Anarchy gloves

I just need so much to sew. 

I am an addict! 

The problem for me about Christmas is I love it very much, but during this period of time I lose my sewing table for more than a week and its killing me!

I managed to cut two denim dog coats out on the kitchen floor which sort of alleviated my need to sew. They are waiting for my table to be sewn and finished off.

When I began this blog I really had no idea it would become so much a part of my world. This is not just a hobby. This keeps me sane even when awful things happen. 

Yet in my teens and twenties I sewed just about everything but that was because I had no money being unemployed for most of that time. 

I simply had to sew else go without. Now I do it for originality because as the world has got smaller and smaller with increasing communications and technology, everything, everywhere looks the same. There is so little that is unique. Its seriously depressing. 

So I knew that for Christmas I must vacate my table - the dining table, because its the only decent sized table we own and at 1.5m long its ok. Bigger would be good but I manage and I am sure some people reading this have even less space. We all make do with the best we can get, and this is my space for 11.5 months of the year which is brilliant and for this I am very grateful to my other half for his understanding. But then comes Christmas, which is incidentally my favourite time of year, so I am not hating this at all. But I must lose my table for over a werk and its killing me. I seem to have serious withdrawl from sewing so am I an adict? Yes probably. If that is possible then yes I am.

I just need to sew and I cannot.

So what to do then?

Back in September (I think) my lovely Mick bought me a begginner knitting kit for mitts from Aldi. Aldi did it as a special, a possible idea for a present for Christmas perhaps, tho not for me since he gave it to me immediately. Well probably I am defintely not a begginer knittter, having knitted for most of my life so around 45+ years as a knitter, but one thing about me is I can knit in the round but I absolutely hate and avoid it.

Yes, once upon a time I knitted a whole jumper in the round and ever since I just avoid this. I did knit a hat for my friends baby a couple of years ago in the round but thats about as far as I want to get. You understand tho - its not that I cannot do this just that I do not want to. I do not enjoy it so want to avoid as far as is possible. Anyway the problem I have is I need mitts since I have a condition which is very annoying called Raynauds which is when you can get frostbite at what other folk find normal but cool conditions. Its a slight inconvenience for me athough very serious for some people. My problem is mild but I do need gloves and if possible mitts. Most patterns tho are in the round hence my serious delight when I realised Aldi had a pattern for flat knitted mitts. Well it contains everything you need - even a needle to sew them up! Wonderful. Even the thumb is knitted flat in these and you sew it all together at the end. Unfortunately I was so keen to finish these I never took photos of them before sewing together.

Despite spending the last 10 or so years looking for one on the internet and in the process collecting huge amounts of data ( sewing, knitting, recipes and other snippets of interest) I still I do not have a basic easy pattern for mitts. I even started my sewing blog project due to my search for a simple not in the round knitted mitts pattern so yes this need to knit mitts actually caused the sewing blog in the first place. I probably could have paid for a simple pattern to be honest but when the really pretty in the round ones are often free this went against the grain.

Well this kit has the needed pattern. But, I did not want a copy of a mass produced kit so Mick also bought me a glittery acrylic yarn which I used as a the main colour. I missed out the pale grey and the cream and I ad-libbed the rest making sure my wrists and cuff openings were the same stripewise but the rest is pure anarchy with a totally mismatched  pattern and yes this was intentional.


We had a few problems taking these photos because: how does one take pictures of gloves or hands?
I am sure there is a better method for capturing hands than this but here are the photos anyway:

So I started these in September but knitted virtually nothing and then over the last week when I cannot sew this is what I have made.

I still feel a pull to sew but I think I need a mass tracing/cutting session to get me started for the New Year. I depleted my normal pile of cut out and waiting items for the December The Monthly Stitch challenge since it had to be an easy project which was fast and when you have a pile of ready to sew items already thats the quickest easiest way to get going. Now tho my pile of unsewn objects has gone.  I also have a new job which I need some "officey" professional type of smart casual clothing for so thats for next week, once I eventually reclaim my lovely table.

Happy New Year and  I hope you have a good one!

Bracken