Knitting gifts: fingerless mitts and a lace beanie

Living far from family means missing things. We’ve missed weddings, births, birthdays, hospital stays, a funeral. That’s part of the deal: we choose to live far away, we choose to miss out. But oh it hurts sometimes.

At least we can Skype. And there’s always the option of knitting gifts as well.

My mother in law asked us if we remember B. Yes of course we do. Lovely man, always wears a hat, adores music and went to that concert with us that time. He is also the person who lost a finger dramatically. We heard the story of this loss, all its gore and details, it directly from my father in law, who was one of the first on the scene. “Anyway, said my mother in law, “his fingers get so cold. And B’s wife said ‘if only I knew how to knit…?’”

“Sure,” I said, taking the hint. “I can knit him some mitts.”
“It’s just they have looked everywhere for fingerless mittens. And they can’t find any in any of the shops. His poor finger!”
“I’ll look at some patterns,” I said, wondering how best to accomodate The Stump.

Turns out I didn’t need to – B only wanted ‘regular’ fingerless mitts. I was disappointed, in a very macabre way. I picked the Align pattern, mainly because it was very easy.

“If you’re ever out of knitting projects, I’d love a beanie,” said my mother in law over Facebook chat.

Reader, I have never been “out of knitting projects” but I love knitting gifts, so I pretended.

“Haha sure,” I typed. “Colours, cables, lace?”

“Forest green lace lol,” she said.

So that was my commission. Here’s what I came up with.

For B, mitts knit from superfine alpaca in a doesn’t-show-dirt grey.

I altered the cuff, lengthened it significantly, so he can pull it over his stump if it gets chilly. I’m not happy with the thumb in the flatlay images, but it looks fine on, yes?

My mother in law gets a Lotus Beanie. I thought she’d like the flower pattern the crown makes, and the lace is dense enough not to let in too much wind.

They’re winging their way to New Zealand. It’s just past the winter solstice there, so the days will be lengthening as ours start to shrink.

I hope they like them.