Pimp My Gloves

Trying to use an iPhone with gloves - an exercise in futility:

Until, that is, you have pimped your gloves with Alison's nifty kit.

You can't really see on the video, but I typed 'Yay!'. This is what my embroidery looks like - Alison provides a number of adorable templates if you are handier with an embroidery needle than I. I stitched a wonky circle on each thumb.

I'm so pleased - it really is magical. My gloves will be staying on this winter.

Hand in Glove

I realised I hadn't taken any modelled shots of my Farinelli gloves (previously seen in this hands-free post), so I thought I'd remedy this omission.

These gloves are total winners in terms of warmth, glamour, and my evident desire to coat myself fully in the creations of Ms Old Maiden Aunt, but they do have one small drawback: I have to peel one off - with appropriate languorous insouciance - every time I need to use my iPhone (either that or use my nose to operate the touch-screen, which I have grown embarrassingly adept at doing). Until, that is, I read this post over on le petit hibou. An embroidery kit which allows you to keep your gloves on while using a touch-screen phone: what an utterly genius idea! How handy! I'm crossing my (gloved) fingers that she'll be able to ship a kit across the Atlantic to me, so I can keep my opera gloves on this winter. 

Hipstamatic (G)love

I have finally succumbed to the lure of the iPhone, and have been playing around with the Hipstamatic app to photograph my Farinelli gloves.

It's been making me think about photographing knitwear. There is the urge to produce a faithful, true-to-life document, and visually to convey technical details about the pattern and the yarn (one of the most common notes on Ravelry project pages is 'the colour is most accurate in x photo'). I wonder, though, if being too anal about these aspects sometimes makes for boring photos...

The colours in the above photo are wildly inaccurate, but maybe that's ok - to my mind, it captures more of the evanescent 'spirit' of the glove. What do you think? Are they annoyingly misleading?

9 down, 1 to go

My Farinelli gloves are only missing one important appendage, so they are one better than the original Farinelli, who was missing two. Do excuse the ballsy wordplay - it just tickles me that I'm knitting something named after a castrato. It has been suggested to me that I make a whole castrato-themed outfit, complete with Senesino socks, Nicolini knickers, a Carestini cardigan, and, in honour of the only castrato to have had his voice recorded, Moreschi mittens.

Pyjamas and Opera Gloves

I have just finished one of the Farinelli Gloves (I'm tempted to make a castrato joke, but I haven't got the balls) by Ysolda. I have never knit gloves with fingers before, and I was so proud of my first completed one that I decided to model it in my pyjamas. I hope you don't mind.

Evolution Mitts

Since making that pledge to knit six sweaters from stash all I have been able to think about has been making little things. 

Like these.

They are the Evolution Mitts by Mimi Fenton, so-called because the lace pattern evolves as you progress down the glove, which made for an entertaining knit.  The yarn is Dream in Color Smooshy in the Gothic Rose colourway.

I like the contrast between the pretty leaf lace on the top side of the glove and the minimalist 2x2 rib on the bottom.

I have also finally finished my Hungry Bees socks (hooray!), but I think those poor neglected honey-makers deserve their own post so I'll just give you this sneaky peek for now.