When knitting projects attack

My knitting turned on me this morning. My mild-mannered fingerless glove suddenly resembled an enraged sea urchin out for blood. What caused this disturbing transformation? Variegated yarn.

I have a long and painful knitting history with variegated yarn. It looks so pretty in a skein, but then it knits up into stripes. Stripes! I could make stripes by simply trying multiple pieces of yarn together. It disappoints me again and again... but I keep coming back for more.

I bought the yarn for this current project in Copenhagen last year. It's all greens and blues, so I forgive it for making stripes. It used its calming colors to lull me into a false sense of security so it could strike when I least expected it.

Today, it added a new dastardly trick to its arsenal of knitting woe - provoking seven needles with live stitches in a moving car.

It all started because I wanted the thumb of my glove to be the same color as the body. I couldn't knit it in after the body of the glove was finished because a color change was coming up, so I had no choice but to try to knit it in before casting off at the top - which resulted in four needles around the finger opening, plus three for the thumb.

The good news is the gloves are done and I love them. Take that, variegated yarn!