My mother's birthday is next week, and I'm seriously second-guessing my yarn choice for her birthday present. I'm making a pair of fingerless gloves, because when my parents moved to California, I stole all the pairs I had made her. (Hey, it's California — she wouldn't be needing them, right?) Long story short, it does, in fact, get cold in California, especially in the over-air-conditioned office where she works.
So she's getting a new pair of fingerless mitts, and I tried a few different yarns, but nothing seemed quite right until I hit on a skein of soft blue Malabrigo I'd tucked away, deep into the stash (I think it's color 32, if you scroll down). I was going to knit something cabled and complicated, but I decided the Maine Morning Mitts (free!) was a good, basic pattern with a thumb gusset. (Have I mentioned how much I hate knitting fingerless mitts without a thumb gusset? Gah.) I'm a couple of inches into the pattern, and I am entranced by the softness of the yarn, the delicate transition of the colors, and am generally in love with these mitts.
Considering my mother's track record of knitwear abuse, do you think the Malabrigo is a wise choice? Fingerless gloves are pretty resilient, but should I reconsider and use something superwash?
3 comments:
I have a pair of fingerless mitts out of Malabrigo Chunky. While they are super soft and warm, they also pill like the devil.
I've only used Malabrigo in felted projects, but I did use a silk/wool mix to make my first pair fingerless mitts and they got all stretched out of shape and beat-up pretty quickly. The next four or five pairs I made were out of a superwash merino blend, and they've held their shape beautifully (pattern: stulpen by Petra, yarn: extra Stampato). I wouldn't do mitts out of something that wasn't superwash, due to how dirty our hands can get. Just my 2 cents!
If she's a knitwear wrecker, I'd say superwash. Rowan Cashsoft is nice. Me, I just refuse to knit socks for people who wear them outside...
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