitting on them! NIce little trick sewing them on afterwards. They look really amazing.

The gauntlets are really chic, would go well in a nice dressy evening with lots of twirly hem and strappy sandals.

Welld one, you!

Mair Bloag Weejits

Footerin' Aboot

Footerin' Aboot
Heh! I'm so funny!

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