March 23, 2005
presenting: GLITTENS
My boyfriend is a master knitter. He made me some glittens--combination mittens and gloves (featured in phoku.21 below). I think they're a marvelous invention and I wear them all the time, even though it's officially spring now (when it gets warm MAYBE I'll stop wearing them).
With no offense to fiber artists like my boyfriend, I see these glittens as a kind of machine or mechanism. Some might object, thinking that a machine or mechanism must be made out of metal or plastic, and needs to run on oil or electricity, to be considered a machine, but I find that an arbitrary definition. My glittens have moveable parts, and a kind of hinge, and are adjustable--that sounds machine-like to me. I can "turn on" the finger cover, or not, depending on the temperature.
On:
Off:
There are many things I can do now that I otherwise wouldn't be able to do when its cold. Such as reading a book (and being able to turn pages) at the metro, twisting open the top of my thermos of coffee, hold and rub clean my sunglasses (by keeping one glitten "on" and the other "off," and using the thumb to do the rubbing).
More importantly, my glittens allow me to manipulate my various media-delivery mechanisms outside, without taking off my gloves or risk losing them (always a serious risk for me). I've learned to use my iPod and my digital camera with my glittens on, and if I had a cell phone, I'm sure I would be able to manipulate that as well.
Though it should be noted (for future fiber-arts anthropologists) that I've had to re-learn some things to accomodate my glittens, because even though your fingers are free, your thumbs are not.* But isn't that true of any technology? We re-learn to accomodate it.
I have to warn the glitten wearer, however, that there are times when he/she will need to be vigilant because the glittens create some new difficulties along with all their conveniences. This is particularly true of the fellows, who will find that urinating with glittens in "off" position (with flap hanging down) may make them susceptible to besmirchment. Endorsing checks at the bank can also be a problem.
So why glittens now? Why is my boyfriend about to get filthy rich because of the glitten craze that is sure to sweep the country? I would like to assert, though it seems contradiction, that this particular example of the fiber arts will become popular exactly because we live in such a digital culture. Folks need their finger free to punch their various buttons on their various devices. So this would be an example of a traditional craft (knitting) becoming more prevalent because of, not despite, technology.
I just went to the web and Googled "glittens." Now I must warn you: don't be fooled by imitations! Mittens that separate the index finger from the other fingers are not true glittens--they are merely modified mittens. I also found a knitting blog that discusses making cashmere glittens. Ooh la-la!
But if you want personalized glittens (like mine), you should place an order with my boyfriend, through this blog (and I'm not going to say HOW my glittens are personalized. Surely I'm allowed to withhold some things from my blog).
*Another minor glitch. When my boyfriend was knitting the glittens, he originally thought the thumbs could be left uncovered (a little hood for each thumb seemed impractical), but baby it's cold out there! So he decided to cover up the thumbs. But then he found that he'd run out of green yarn, so had to improvise. The funky thumbs are my favorite part of the gloves. I told Wallace (my boyfriend) that the funky gloves could be his fashion signature.
Posted by jeb at March 23, 2005 2:24 PM | TrackBack