FO: Willow Tweed gloves

I've been working my way through the Louisa Harding Willow Tweed I bought before Christmas. It's perfect for gloves and mittens - not bulky, but warm, and they look really elegant with lace patterns. I've been plugging patterns from my stitchionary into my own glove pattern and seeing how they turn out - I'm not making these for anything in particular, so it's no loss to rip them out if they don't suit.  I have a run of birthdays in October, so really I should be starting on those, or Christmas presents (this year I will be organised, this year will be the year), but that will mean buying more yarn, so I'm saving it for a big yarn-shopping day.

I made these gloves in a reversible layette stitch...

... which actually look quite different inside-out, so perhaps they are not so reversible, or I didn't follow the pattern correctly. I like the look of the pattern both ways, but for the gloves I prefer the lacier, right-side-out look.

Another pair in grass stitch. The yarn is a lovely soft spring green, which doesn't quite come out in the pictures, and I think it suits this stitch very well.

I was in the mood for cables, but by the time I had finished the thumb I realised that one of them was going to be wrapped around the side of the hand, so I've ripped out to the cuff since I took the photos this evening. After ripping out I decided that this yarn looks too beautiful in lace not to use it for that - cables suit chunky yarn as well, so I can sate myself with a bulkier project next.

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In an ongoing attempt to clear my room, I have made a pile of all the books that have been sitting on my shelves, unread, for years (distinct from my To Read pile, which throughout my degree has been growing on the set of shelves I use for college notes). When I read them they can either go back on the shelf, or go to a charity shop. For the last few weeks I've been reading fantasy written for an age slightly younger than I was when I received it, because if I gave away a present without reading it I would feel like a terrible ungrateful brat. It's put me in the mood for fantasy though, so I'm going to treat myself to House of Leaves (shelf-pile) and H.P. Lovecraft (To Read pile) once I've worked through them (and the biographies of Hitler and Stalin, which I bought in a fit of history interest and then didn't read because I just didn't want to be that sad about the world). Having the luxury of reading books I don't really want to so I can get to the ones I do is a strange and wonderful one. Maybe I should never go back to academia.