So. About those gloves.

I've been glued to my computer screen all day today, watching the story unfold in Egypt (with a brief reprieve to go have lunch with Rachel and two of her friends at The Pantry in the Glebe Community Centre: delicious, nutritious, and excellent company—a total luncheon trifecta).

Aside from that lunch, I just cannot seem to tear my eyes away from the news coverage; although I have no personal connection to that country, I'm feeling overwhelmed with emotion just watching them celebrate the departure of Mubarek.

However, I told you yesterday I'd give you a bit more of an update on the gloves I've been making, so here goes:

First, I should say that I don't know exactly what possessed me to buy a single 200m ball of Filabura di Crosa blue/green mohair last year. It's not like I wear a lot of mohair, or even like it all that much—I mean, it's okay, but I don't go all mooshy about it the way some people might. I find the hairiness a bit disconcerting, especially when it's near my neck or face; and a single ball of the stuff could really only be used for something small and simple, like a cowl or a hat, both of which would come a bit too close for my liking.

However, I did buy it, and it's been sitting in my stash waiting for me to trade it or give it away or something, because until Wednesday I had absolutely no intention of actually making anything with it.

The stash also contained a couple of balls of a fairly nice fingering-weight yarn labelled "V.I.P. hand-painted yarn from Needful Yarns." It wasn't an official printed label, just a note scrawled on a bit of paper, attached to the yarn with string, but it informed me that the yarn in question was made from merino and cashmere, and it had been hand painted blue and green. I think I shied away from turning this ultra-soft yarn into socks, since I got kind of burned by a few pairs of Magic Shredding Merino socks last year, and I didn't feel like a repeat performance.

So on Wednesday, as I contemplated my increasingly urgent need for new gloves (it being still winter, and the cold showing no signs of abating for a few weeks yet, and my Kureyon gloves being kind of on the ratty side and getting worse), I was suddenly struck with a wild notion. It was a bit like that old ad where the person carrying peanut butter bumps into the person carrying chocolate, and lo! Reese's Peanut Butter Cups were born.

But in this case it was more like, "Hey! You got merino/cashmere in my mohair!" and "Hey! You got mohair in my merino/cashmere!" I picked the two yarns up, held a few strands out and thought, "Swatch time." (Yes. I knit a swatch. Unlike me, I know, but there you are.) The resulting fabric was both soft and squishy, and dense and strong, with only a vague hint of the disliked Mo-Hairiness.

Most of Glove A, showing a distinct lack of hairiness. Just a nice soft fuzz, totally wearable.

I cast on for the first glove Wednesday night, and things were going swimmingly.

That is, until late last night, when I began to suspect that while I definitely had enough of the merino/cashmere to complete the pair of gloves, the mohair might not hold out. I weighed the first glove: 49g. And the remaining yarn (both kinds): 27g. Ulp.

Exhibit A: Glove A plus not enough yarn to make Glove B. Wow, that stuff looks hairy on the ball, doesn't it? Actually, it kind of looks like a haystack.

There was only one thing for it: head back to the scene of the crime original purchase and beg or cry until they found more mohair. As it turned out, the store didn't even seem to carry Filatura di Crosa; the clerk looked at me kind of funny when I asked for it, as though I was making it up just to try her patience. (Wanna guess which yarn store this was?)

Just on a hunch, though, I decided to check out the sale bins in the back of the store on my own. Where I found...nothing at all by Filatura di Crosa. Nada. It's as if the store had never carried them, even though I distinctly recall buying that yarn there, because they had a very nice sample scarf made from it, and that's what tempted me to buy it in the first place. I can even tell you what the weather was like that day.

But. But. While I was rummaging around in the sale bins, I did stumble upon some balls of a blue-green mohair in the right weight, called "Serenade Colori," by a German company I'd never heard of, Stahlsche Wolle. And (this is the best part) it was on sale. Okay, this is not shocking, since it was in the sale part of the store. But this stuff was not just marked down 10% or 20%. It was half price. I kid you not.

Oddly, even though it wasn't the real official Correct Yarn, when I held it up to the original, I found it hard to tell the difference. Here, check this out:

Can you tell the difference?Nah, neither can I.
And when I'm wearing the gloves, I don't think it will matter.