Finished Gauntlets

I actually have something to show you. I have finished my "Ladies Gauntlets" designed by Anni Howard from Knit Today, December 2008.



The wool was wonderfully soft to knit with, but it was quite sticky and splitty so unravelling mistakes made the wool quite fuzzy. However the colour graduations and softness make the flaws more than excusable. A jumper in this wool would be so cozy, so it is a shame that it costs far too much for my pocket. Until I win the lottery, I will continue to treat myself to odd balls of expensive yarn for small projects like this one.



I bought the buttons from Fenwicks and they cost 25p each. They had some very nice ones, but I drew the line at paying £1.80 per button. These ones are perfectly adequate and they match the wool really well. I secured the buttons with the project yarn but felt that it might not hold too well, because of it's splitty nature. I decided that I would use my felting needle to bind the fibres together and this has stopped the insides of the gauntlets having too much of a hard knot where the buttons attached. This trick seems to have worked. I will probably look up how you are "supposed" to attach buttons before I complete my next project, as I am sure this is not the recommended way.



The fit on these gauntlets is a little loose, especially round the wrist. I think this is because I over-compensated for my tight swatch and forgot that I had used larger needles. I think the more I knit, the looser my stitches get. If I ever knit this project again, which I would do if someone asked me, I would go back to the 4mm needles originally recommended.

So there you go, a finished project. I can't help feeling that it is a shame it isn't one that has been stalled for longer, but at least it's a step in the right direction. I am getting on pretty well with the final Christmas scarf and my Fair Isle bag is only rows away from doing the bottom and inside, and then I will have to decide how to do the handle. So as you can see I will probably have more to update you on soon enough. The trouble is the magazine at my feet open at a very tempting page. It shows some crocheted and felted slippers. I'm sure they wouldn't take me long......