kitty: Olga Buraya-Kefelian releases the pattern for Prissy's Mittens / Gloves - Check them out.

There are not to many times in your life that you will have a pattern named in honor of you. Thank you so much, Olga!!! I feel so very honored and happy on so many levels. Meet the Prissy's Mittens / Gloves Pattern by Olga Buraya-Kefelian Olga knitted me these adorable gloves for my Christmas Gift this year. She knew that I was a glove girl and absolutely love kitties. So really there couldn't have been a more perfect gift.
She is now offering the pattern over on Ravelry to anyone that wants to make these adorable Faroe isle feline face pattern gloves. They are really a treasue to own. Click here to check them out on Ravlery.

kitty: what's on the needles

White Item #: A-20 1/20 silk stainless steel Green Item #: A-60 "shosenshi" paper It is hard to believe this yarn started it all and has been setting in my stash box since March 17, 2005. This yarn marked the first step of my Habu Obsession. I even set up a water strength test back then because I couldn't believe how easy this yarn tore that it would hold up as a garment. I remember just holding the yarn and looking at wonder at the folds in the hanks. I knew back then exactly what I wanted to make with it, but I guess I was too chicken to start until now. So after talking to Olga & MG a couple of weeks ago, I got the nerve to just do it. So we will see how the cover sweater of the "Knit" book turns out.

The other day I was in my LYS and some one asked me why I loved Habu yarns so much. The answer came so easy; it is the unusual texture, the natural colours, the lack of the feel of commercial yarns, and most of all it is the feeling that you are buying one of the last remainders of textile history. Cottage industries that are still hand making yarns that they have made for hundreds or years. These are yarns and fibers where the sheer skill set need to create them are slipping away from us due to steps that began with the Industrial Revolution and the desire for cheaper faster products. A Habu though you can still find rare treasures you might have only read about. Hand tied twisted ramie made from the stalks of a ramie plant and hand tied together. A yarn made from fishnets sourced out of Indonesia that has been cut apart and hand tied back together. A traditional northern Japanese yarn from Nigata, Japan made of Fiddlehead fern cotton and silk. Or a handspun yarn from Indonesia made from a rare silk cocoon and it the colour of gold naturally. And if you are feeling like you would rather spin your own fibers there is the under hair of Guanaco that is the colour of nutmeg. There is an element where history and tradition lives on, and Habu is bringing it to our doorsteps.

4 small balls of Army Surplus Yarn The other thing on the needles right now is a pair of fingerless gloves. This year at MS&W one of the vendors from an Ohio mill had these little tiny balls of Olive Green yarn. It had been the left over from a run that they had done for the US Army. Instantly I wanted to make a pair of fingerless gloves. Guess I have something for army green fingerless gloves.

Kitty: Christmas Opera Length Gloves

So the gloves are complete. I finished them up on Christmas night while waiting for the laundry to be finished. It was funny all the rest of the house was sound asleep and I was setting knitting away waiting for the machine to finish so I could catch it before it woke everyone up. When it finally rang I realized that all I had left to do was bind one more thumbhole. Obviously I decided that I had to finish even though the sun was coming up. So these are my Christmas Fingerless Opera Gloves. When I finally woke up I proudly picked my gloves up and tossed them to Meowgirl who had been up for hours and watching Buffy. In a since of accomplishment that I was done. We giggled about it afterwards that I didn't bother speaking just tossed my gloves to her.

Kitty: To Frog or Not

To Frog or not to Frog... That is the question .

1) The first half of the glove fits well and shapes nicely around my wrist. Version 2 even had the new shaping for the thumb works a lot better.
2) It feels really wonderful and I am very happy with the texture and colour. To do over again I would have used finer yarn for this project.

but....

3) The increases look dorky when spread out over the arm.
4) It is to big over the forearm
5) It bells at the cast off
6) The increases are not as smooth as I would have liked
7) Oh, Did I mention it looks dorky....

The result...... Well I frogged it again so glove 3 hopefully will be the charm. I mean Kattie didn't even like it she turned her back on it.

So the knitting front isn't going well. I really need to finish these gloves since it is suppose to be -5 F on Christmas day here and I am in need of gloves.

meow: oooh, arm warmers

i too have been taken by the fingerless glove craze. other than a tiny pair of wrist-length, pink & black fingerless gloves with bows (very eighties) i had when i was nine, i don't remember any particular fondness for gloves--well, real-life ones. how could i not romanticize the long, white, button gloves of ballrooms and tea parties?

enshrouding my fingers in fabric makes me feel stunted and muffled; i'd rather fling them off and embrace the cold. but admiring all the lovely fingerless gloves of knitbloggers out there has converted me. i want my hands to be warm. i want my fingers to be free!

below are a few meager links to further stir the love of fingerless gloves. they are nothing compared to the information Kitty Kitty has put together here (by the way, i appreciate living in a time and place when society is NOT patrolling women to ensure their glove behavior is not too seductive. oh the imagined transgressions of narrow minds!).

from Glovedup, an alternative designer in London:
-embroidered cream mesh
-modern black and white opera length

cute knitted ones:
-white argyle
-blue and white stripes

as for ones i want to knit: i am leaning toward simple arm warmers--elbow or opera length without partitions for my fingers or thumbs. i'm imagining some soft, warm, light merino wool. however, this must be relegated to the bottom of my list. promises for current project updates tomorrow. promises, promises... meow

Kitty: Fingerless Gloves

This week has been pretty slow for knitting for me. Buried in work and a project that is to heavy to knit more than a couple of rows each night has not helped. But I had one announcement to make and it is official I can not take it anymore. I have to have a pair of fingerless gloves all of my own. I have only been talking about them for three years now. With all of the talk from the other bloggers it has given me great encouragement to just make my own gloves. I bought my yarn yesterday to make them and I have started my research to look for the perfect pattern. Here is what I have so far.