This summer, I made a pair of Knitty's Broadstreet Mittens for the Dulaan Project. They weren't very dignified, and they were also very large.
Well, now I'm making the same mittens as a Christmas gift, and they're coming out huge. Possibly bigger than the last pair. I don't know the first thing about the size of a man's hands, guys, which is probably why I got this far . . .
. . . before realizing that this size thing might really be a problem. Only then did I look up actual sizes for men's hands. A man's medium is about 8 1/2" in circumference at the base of the fingers. This glove? At least 10".
Now, never having met the recipient in person, it's really hard to know what to do. What I've just knit is a perfectly servicable XL men's glove. The only thing I know about this man's hands is that he has long fingers. I think that if he had XL hands, I'd know about it.
My roommate balks at the idea of me frogging it and starting over. Frankly, I do too, for different reasons. For each of those fingers, I had to cut the yarn, which means I'd have several tiny balls of yarn to deal with. Also, I used a sewn bind off for flexibility--I'd have to pick that thing out by hand, and this yarn is DARK.
On the other hand*, the recipient this is intended for is doing me a huge good deed in a few months, and I really want to make this the best gift possible. (I actually have several other things I need to knit for the same occasion. It's the only way I can think of to say 'thank you' in any meaningful way.)
I suppose I could always set that one aside and finish the pair and donate it to charity later. That would work, but these have to be done by Christmas--I don't have time or money to buy more yarn to finish them. I think my best bet is frogging**.
* Transparent pun not intended.
** It occurs that of the few readers I have, most of them aren't even knitters, so I'd better translate. "Frogging" is our term for ripping out knitting--you go "rip it, rip it". You know, rip it? Ribbit? . . . yeah.***
*** That pun IS intentional. Knitters are some wacky people.
