Too Busy To Get Much Done

It's been a crazy week in knitting.  At least I managed to get one of my pairs of gloves done.  I finished the Beverly Mitts, which turned out incredibly well.  I really liked the way they turned out.  The texture of the gloves was just amazing.  I really like the finish, and the lengths of the thumb is just perfect.  I'm thinking these may be a my favorite gloves at the moment.  They're the perfect length, both in the hand and the wrist.  Best of all, they fit in a way that I can still wear my FitBit and bracelets.  Since I feel naked without my jewelry, it really makes me fee good to know I have gloves I can wear with my jewelry.  They're also warm and wool, which makes them great to wear for fall.

On top of just being lovely, I'm pretty pleased with the pattern.  It worked up pretty quickly and was easy enough to knit.  I'm really surprised it has so few projects.  These are some pretty lovely gloves for being such a rarely found designer.  I really want to take a moment to promote how wonderful it is to work on projects that not an overwhelming number of people have knit.  It makes it feel more special.

Typically I gravitate to patterns that are pretty uncommon.  There's something about working on something a creator worked hard to make, but hasn't really been discovered yet.  It's a great way to show some real appreciation.  That's something important to me.  These designers work hard to make up patterns and when no one is interested in knitting them, it's almost like an insult.  Left to my own devices, I would gravitate towards those patterns every time.

Aside from giving attention to patterns that don't have much love, there's also something fun about going against the trend.  It's fun to pick up a project that hasn't hit the level of trendy.  I love knitting projects that have less than a hundred listed on Ravelry.  I like it even more when I can do a pattern with less than twenty.  The Beverly Mitts qualify.  There's currently sixteen projects listed, and it's in forty-five queues. They're a totally underrated pattern.  If knitting some up can help get some attention for the designer, I'm all for it.  I love the fit and everything, even though I did have to size it down a little for my tiny hands.  I'm completely satisfied with the outcome.  They're now one of my favorite pairs of gloves, even with all the other gloves I've knit over the years.

The next set of gloves I made are the zombie viXen gloves on Ravelry.  I originally decided to knit another pattern, but somehow these just came up as the gloves I wanted to make.  I'm absolutely loving the way they work out with the yarn.  At a distance, the yarn almost looks camouflage, so I think it's fitting that I knit them up in a pattern that's inspired by all things zombie.  It seemed like the best choice for the pattern, or so I hoped.

At first I wasn't in love with the pattern.  It was too much noise, I guess you'd say.  The yarn and the pattern conflicted more than I wanted them too.  It became difficult to see the pattern on the yarn because of the color splash.  I loved the colors and the way the colors were turning out.  I loved the pattern and the cabling.  I just didn't love the combination of the two together.  It didn't really work for me.  After a while, though, it started to grow on me.  I started to love the way it all worked up and I was excited to see how they would look when finished.  If it wasn't for a crazy busy weekend, I probably would have been done with them already.  It's looking to be a crazy week, as I'm already late on this week's blog post.

Unfortunately, the next concern is the fit.  I knit these gloves up as directed, I believe, but the gloves seem a bit too loose on me.  I found some of my old needles, both one and two sizes down from what I've knit these up on.  I'm going to knit through the hand and see what I think, but I think they may just be too big.  I'd hate to frog the whole thing, but if I want a fit I'll enjoy, that may be the best bet.  Bumping it down a size or two on the needles will really help get the fit I'd want to see in my gloves.  I would be really upset to put all that work into it, then have to give them away because they were too lose on me.  It would really make me sad.

As much as it would be frustrating to start again, at least I know I would be happy with the outcome.  A smaller fit would be really be better for my tiny wrists, so it would only make sense if I sized them down.  I bought this yarn to knit into something I would love, so it also makes no sense that I would give it all up because the sizing was wrong.  I want it to be something I enjoy.  Here's hoping that I can actually manage.