Or rather, gloves for kids. My five-year-old has been pestering me for “gloves with fingers” all winter. I have been putting him off, for various reasons. Firstly, he has perfectly good warm handknit mittens, which he can put on easily by himself. Secondly, I have other stuff I need/want to knit. There were Christmas presents and design samples and unfinished WIPs which all pushed gloves down the list. Thirdly, and probably the biggest reason, I have only ever knitted one pair of gloves before. Mittens, yes. Mitts, loads. Gloves with actual fingers, once, and oh boy were they fiddly! All those little tubes to make the fingers, the finished fingers getting in the way, the yet-to-be-worked stitches on holders getting in the way, and oh so many ends to weave in after finishing all those digits!
Finally I caved. Two afternoons, two gloves done!

The pattern is a free one from Ravelry, Gloves for Kids by Lise-Anne Michel. There’s just the one size, to fit a 4-7 year old, which was exactly what I needed. The yarn is two colourways of Wollmeise Pure hold together, Jewitta über Berlin and Admiral in der Wolke. They seem to be just what he was looking for, because he’s barely taken them off since they came off the needles!

Speaking of stuff on the needles, as well as a sample shawl using my handspun, I have another not-my-design pattern in progress at the moment too. I remembered this week I had promised my sister I would make sleeveless tops for each of my two nephews, and if I don’t make them soon they won’t need pullovers, they’ll need swimwear! This is a pattern called Kidding Around from Cygnet yarns which I found in a back issue of Simply Knitting magazine.

February's offering from my pattern store just went live! Leprechaun's Gemstones are top-down socks with a flap-and-gusset heel, sized from 7.25" up to 10.25" foot circumference. 
They were designed during a trip around Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, and were actually the third incarnation of the original idea. The first draft biased so badly I couldn't wear them, and the second version looked great but the stitch pattern had so little stretch that even my 8 year old couldn't force an adult size sock over his heel. A trip back to the drawing board resulted in this lace sock with a pattern that appears to form a stack of cut gems down the sock. Invented in on the island of Ireland, and with so many rainbows (it rains a lot there!), it seemed logical that this sock treasure might be found along with the leprechauns' gold at the end of the rainbow.