Mermaid Gloves

I finally finished my mermaid gloves! This is by far my favorite piece of finished knitting. I love how delicate they look, how perfectly the thumbs worked out, the color of the yarn...everything about these gloves is perfect.

...Well, almost everything. As usual, one is shorter than the other, but only by about two or three rows. I can deal with it, although I kind of wanted to poke my eyes out when I first realized it.



pattern: Mermaid Gloves by craftoholic
yarn: koigu kpm in colorway 2174
needles: clover dpns, size 1

I knit the pomatomus pattern as it was written. Three repeats. Then I got to the thumb.

The thumbs seemed to be a problem for everyone knitting these things (everyone who admitted it on ravelry, anyway). I was so terrified when I first started the thumbs (on both gloves, believe it or not), I pooped my pants. After I changed my pants, I took a deep breath, and went for it. This is my story.

In between a (horizontal) pattern repeat (it doesn't really matter which one), I made a stitch. I forget how I did it, but pick a method (k1 f&b, or m1, or something) that you feel comfortable with. I put stitch markers on either side of that stitch, and finished the row as the pattern was written. I continued with the pattern, as written, on the next row until I got to the stitch marker. ktb, and continue the pattern. The important thing to remember here is that you are only increasing every other row. You might be thinking, "uh...duh." Congratulations. You are smarter than me. I didn't actually make this mistake, but only because someone else on ravelry mentioned that she had. Thank you, ravelry. I continued as follows:

row 3: m1r, ktbl, m1l
row 4: p, ktbl, p
row 5: m1r, p, ktbl, p, m1l
row 6: ktbl, p, ktbl, p, ktbl

and etc, for 22 rows (one full pattern repeat). (m1l - or m1front, and m1r - or m1back are explained beautifully here at knittinghelp.com)

There is no need to cast on extra stitches. Maybe that's how you make thumb holes. I know that I have made mittens like that. But these gloves look much more elegant if, when you are done with the pattern repeat, you put your thumb stitches on waste yarn, and knit the next row as if they don't even exist. Knit half of a pattern repeat, and then start your fingers. After my first finger is done, I like to do my thumb first, then finish the last three fingers.

I just do fingers. I have no idea how to explain it, because it's not always logical. I know that my first glove has perfect fingers. I had no idea I was such a great knitter. Then the second glove was sloppy. That's how it always is. I wasn't such a great knitter, actually - it was a fluke.

Anyway, browsing the gallery on ravelry I didn't see a single set of these gloves that didn't look absolutely lovely. Some people don't like the pattern...some people think it's fussy...but if you're thinking about making these, I think that you will love them - even if you think it's fussy to make them :) And honestly, even if you don't like them, I promise you will get a ton of compliments when you knit these in public. It was the first time I experienced genuine jealousy - I could feel people coveting these gloves. They are just. that. fabulous.

Odessa

I've been getting antsy and so frustrated with this blanket (not the project itself, but how LONG it takes to knit a blanket) that I decided to break up the monotony by knitting myself a hat.

I have had some Jaeger Matchmaker dk yarn in my stash for a while; one skein was left over after I made these socks. I didn't know what to do with the third skein for a while, but I had always kind of allocated it to make Grumperina's Odessa hat. This was...almost two years ago. I finally bought beads on Tuesday, then sat down to make this hat. It took three days from my blanket, but I was grateful for the distraction and the (finally) satisfaction of starting and completing a project, without feeling like it will never. end.

I'm not a big fan of this style of hat, actually. I prefer newsboy caps...but I always seem to lose my cute hats, and wind up using these knitted hats, anyway. So they may as well be cute. With beads.