FO Friday: Swirly Mittens
(forgive the lumpiness of my stitches. they are unblocked.)
First mitten: 23-24 December, 2010 * Second mitten: 2 – 4 February, 2011
These were one of those easy projects that takes forever, because somewhere in the middle you lose the will to live to bother finishing.
This all started when we got our things back from the cleaners (they needed to be cleaned after the fire). The cleaners swore up and down it was dry-cleaning, nothing would be damaged, everything would come back smelling lovely and in perfect condition.
I am automatically distrustful of people in authority who tell me everything is going to be just fine don’t you worry your pretty little head, so I held back the precious precious handknits … but somehow a single mitten was caught up in a coat-pocket or something. And when it came back, that mitten was all sorts of Not Fine. It was effed up. Felted. Too small to fit a gnome.
C was sad and I swore but no amount of swearing was gonna bring back that mitten.
So I made a new pair. And unlike the last, these thumbs are gusseted.
Thumb gussets means the thumb sticks out at the side (instead of being attached to the palm), and creates a reversible mitten. Good for kids who lose one and need another knitted up quick.
Apparently, adults disdain gussets. I have no idea why. I LOVE having reversible mittens. Last year (after shoveling three zillion cubic feet of snow) C’s mittens felted on the palms, but nowhere else. That makes an uncomfortable, unwieldy mitten. Their adult-type thumbs meant they couldn’t be worn reversed, which meant they were clumsy on one side and soft on the other, and that meant they began to wear unevenly, and that meant the stitches started to shift around and break and WHO WANTS TO DEAL WITH THAT NONSENSE? Gussets are the way of the future! Embrace your inner child and your grown-up practicability! Give me gussets or give me death!
an open eye 
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