Gloves (and then a Hat) for Bill

Towards the end of last winter, Bill held up his commercially produced wool gloves, pointed out the holes and noted that a knitter's spouse really ought to have a nice pair of hand-knit gloves.

He's right, of course, and I happened to have some lovely wool yarn on hand, having purchased it about a year or so earlier. (On sale!)

I bought the yarn with the idea of knitting Bill a hat, but since I didn't know what design I would use, I bought extra to be sure I didn't run out. I thought the self-striping earth tones and thick/thin yarn could be simple and interesting at the same time. After checking my stash, I decided I had enough yarn to make gloves as well as a hat and since the urgent need for gloves had been brought to my attention, that's where I started.

Bill likes "thick" fabrics, so while the recommended needle size was 7, I ended up using size 4 needles. (Partly, because I have a set of size 4 double pointed needles.) I wanted to keep the stitch pattern simple to show off the yarn and decided on 3 small cables up the back of the hand (blending in to the index, middle and ring fingers of the glove) and stockinette stitch for everything else. For the cuff, I chose a hem, rather than ribbing. Here's the wrist edge of the back side of the gloves.

Here's a full shot of the back side of the pair.

You can sort of see that the thick/thin yarn gives the stockinette stitch thumb and fingers a bit of a Wicked Witch of the West look. You can see it even more in this shot.

Getting started

My husband Bill and my niece Catie have both suggested that I should start blogging and since they both know that I always do what I'm told  ...

Given that Catie was a main catalyst for this endeavor, it seems appropriate that she's part of my first post. Plus, I have pictures of her wearing a pair of fingerless mitts that I knit last fall when she was staying with us on Lopez. (I did recently knit a pair of gloves for Bill, but I don't have any pictures yet.) So, Catie it is!