Creation of the Hansel Gloves

First of all, the peppermint blanket is FINALLY with its real owner. The customer had time to meet up today so it was finally handed off.

This also meant that I finally got the rest of the payment (since I ask for half down), and could go to shop at my local yarn store for the first time in literally months. I mean, I was there last week for the outdoor stitching event but we never went inside the store itself.

So I wandered around for way too long because I haven’t gone there in forever, and I couldn’t decide on anything. Plus I knew it would be my last chance for a while too because my wallet cries when I enter those doors!

But I eventually decided on trying some yarn from a company I had never heard of called “Universal Yarn”. There were tons of different weights and yarns but I settled on one called “Uptown Worsted Tapestry” because it has gorgeous colors and it’s really soft.

Check out my miniature “haul”!

Obviously I wanted about ten of each colorway, but I settled on this specific colorway because it’s very natural and earthy but also bright with that gorgeous vibrant teal. And I bought three because the original plan was for a hat.

But I was totally stuck on my hat. Every stitch I could come up with was a copy of someone else’s idea, and the few original ideas I could think of didn’t really work for a hat shape. I started and frogged like ten different concepts.

Then for some reason, I just thought “gloves!” and started messing around.

I wanted to do a simple, repetitive stitch, but not a boring one like just plain single crochet around and around and around. So I started playing and discovered that if you alternate single and half-double crochet, you get a neat subtle texture! Plus it actually works with variegated yarn and doesn’t make it look (too) messy!

I started with a ribbed border on the bottom, and realized how tiny my wrists actually are…

Scissors are for scale to really hammer home how pathetically tiny my hands are.

Of course I had to frog some of the rounds about a dozen times because life is never simple. But I kept going, and I actually have a passable fingerless glove at the end of it all!

I love it. It’s comfy, the colors look great, the yarn is really soft, it’ll be very warm in the winter…this was a total success. I decided to name the pattern after the kitten who slept in my lap during most of the creation process. His name to the rest of the family is Han (short for Han Solo), but his full name to me is King Hansel Meowsers. Therefore, these are the Hansel Gloves!

Now the only problem will be figuring out how to translate it into larger sizes…any advice? Should I just make larger ones and have family and friends try them on? Any help is appreciated! Hopefully I can write up a real pattern in the next few days if I figure that out!