I first knit for my husband 10 years ago. I was a senior in college and just getting back into knitting, so over my winter break I knit him a scarf. A gray ribbed scarf with some Wool-ease, with an awful attempt at some fair isle that really should have been intarsia (a technique I still don't know how to do). He still wears that scarf. It's dirty and nasty and once a year I have to sneak it away from him to wash it in secret. I've knit other scarves for him, which he wears, but somehow that old, worn, ugly scarf still makes it in the rotation. For this reason, I continue to knit for him, without hesitation.
Over the years, I often have offered to make him some fingerless mitts, to which he has always replied with a little scrunched up nose, and some kind of comment like. "I don't get those", or "that seems silly", or "they're a little feminine". So, I have never made him mitts.
About a month or so ago, a friend of his was in town for a conference. A friend, from high-school, who he has not seen in 15 years, but recently reconnected with on facebook. We all went out to dinner. It was unseasonably cold as we walked from the hotel to the restaurant and the friend, being from colder climes, had not brought a hat, thinking (rightfully so) that the south should have been warmer than it was. He was remarking about how is wife would scold him since she had knit him a hat, and was at that very moment back home knitting him a new scarf. Hub proudly say, "my wife knits too, look at this scarf". Luckily he had brought along his "dress" scarf and not that old ugly gray one. The following conversation (or something really similar) ensued, between the two old friends:
F: "Wow, your wife knits too!, Isn't that great!"
H: "Yea, she just knit me a great sweater and now I'm sad I didn't wear it to show it off"
F: "You know the best hand knit ever?"
H: "What?"
F: "Fingerless gloves, they are so wonderful, I wear them all the time when I work from home and it's winter and cold"
H: "She never knit me any of those, I didn't know they could be useful"
F: "Well, I guess you wouldn't really need them here as much as I do in Vermont, but really they're the best thing in the world, really useful, even though you wouldn't think it"
I silently shook my head and promptly forgot about it.
A few days later, we were driving to campus and hub put his thoughtful voice on and said: "You know what would be really useful, a pair of fingerless gloves, you know with half fingers to keep your hands warm, but still let you drive"
I stifled my "I told you so", and said, "Yes, I know, I wear mine all the time, see...", at which point I waved my grace mitts in front of his face.
He replied: "Maybe could you make me a pair?"
*loving eye roll* "yes dear".
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