There was a time (this summer) that I swore up and down that I would definitely not ever make fingerless gloves. I decided that they belonged firmly in the realm of less-than-useful things knitters make just because they can. I mean, the palms of my hands never get cold! It’s the fingertips that freeze! I have a chronic sleeve-rolling problem anyway, so I’d look pretty damned stupid wearing gauntlet-type objects and sleeves pushed to my elbows. Plus, the eighties.

So, yeah, I finished these two gorgeous freakbabies on Thursday afternoon. They’re Eunny Jang’s Endpaper Mitts. I’m trying to justify this indiscretion by noting that the lava-hot tea that I get at the student union building makes even my metal insulated mug hot on the outside. The Endpaper Mitts are no more frivolous than, say, a cup-cozy, right? Right.

Incidentally, I refuse to call them “mitts”, as in “get your dirty mitts off”. They shall henceforth be referred to on this blog as the “Endpaper Demigloves”, per Mario’s excellent suggestion. They make for some showy knitting. I got more random compliments on these than I did on the big snuggly hoody I made for Mario’s birthday.

If you decide to make your own demigloves, Eunny’s got a great post with some tips. Here’s one more. If you do not have the lithe forearms of the pattern’s creator, you probably want to pass on the tubular cast-on. Tubular cast-on looks really pretty, but it’s inelastic. Mine are size Medium, and the tubular cast-on made the glove cuff feel like a really cute tourniquet about my brawny arm. I ripped and restarted with a long-tail cast on.

I was going for a foresty look here, but the end result is sort-of Andes Candies. I used stash yarn: a brandless green 2-ply fingering skein I got in Edinburgh in aught-two, complemented by some stuff off of a cone from  Rumpelstiltskin in Sacramento. It took about an ounce of each, making this project a pretty good stashbuster for leftover sock yarn.

So! If I was going to do this over with fresh, fresh yarn, I’d choose something soft and spendy and possibly on the thick side of fingering instead of the thin. Bet that would really make the motif pop out.

In conclusion, Spirit Fingers.