Friday, March 29, 2013

En garde! (finger guards)

When I'm doing something, I like to be in complete control. You might call it "uptight." But I wouldn't. No, I'd call it "precise." Crocheting is no different for me. I keep my yarn tight so my stitches are tight and even. There have been times that my yarn has gotten a little looser, and I have to frog those stitches because I don't like it. (This is why I can't knit. The yarn is too tight and I can't get the needle into the loops.)

But being so precise takes a toll on my hands. I am rubbing a raw dent in my index finger where the yarn wraps over it. Since my stitches are so tight, I have to use my middle finger to push the hook through the fabric, so I'm getting a nasty callus there. And my pinky is getting so raw from where the hook handle rubs that the skin is splitting in the knuckles. Hooking is not for wimps, y'all.

So in order to save on Band-Aids and hand lotion, I decided to make some finger guards. I had some of this vinyl stuff left over from when my mom made the kids cowboy costumes a couple of years ago, and I figured that would be thick enough to protect my skin but not so bulky that it would get in my way and make my stitches loose. So, armed with my trusty hot glue gun (which again reminded me that hot glue is HOT), I proceeded to make some really fugly glove things.

Which did not work AT ALL. I'd show you, but I already cut them all to hell trying to make them work.

Anyway. So on to the next idea. I remembered that I had some mateless "one-size" knit gloves (which have never fit me properly because I have giant alien fingers) in the glove bag. So I proceeded to cut some fingers out of them and make something that worked. I couldn't leave them whole because then I wouldn't be able to feel, and plus it would make my hands hot.

So this is what I came up with. 


(Shut up about my manicure.)

Yay! I'm going to look for some cheap ones with grippy palms, because I really need a grippy pad for my right thumb but the only grippy glove I had was a lefty. So right now, as you can see, the thumb pad is not connected to anything, which means it's going to get lost, so I'm going to cuss, and really that'll just ruin my day.



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