Four years ago, I knitted gloves for Jeff. These were not just any gloves; they were fingerless, with a mitten-top that could flip forward to cover the fingers. I even made the thumb flippy by means of a large buttonhole. (I have never seen either gloves or a glove pattern with a flippy thumb; I don't know why no one else has done it since it's so amazingly easy. I didn't have a full pattern I liked, but I took a glove pattern for the right gauge and substituted a better thumb (and mitten-end) from another mitten pattern.
That first pair of gloves kept Jeff's hands warm at Lena Lake and for almost four more years. He nearly wore them out; the holes were becoming pretty obvious.
And then he lost one of them on the way to visit my family for Christmas. He was pretty upset about it; those gloves were special to him both because I made them and because they were awesome. He had cold hands for a couple of months after that.
But now he has gloves again! I had carefully written out my previous pattern, but unfortunately I couldn't just reuse it because I wanted to knit the new pair in a smaller gauge (this will make the gloves warmer and more weather-proof). Instead I took the Basic Glove Pattern
from The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns by Ann Budd and added a mitten and a flippy thumb. It worked out well!
I kept trying the gloves on while I was knitting them (even though my hands were much too small), and they felt so great that I bought myself some lovely blue Rowan Felted Tweed to make my own. I'll start them as soon as I forget how much I hate knitting glove fingers (and even worse, weaving in their ends).
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