Glove Love

It started last year when Drew texted me with a request for knit gloves. A teenager asking me to knit? How could I turn him down? 

He had this color scheme in mind, and I happened to be at Webs, where I selected the exactly right shades of Cascade 220.

Then Christmas knitting got in the way, then it was too warm to need gloves, and they fell to the bottom of my crafty to-do list.

Around November, when I picked up the 2012 Christmas knitting pace, I cast on for gloves. I wasn’t satisfied with patterns I found, but I knew I needed a ribbed cuff, and I figured I could hack together a few patterns to muddle through the rest.

I texted Drew a photo of the cuff, and he decided to forgo the stripes, requesting solid blue gloves instead.

Three times I ripped out that first glove. Finally I had to put it aside to finish the holiday knits. My sister called to see if Drew could spend a few days of his winter break in CT, which motivated me to get it together with the gloves. I mean, how hard could they be? Six tubes. That’s all gloves are. I refined my pattern search and settled on Patons Basic Gloves, adjusted slightly for my gauge.

I was fine until I got to the fingers, when I simply could not make sense of the pattern. I resorted to a Very. Basic. Tutorial. If you’re struggling to grok how to knit the fingers, if your glove patterns don’t offer quite enough detail, the price of this pattern with video support is worth it. It’s an excellent reference.

Drew arrived, tried on the gloves, fingerless still, and deemed them a perfect fit, so with thumb gussets in place, I brought them along for train knitting. We spent Thursday in Manhattan, where we had loads of fun, especially at the Beatrix Potter (Drew is an indulgent nephew) and Matisse exhibits.

I finished the first glove’s fingers while we were hanging out last night. Drew tried them on as I worked, which led to a pretty nice fit.

Here’s the thing about this project, and I’m sure you have similar projects. These gloves are more than just hand warmers. They’re about communication with one of my favorite young men–texting with him about the gloves (and other things) keeps us connected as he enters a busier stage of life. They’re about memories–we had a lot of fun together during our NYC journey, which I hope he’ll remember when he puts on the gloves. They’re about love–Drew knows I knit every stitch with thoughts of him in my heart.

When he wears these gloves, he’ll be wearing symbols of not me alone, but us, together.

And, dudes, that’s why I knit with pleasure for the teens in my life.

Postscript: Drew was on to something when he asked for gloves a year ago. Gloves seem to be enjoying a lot of attention. To whit: Rock + Purl’s Butterfingers (I’ve got the yarn queued up for these) and Purl Soho’s latest, the Gem gloves. How about you? Any plans to knit gloves?

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