Baker Street is the third and last pattern in the Old Maiden Aunt/Karie Bookish yarn club collaboration.I feel a bit sad about the yarn club drawing to a close. It has been a lot of fun for both Lilith and I - not to mention the horde of knitters who have been taking part. Also, I cannot believe it is December already!
The Baker Street gloves are knitted in the "221b" colourway in Lilith's Bluefaced Leicester Aran. The gloves are knitted to an unusually tight gauge on 3.75mm in order to make the gloves extra warm and also extra durable.
Lilith loves these gloves and nearly nicked them when I first showed them to her. I really like them too. They are super-cosy and due to the nature of the stitch pattern and construction, they fit snugly across many shapes/sizes of hands. I like having my fingers all cosy, so the gloves are rather long - but as with most of my patterns, I have shown how to modify this in the pattern.
A little bit about how I put the collection together.
I started out by sketching a motif I could play with across many types of accessories. The motif becomes increasingly more elaborate and complicated throughout the club patterns: the shawl had a fairly easy repeat and the hat started incorporating the motif in the round and into shaping. The Baker Street patterns adds twisted stitches to the motif and instead of repeat it in a sort of diamond formation, I chose to stack it. OK, so this is designer mumbo-jumbo. Basically this just means that all the patterns use the motif differently and yet they all work together.
I have been wearing my Baker Street gloves these past few weeks: winter has hit the UK and I needed something a bit more cosy than my usual fingerless mitts. These were perfect - heavier yarn than my other fingerless gloves and the length/fit of them ensured my hands were warm. Of course I were slightly worried that I'd meet a knitter who'd ask me about my gloves. Well, I was on constant Whip-'Em-Off alert, but I escaped unscathed. It's a pleasure to be able to wear them with pride in public now!
Thank you so much to all yarn club participants. The club-only exclusivity for all the patterns runs for the remainder of this month. By the beginning of January, the patterns will be available for everybody via the magic of Ravelry.
I'm off to make æbleskiver now. The Old Maiden Aunt studio is open tonight as part of the West Kilbride (Craftstown Scotland) Yule Night and I offered to bake some Danish Xmas goodies for the Knit-In. Yes, it's most definitely December..