I Cannot Find My Fingerless Gloves

 

Finally it got cold enough to snow.  We had forgotten snow. Soft, white flakes fell all morning, and blanketed the ice we'd slipped on yesterday.   And, oh joy, there's not too much snow.  We're not snowbound; we're only cold-bound.The temperature is 3 degrees.  Definitely very cold.

It is also cold inside.  And I cannot find my fingerless gloves.

     

Bob Cratchit with fingerless gloves in "A Christmas Carol" (2019)

 

 Fingerless gloves were not in my childhood repertoire.  My mother kept our "modern" ranch house warm and cozy:  it was energy-efficient. It wasn't till we moved into an old house that we felt the cold indoors.  Those who live in old houses will empathize.

I first noticed fingerless gloves in a film adaptation of A Christmas Carol. It doesn't matter which film version:  Bob Cratchit is always perched on a stool in the office wearing fingerless gloves.  One gathers that Scrooge doesn't feel the cold. But those of us with beating hearts do feel the cold, and we adopt the Dickensian costume. 

Finally I ordered a pair from Urban Outfitters. The catalogue models wore the gloves OUTSIDE in the snow.  (They'd get frostbite here.)  I like the look of these fingerless gloves, green wool with a Fair Isle pattern.  But the wool is scratchy, so I wear them rarely, on very cold days like this.

I searched for them in the socks-miscellaneous drawer.   It was a daunting task.  Not only is this a repository of currently worn socks, but of ancient threadbare Miss Havisham camisoles, old snapshots, powder compacts, a pair of cat earrings, and is that my passport?

No fingerless gloves!

      

If only I were the seamstress Little Dorrit!  I would make my own fingerless gloves.   But I cannot improvise and cut the fingers off my winter gloves, because they are made of indestructible man-made fabric.
 

I must end this post abruptly, because I need to add a muffler to my ensemble. Happy New Year! 

Kat