The Winter of My Discontent

Now that the cold weather is encroaching I am getting an opportunity to try out my small F.O.'s. It is very educational. In my previous incarnation as a knitter/crocheter, I mostly made things that were generally One Size Fits All - scarves, hats, snoods, etc. Hard to go wrong there. But now?

My fingerless gloves are too big. The distance between the fingers and the thumb is alright, but even though I did a gauge swatch and used smaller needles, the width of the gloves are 1" more than my hands. This is without stretching them, even. "What went wrong?" I cried, then thought about it. It seems to me that the essential problem was that I quite faithfully followed the instructions. The pattern was for average-sized hands. I am not average-sized - I am child-sized. I should never, ever, follow instructions faithfully again. The gloves are a wash. Off they go to Bob, who has kindly agreed to accept them in lieu of the black fingerless gloves I was going to make him. Now I have no gloves, just a tiny ball of mossy green yarn to stare at through the mesh door of my Stash Isolation Center.


The Stash Isolation Center houses poor, misunderstood balls of yarn who have had the misfortune of falling under the influence of an angora cat named Jameson. For their own safety (and society's sake - 'society' being the occupants of this apartment) their wandering rights have been revoked. They will remain in isolation until said cat forgets about them, whereupon they will be given a brief probation period on the kitchen table, next to the computer, or in my knitting bag. If they last through the day without untoward incidents they will be considered safe to roam. Unfortunately, said cat is very precocious (he has opposing thumbs) and has excellent taste in yarn (alpaca and 100% merino wool being his favorite), so the probation period is often cut very short, and the poor, mauled yarn is returned to the cage - I mean, Center.

The gloves are not the only F.O.'s receiving my scorn. I may rework the brim of my Homespun hat. It was designed with an overlap where the button is attached, but in Homespun it is simply too much. I think I'm going to take it off and re-knit it with just a simple seam next to the button.

I have also been having nasty thoughts about the scarf I just knit for my boyfriend. He loves it, but it really should be a knit tube, sewn together at the ends. Better protection against Nor'easters, and there wouldn't be a wrong side to it. Maybe I should buy the yarn and secretly knit it the way I think it should be. When I'm done I could wait until he falls asleep and replace it like some kind of Tooth Fairy for bad finished objects. Then I could frog the original scarf and make him mittens. Doesn't that sound good? Do you think he'd notice?

RANDOM THOUGHTS

Should I make a lace shawl? Wouldn't that get too tangled in my bag on the subway?

I must make another pair of Swedish socks! Er... I take that back...I must make these!

I am determined to make this bag for school. The BIG one. In black.