Feegle Gloves

So here it is, only the third day of NaBloPoMo, and I was pretty much at a loss what to write about today.

 

 Was I doomed to fail this early out of the gate? 

Then I realized that there was an upside to not having blogged most of the summer. I have a lot of completed projects that I haven't written about yet. 

One of those projects is my Feegle gloves.

These are a basic glove knit out of some self-patterning Opal sock yarn that has been in my stash forever. They used about half the 100g skein. Someday I'll have to think up something to do with the other half.

They're 2x2 ribbing for the cuff with the rest just stockinette. I gave the right hand a flip-top thumb and index finger so I can use my iPod while wearing them.

I call them my Feegle gloves because I was looking for a Discworld tie-in to enter them in a Nerd Wars challenge. The Feegles (full name the Nac Mac Feegles) are small leprechaun-like creatures who like to drink and steal sheep. They are covered in tattoos, making their skin look blue. Hence my blue gloves became Feegle gloves.

The particular challenge was Tips of the Trade - we were supposed to craft something that showed off a tip we had. My two tips were:

Tip One: When working on doublepoint needles, it’s easy to get inconsistent tension where you switch from one needle to the next. To avoid this, when I reach the end of a needle, I always knit two stitches from the next needle onto the one I’ve been knitting on, before starting the new needle. If I’m doing a pattern like socks that gives instructions from the start of the 3 or 4 needles, I just place markers to indicate the start of each “needle” for pattern purposes.

Tip Two: When making gloves it’s hard to avoid little holes at the bottom of the fingers where you pick up stitches. If you’re a perfectionist like me, this will bug you, even though no one else will notice. To minimize holes, when picking up the first stitch of the three, I pick up the first cast-on stitch and the stitch to the right in the row beneath and knit the two together. On the last stitch of the three, I pick up the third cast-on stitch and the stitch to the left in the row beneath and knit the two together. This makes the holes practically invisible.

Phew, made it through day 3 of NaBloPoMo. Come back tomorrow to see how long I can last...