Running (or, rather, knitting) the gauntlet

When my Mum was here we paid a very dangerous - read expensive - trip to the wonderful almost-local knitting shop. Whilst there we found a number of lovely things that invariably made their way into our basket. The fact that this shop is pretty tiny, hold specialty wools etc. and that we had a basket, tells you all you need to know about just how dangerous this visit was. We found many, many a thing. Including this beautiful hand-dyed wool.
We found it because I spotted a pattern on the wall for a rather smart pair of long cabled gloves, called gauntlets. It was clearly meant to be as the previous day I'd had a crash course in various knitting techniques I had yet to master, the chief one being cabling. Both the pattern and the wool soon made their way back to the flat.

It was then that we discovered that the pattern didn't actually involve cables! Instead it was an elaborate combination of stitches to make it look that way. Since it was all rather complicated and defeated the object of me practicing cabling we cast the pattern aside and went freestyle. A quick ponderance of numbers, rows and stitches later we came up with a pattern for these:
I'm so pleased with how they've turned out, and because the wool is really light I think I might still have a few weeks left to wear them before spring really sprungs*.

I really enjoyed the cabling and can't wait to begin another project. An elaborate cowl pattern is apparently on it's way (patiently transcribed and tested for me by my Mum from another great looking, but oddly written pattern also from aforementioned knitting shop trip) as I am somewhat obsessed with cowls at the moment. Hopefully I'll be able to tackle it before the hot weather moves in and I can't wear them any more(ha! Who am I kidding this is England).



* I know this isn't a word, but is should be, so there. Spring most definitely sprungs here.