Hey, I finally finished up my dad's Christmas gift! It's in the mail to him right now! I finished up the knitting at the beginning of the new year, but I was nervous about the "next step" in finishing them, so I put it off for a couple of weeks.
My dad asked for me to add some sort of grips to the glove so that he could use them to drive. My plan was to use sugru. Sugru is pretty cool-- it's a moldable silicone that dries hard in 24 hours. I took some with me at Christmas, only to discover that it had hardened in the package. Apparently it expires after six months. So I ordered some more, and then got nervous about using it and put it off. And then when I tried it, it did not work the way I envisioned it would. My plan was to make it really flat and have it adhere to the gloves in little grippy patches. But the edges of the patches were not smooth, and worse, it did not really adhere to the knit fabric.
So after putting it off some more, I got some vinyl and cut patches out of that. It was a little tricky sewing the patches onto the gloves, as the vinyl did not stretch. I had David wear the gloves when I was sewing the patches on, and he was pretty nervous about it. I'm not sure why, as I only poked him twice, and both times it was really just a graze. (Thank you, David.)
Isn't it a pretty pattern and yarn? The yarn is from my stash, Madelinetosh Merino Light in Moss. The pattern is Foxhall Gloves, which did an excellent job at explaining how to fit the gloves individually to the recipient. They also included a glove fit guide along with their pattern.
These gloves are high tech. The silver patches on the finger and thumb (on the left hand because my dad is left-handed) are conductive knit fabric. This means that my dad can use his iPhone without taking his gloves off. I just found out about this technology a couple of months ago, and I think it is so cool. The fabric is expensive, (I got mine on Amazon) but you only need a little bit of it. And I found I could sew the patch to the outside of the glove and it still worked through the layer of yarn.
And finally, I'm also celebrating my blogiversary today. I've been blogging for five years now! My blogging has changed over the years. I blog more sporadically now, and I can barely keep up with all my finished projects, so this is mainly a place to show off finished work instead of my process. I think that a lot of the people who still read here are my friends and family, although I've made and kept some great online friends over the years as well. Anyway, I'm glad I'm here and I'm glad that you're reading this as well.
i love the idea of making fully utilitarian gloves. and you carried this off perfectly! so lovely.
Posted by: cauchy09 | February 12, 2012 at 06:38 AM
They look great! Wonderful, manly stitch pattern. I know you were nervous about making them grippy. The vinyl looks good! And the high tech fabric makes them super-useful. I've only heard of the thread that you knit in. The fabric may be a better choice for the mittens I'm working on now.
Posted by: Jody | February 12, 2012 at 06:43 AM
The gloves are so awesome! Well done. I love the grips and high tech fabric you added. I recently purchased some gloves that has the fabric added to the index fingertip. Very cool indeed.
Happy Blogiversary!
Posted by: Oiyi | February 12, 2012 at 08:20 AM
Great gloves - I admire you for doing the finishing, I have some gloves I made for my hubby 2 years ago (!) and he's been asking for some adjustments to make them more grippy. I have yet to do anything about it - you may have inspired me!
And happy blogiversary to you - I am a (usually) silent lurker and really enjoy your posts. You actually inspired me to learn to sew, although all I've officially made so far are 2 pillow covers and an apron of which I'm ridiculously proud (I made and applied bias binding! Yipee!). Everything you make is beautiful and looks great on you. Just wanted to let you know!
Posted by: Kandace | February 15, 2012 at 09:41 AM
Wow - beautiful knitting and terrific problem-solving and innovation on the grip/iPhone accommodations! Really, really nice. I was surprised about the hand in glove while sewing - my suggestion would be to use an empty carton, bottle, or wooden dowel, post or small piece of PVC piping, next time and spare both you and David the worry!
Posted by: dee | February 17, 2012 at 10:22 AM
D A D Loves the Gloves!
They are beautiful, fit perfectly, are great for driving, and are WARM.
Thanks Punkin!
D A D
Posted by: Jim Boren | February 18, 2012 at 11:22 AM