Colors in the The Mailbox

Going to the mailbox used to be such a fun affair. At a certain time of the month, it would be loaded with the glossies, giving me hours of pleasure turning the just printed pages. One of my favorite shelter magazines was House and Garden, a slick Conde Nast publication. Over the years, I would first turn to the "Editor's Letter" written by Dominique Browning. What a fabulous column she wrote - always full of insight. When House and Garden ceased publishing abruptly, I mourned the loss. Luckily for me and all her reader fans, Dominique has taken up the blog format. And she knits. You can read about her latest project here: Sticking with My Knitting.

Early this week I did go to the mailbox. In it I found this......

The Fall Webs Catalog with my little old cabled gloves on the cover! Wow! How exciting for my little old brand new yarn Color By Kristin. Thanks to the fine folks at Webs for featuring my yarn and glove design. Seriously, a real thrill for me. Open the catalog and there Color by Kristin is again.

Look for the pattern at your local yarn store. It is part of the Classic Elite Yarns Collection in Color By Kristin Book One. The gloves are named "Sebastian" after one of our beautiful gray tiger farm cats. BTW, all the designs in the two CBK books are named for cats and kittens who live here at the farm. 

So onto the gloves.... Here's their story. I love handknit gloves. I wear them all winter long, usually wearing the tips out and reknitting the tips over and over until the gloves shred or are lost. Folks there is nothing like a handknit glove. It molds to your fingers. It keeps you warm and cozy, whatever the chore.

 

I know what you all are thinking..... "Oh, I can't do that, all those fingers. I wouldn't bother. I'll just make a pair of fingerless gloves." But seriously - here's what I think about those fingerless things - they aren't warm and where I live I need glove tips to be warm. Now you are thinking, "But my daughter won't be able to text." Tell her to take the gloves off and then put them back on. Or make tips that fold back (sorry - that isn't included in the pattern). 

I've had a vision of these gloves in my head for quite a while..... mulling them around. I wanted to devise a pattern that would be:

a. Colorful

b. Only use one color in a round

c. Cabled

d. Have just a little bit of embroidery added for more color

e. Not too overwhelming for those new to glove making

Here are my two samples I knit before I wrote the pattern. I used old colors from the Julia Color Line. I had the pattern done before the new Color by Kristin Yarn samples arrived. I re-colored them to the ones shown in the pattern.  Because I couldn't restrain myself, I made two versions - one with a flared and cabled edge (the blue and green ones) and one with lots of garter ridges, tight 2 x 2 ribbing and some embroidery. My fingers were multi-colored but I made the gloves for the pattern with only one color fingers. You, of course, can do whatever you like.

Here's my secret for getting through the fingers. I do the thumb first and time myself. This gives me a guide as to how long it will take to knit each finger. Then I sit down and knit a finger when I have that amount of time. I promise you - every finger gets quicker. Another tip - if you have the luxury of having the person you are making the gloves for available, try on them as you go. Everyone's fingers are different lengths. If anything, err on the short side because the knitted fingers do stretch in length. Set aside some of the yarn and keep it to re-knit the tips when they wear out. Because I promise, these gloves will become your favorites.

Off to the hen house to see what I find this morning......

And then I've got to make a matched set of the gloves so I have a new pair for this winter.