Sunday, 7 August 2011

The gloves are FINISHED

the back

the front
FIRST off, let me say SORRY about the blurred photographs!
I had to wait until after 1pm for a child to GET UP to take it and clearly shrieking at him TO get UP before its next-bedtime NOW? PLEASE? and SHOVING a camera in his hand and expecting him to take clear shots is not the way to get a good photograph ..
Actually. neither is SHRIEKING at a teen a good way to get some good shots either, I very nearly got the gloves tied about my neck and wearing the camera IN my head ..
Anyway, they'll do.  you get the picture? gloves - finished.
I'm not completely sure that I did in fact create a "left" and "right" glove in the end.
The pattern calls for one set of instruction and me being me (somewhat an enquiring knitter or fussy!) just HAD to look CLOSELY and start pondering whether the fit would be improved IF it was adjusted to effect a "left" and "right" glove .. Maybe it doesn't matter? for a plain glove? 
Studying my patterns for gloves already knit from here, though, show clearly a set of instructions but as these are for knitting on straights and not in the round, I thought well how HARD can it be?

Well how hard can I make it? more like.
I am "famous" - from years ago - for being credited the ONLY sewist known to my then sewing tutor as being the ONLY person ever to have (un)knowingly traced off a copy of an entire dress pattern princess styled, measured, calculated, adjusted, cut, slid, pivoted and fused with tissue paper to perfect the FIT of the pattern pieces to MY body shape and MY measurements - I dropped my bust point by feet rather than inches (gulp) slashed the sloping and dropped shoulder (especially the left which has since become FROZEN) and added YARDS to the high-hip to accommodate the soggy blancmange middle which USED to be known as "my stomach" but which is these days well hidden under magic knickers, secret tights and a belt over trousers!
ANYWAY the whole EXERCISE took me the best part of an entire TERM.
Every sodding week I could be seen pinning, slashing, fusing and FUSSING measuring every 1/8" of an inch encouraged and urged to continue by both the tutor AND my class pals ..
FINALLY! .. AT THE END OF TERM: when all my pals are parading their finished blouses and planning matching skirts, I hold up my fused, pinned, cut, slashed and lovingly repaired pieces of PATTERN in tissue paper bonded to interfacing with dots and arrows and pod markings, clips and notes to dart "here" and everyone paused to give me a round of applause!  HURRAH! they said! she's FINISHED (thank goodness) .. and left me with the sewing tutor who narrowed her gaze, got out her tape measure and HUFFED a minute ..
I don't know how long it took her to spot it - but I remember choking somewhat on my celebratory cold tea (missed the chocolate biscuits!) and feeling FAINT as I went over in painful measurement by painful alteration EACH adjustment I'd done to my sew-pals and the TEACHER called us all over!

I'm not sure if she truly WAS proud of me.  Indeed I'm not sure how CLEVER I actually am/was TO have done it, but the proof was there in the ORIGINAL pattern pieces slid, underneath my adjsuted copy, BY the sewing teacher - I had in fact spent the entire TERM cutting up into pieces and carefully measuring and pinning back together AN EXCACT DUPLICATE OF THE ORIGINAL PATTERN.

I could have cried.  (I probably DID!).  At first my pals melted, slightly, and backed away (prolly the tears and shrieks that put them off?) but then, slowly, they all came BACK to admire! and enthuse! and CONGRATULATE ME! hurrah! apparently I am the ONLY PERSON in the entire career of the sewing teacher TO have done this.  PERFECTLY.  All that Ican remember IS that she had out her TM and checked EVERY point, pod, clip, dart and measurement THEY WERE EXACTLY IN THE RIGHT/SAME POSITION as the original. I wasn't out by a mm! genius!?
well. sort of.  except I had to pay to return the following term to repeat the whole damn thing OVER AGAIN and this time DROP my sloping shoulders AND my bust point which was drooping now to settle somewhere atop the blancmanage middle in disappointment and despair - it took me THREE YEARS to sew that "perfectly fitting" "made to fit me" blouse and cost a FORTUNE in fees, (pins, sellotape, tissue paper and interfacing!) ..

After that experience I resolved to quit FUSSING.
After leaving the sewing class and the scrutiny of such a discerning teacher's eye, I resolved to fuss LESS over the tiny detail and concentrate instead on GETTING ON WITH IT .. others do? so why can't I?

The quest for perfection is a painful experience. On the one hand when you achieve something of a perfect "fit" you feel a pride in your accomplishment and on the other, you feel left out when others are sporting SEVERAL new items they've managed to sew/knit in the time its taken YOU to do one.  But its difficult to stop! to change! and to NOT FUSS, sew?

Anyway. for the "exercise" I decided to try and see if I could work out HOW to create a well fitting left and right handed glove from the pattern.
For a start this is my first pair of GLOVES I've knit in the round.  and the first on one circ, ML method. (I ought, perhaps, to have just relaxed! just KNIT the pattern!) and perhaps I'm missing something thats really obvious?
the pattern calls for a number of stitches to be "knit" and then the thumb gussett commences.
stitches are held on waste yarn and the upper palm continues and then the FINGERS begin.
SEW. I mean SO. I stop and think about it. Now being geographically as well as mathematically (and probably artistically, too) challenged as I am, it probably ought to occured to me that what I was doing was likely to be in the manner of the tissue paper sewing pattern just another painful and tedious duplication OF the original but "back to front" (or upside, down?).
anyway.
Instead forming the thumb at the point on the needle for my 2nd glove that I had for the first, I decided to sit and work it out. And reckoned if I shifted the instruction over to the OTHER side and the OTHER needle, that would be "it"? right? well. I dont' know. for sure. its WORKED in the sense that I have  a PAIR of gloves. they FIT each hand (kind of) (there is a bit of a grip of excess fabric under the fingers on one) but whether I can TRULY say I have a "left" and a "right" handed pair of gloves I don't know. 

I am resolved, however, to quit fussing. and just get ON with it. and knit the damned pattern!
One of my sil's has requested some fingerless gloves and this is why I test knit the pattern this way, I like fingerless "mitts" myself but she did request specifically FINGERS. 

I will knit more.  I will also knit them as per pattern - UNLESS some kind and experienced glove knitter can put me out of my misery and help me understand the adjustment or placement for thumb in relation to the fingers on a basic plain glove knit on circ ML needle .. (said hopefully IN hope?) ..

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