Yeah, but, does she bobble?

I've come to the stage of freezing fingers in January in Maine that I'm back to contemplating the best options for finger warming. Thus, I've come to understand that my previous ignorance to the difference between 'knuck' and 'fingerless mitt'. I mean, practically speaking, I understand the difference. But, when choosing which to make, I've been quite nonchalant in the past sort of reasoning, "meh, why go to the trouble to knit fingers only half-way and quit?". Heh.

It turns out that the 'knuck' part of the knucks is really essential for me. Often, I need my fingers free and, sometimes (especially as we near lambing season) I have to touch things that I don't necessarily want to seep into the fingers of the gloves. For me, the perfect marriage is knucks in a fingering wgt yarn with some handspun, woolly mittens over them. That way, if I need my fingers free, I can take the mittens off, then put them back on to warm my cold fingers after the fact. The actual 'fingerless' mitts are my preferred hand ornament to sleep in. Yep, you heard me right. When you heat with wood and live in the wilds of Maine - it's a darn good idea to wear something on your head and hands when you sleep. It took almost a whole winter of tendinitis on my hand to figure out that it came from me trying to tuck my chilly hands under the pillow in some wonky way. For this, I like a ribbed fingerless mitt that is a bit long on the fingers.

So, I've got the knuck part done and now it's time to turn to the mittens, non? Only, I am continually struck with rash and violent mood swings that leave me drunk with the dream that I can knit all of my life and spin in my sleep. So, of course, I decided to knit these for the January Sockdown in the Sock Knitter's Anonymous on Ravelry. How could I pass it up, I ask you. I mean, there's this skein of 'Mardi Gras' that I saved for myself to knit and it just keeps calling to me. It sidled up to the red beads and they, together, warped my mind into NEEDING the beaded socks. Then, there's my modular vest which I'm gaining steam on every day. Of course, I'm starting to seriously spin the yarn for my own cable sweater design that I'm knitting for the Spinner Central Quarterly sweater spin along. And. in a spasmodic fit of web surfing in the wee hours of the night, I chanced upon this knit along and, of course, in my exhausted state of heroic delusion (loading the fires on a blustery cold night is so falsley invigorating that it really pumps the ego badly)decided, ah, what the heck? Clearly, I am afflicted with an incurable case of knitting fever.....

I created this little pattern (posted in its own listing so it can be printed without all my musings and blabbery) largely due to the fact that I lack the ability and/or attention span to follow one. The same thing happens to me in the kitchen but the happy result is that you end up with something that really suits your tastes - or something so hideous that you feed it to the pig and hate yourself for being such a flighty soul. In this case, I was very pleased. Loved the fit, loved the colors (that's my 'Hot Mama' colorway of purples, pale rose, and dark brown)and loved the little rib invention that I know has probably been done a billionty times but is new to me because I sort of made it as I went along.

What was fairly surprising to me, though, was finding out I bobble. Generally speaking, I'm not a bobble loving sort of chic. I love designs, textures, and even the random cable or colorwork but - ahem - bobbles? So, in the spirit I was caught up in at the moment (which is to say, adolescent sort of rebellion) I decided to try plugging in a bobble on the cuff. Awh, heck, I went wild and made it a double bobble - surely mocking myself for bobbling in the first place. Then, when I put them on to wear them, I was shocked at how pleasing it was to have a little ring of bobbles around the cuff - just a little bit of playful. Who knew? I bobble!