I totally made it. Three days before Christmas these puppies were off the needles, blocked, and had their ends woven in, and I’m still not sure how I managed to make up that much time — call it a cliché, but this felt like a (secular) Christmas miracle.
Because it’s basically impossible to secretly knit for the person you live with, and doubly so when you need them to try things on, L knew these were coming. I actually ended up giving them to him early since he hasn’t been able to wear the old ones and thus has had no gloves. They fit perfectly (like they were made for him!) and thanks to the denser yarn (Quince & Co. Chickadee), should be warmer than the last pair.
I made a few other changes this time around, the biggest one being completely re-creating the chart in Illustrator. The chart in the book is impossibly small and has no numbers for either rows or columns, making it easy to lose your place. Additionally, the chart for the moose pattern on the back of the hand has enormously long floats. There wasn’t really any way around it for the actual moose (I didn’t want to make it speckled, though that does seem to be the consensus in other designs), but for the area around the moose, long floats seemed unnecessary. I charted in some little specks (a friend called them snowflakes, which is a nice interpretation), which definitely gives these gloves a different look than the other ones, but luckily it’s one that L likes.
They go quite nicely with his Christmas hat too, which is a happy coincidence. He knew about the hat too, but I made him wait for it since he has others. This is a second attempt at Brig, and despite knitting it to almost exactly the same specifications as the previous one, it’s much smaller. L tried it on before I wove in the ends and said he liked it as it was (I offered to rip out the decreases and knit it long enough to have a fold-over brim), so I left it. It’s nice and tight around his ears, and the yarn (Swan’s Island Organic Washable DK) is lovely and soft, with really good recovery.
I think it’s very fair to say that L is happy with his new hat and gloves. We took these pictures on Christmas day and it was definitely his most enthusiastic posing yet! (This is doubly amazing because I just realized that both of these are second-timers for him. He just likes what he likes I guess.)
Details
Pattern: The Moose at Sundown by Annemor Sundbo
Yarn: Quince & Co. Chickadee in Winesap and Slate
Needles: 2.75mm, 3mm, 3.25mm
Notes: My main changes were to the chart — adding extra specks to keep the floats from being too long (you can see the insides here) and adding extra length to the hand, which I did last time as well. I also when up a needle size for the fingers. One other thing I did when I recharted these was to make it so the beginning of the round was in the same place for both gloves. As it’s written in the book, for the left glove you knit the palm and then then back of the hand, and for the right hand you knit the back of the hand and then the palm. It’s not a huge deal, but I did notice that the tension of my floats were different on the two different gloves, and I wondered if that was why, so this time I knit both of these with the palm first. I’d say it resulted in much better tension, especially at the edges. Anyway, these are ravelled here. (And the hat is here.)
Pans & Needles 
These gloves are amazing! What awonderful gift!
Awesome!!! Your other half looks appropriately happy! Fabulous mods to the design too – I think you have improved it!
Ah! Thank you! I was worried he’d think they were too busy or adorned or something, but he seems really happy with them 🙂
Awesome. These are truly, truly beautiful!!! Congratulations on finishing them just in time (I had a simliar adventure this year …)
L. looks really, really happy with it – I love the “Ninja picture”. 😉
Merry Christmas to the two of you!
Thank you! And Merry Christmas to you and your man too 🙂
Your finishing adventure sounded much more intense than mine! Fingers are fiddly, but they’re small — I can’t imagine tackling 400+ stitches that close to Christmas.
Never again, I can tell you. As I had finished the shawl at half past one, Philipp and I looked at each other and both agreed that this is something not worth repeating. I guess I had underestimated how long these rows take (which should have been quite obvious, but … yeah …) 😉
HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope 2015 will be a wonderful year for you and L. I love reading your blog postings, your projects are very, very inspiring and I love your confidence in knitting and sewing! I am going to tackle my cardigan (again) and knit another sweater for me – and I will try and take a leaf out of your book so I can make changes to the garment that suit me best. 🙂
Just gorgeous!!
Wow – terrific gloves! And terrific fit.
Thanks, K! I swear one of these days I’m going to knit a pair for myself… though maybe not adorned with a moose 😉
WOW!!! What a treasure of a gift!!!!! Perfect (and obviously greatly appreciated!)
I have to say that knitting for someone who so clearly appreciates it makes it that much more rewarding.
Just stunning! Congratulations. You are so skilled.
Thank you! I think it definitely helped that I’d knit this pattern before — the first time through was a definite learning curve.
Fantastic set. Your model was great.
Thank you! I love how well the hat and gloves go together, especially since it’s a complete coincidence!
Wow your gloves are fantastic, working colourwork on fingers of gloves is really tricky knitting and a real patience builder! What a super gift, your fella looks pretty happy!!
Tricky but so, so satisfying! Especially when it makes the recipient so happy 🙂
These are so cool!!
Two words for next year: hand socks!
Haha. I think those are called mittens 😉