Knitting Multiple Fingers

First note: Who knew that knitting gloves would become a musical?

I had no idea that knitting fingers would cause me to break out into spontaneous singing. Just ask my mom, she was the recipient of my song creation when I called her last night during the bad storms we were having here and sang - I've knit fingers, I've knit fingers, to the Gershwin tune - I've Got Rhythm, where that came from I have no idea. It was lots of fun.

The yarn I am using for the test gloves shown is Yarn Bee Snowflake Wool Blend from Hobby Lobby. It is soft and washable, made from wool and acrylic, and is very interesting to look at. This colorway is called Bluebell.

I am using the Ken pattern I found for free on Ravelry. And knitting the gloves on size 7 US dpns also a new Yarn Bee product. The needles are striped and in acrylic. The yarn does not slip around which is handy for when you have 2 stitches on each one to get around the very tip of the finger.

The sudden inspiration to knit gloves came from reading Crazy Aunt Purl's blog about knitting gloves in LA in July out of Noro Kureyon. She was using Ann Budd's book - The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns and saying how easy it made it to attempt knitting that many fingers.

I loved the look of the glove and decided I had to find a pattern (don't own the book - yet) and go get some fun striping yarn - Noro. I have looked at Noro before and was put off by the feel of it. I have read lots of people saying that it has weak spots in it and lots of knots. So when I went into one of my favorite knit shops, Green Valley Weavers and Knitters, I went to their Noro bin and tried again to get past the feel. I could not, sorry but it just does not work for me.

So I asked if there was something that would make a good substitute, giving me the right weight and long striping. Two brands came up immediately, one is Mochi Plus from Crystal Palace Yarns. It has lovely long color repeats, is soft and machine washable if you wish, and looks hand spun giving it more character. That is what I bought.

The other option is Plymouth Boku, it has similar properties to Noro with the colorways, is 95% wool and 5% silk, is priced less and is more consistent in its manufacture while maintaining the handspun look. I will be trying some of that next.

I plan to finish the first glove tonight and have the MJ look at least until I get the other one done. I hope everyone has found something/someone that/who inspires them to try new things~!