After my post regarding tools, I talked to the nice folks at Ethel Gloves, and they would like to give one lucky reader a pair of their beautifully crafted gloves (a value of $20). The winner even gets to choose the color. Personally, I like Jubilee shown above, but that’s because I’m a blue girl.
I enjoy the Ethels I received at the Chicago Garden Bloggers Spring Fling very much. They aren’t for pruning roses (for that I would need the rose gloves), but with their great fit and elastic around the wrist, I use them for everything else. In other words, I get them very dirty and throw them in the washer. Out they come, sparkling clean and ready for work again.
So, put on your thinking caps. Tell me your best glove story. Did they save you from needing a manicure, or did they keep your fingers from being stung?
If you don’t have a glove wearing story, then tell me of a time when you should have worn them? That might be even more interesting.
The Rules:
- Contest ends Tuesday, March 16 at Midnight CST.
- You can enter once, and if you tweet or facebook your entry, you get double points. Include the link in a separate comment so I know.
- Make sure you give me your name and a valid email address in the comment form. If you win, it’s the only way I can reach you.
- The winner will be announced on Friday, March 19, 2010.
- I will then contact Ethel Gloves with the winner’s information. Ethel will give the winner a specific code for her gloves. This contest is open to persons in the United States.
For those who didn’t win, Ethel Gloves is giving a ten percent off coupon starting Wednesday, March 17, 2010 and ending on Tuesday, March 23, 2010. Just plug RDR10 at their website, and you’ll get 10% off.
Sounds like a deal to me.
A time I should have worn gloves was when I was washing an extra large batch of dishes and my fingers got extra wrinkly.
I should have worn gloves when I went cucumber picking. They can be a bit prickly!
I should have worn them when I picked roses.
I was cleaning brush ou of my flower bed. I picked up a handful of straw. I felt something move in my hand. It was a snake. I/m glad I was wearing gloves.
The time I’m really glad I was wearing gloves was when I started a new garden and evidently the plot was previously used as a dump. You wouldn’t believe what was buried out there. I found some pretty cool stuff too like an old glass medicine bottle! But mostly I found a lot of old broken glass shards!! Yikes!
I really wish I had a pair last year when I was planting my herbs. I had dirt impacted under my nails for at least a day.
I would love to win these for my mother who loves gardening!
smatos04@hotmail.com
My husband has always thought I was a “Lucy”, so guess I should wear “Ethel”gloves!
Last year was my first year growing roses. By the end of the year I went through at least 20 dollars worth of cheep gloves. I would love to see what a good pair can stand up to
Gloves have definitely saved me from poison ivy multiple times – that probably would be a better story if I hadn’t been wearing gloves.
We just bought our first home. I am eager to dig into the garden, and this would be a great start. Thanks for the chance.
mogrill@comcast.net
My best glove story is a ‘non-glove’ story where, in a rush to tidy/deadhead my daylilies, I pruned the tip off my left index finger that now looks like a pencil. Warning: always wear gloves! (these gloves look perfect)
.-= joey´s last blog ..‘GOOD HEALTH, GOOD LUCK, AND HAPPINESS’ ~ IRISH WHISKEY SOAKED DARK CHOCOLATE CAKE / MURPHY’S IRISH COFFEE =-.
I just started gardening last year, so I’ve not had a lot of experiences with gloves. However, the one that springs to mind is weeding nettles from a stubborn patch, and they kept pricking my fingers despite the gloves. I guess they weren’t thick enough! I groan when I see them starting to pop up in the corner of the long planter. Hate nettles.
soluckyducky at gmail dot com
I just put on my old gloves tonight and they just didn’t do the trick – the elastic around the wrist is a great idea!
After a bad storm I decided to pick up all the downed branches and sticks with my bare hands. One particular tree’s branches gave me enough splinters and stings that I never do that anymore without gloves.
Must say I’ve never worn ETHEL gloves, but they sound amazingly comfortable! I always wear gloves for my “yard therapy”. I began gardening about 30 years ago and wearing gloves that fit like your skin make the experience much more pleasurable. Just found your blog tonight—-you go, girl!
Many many yrs ago when I was a teen I used to wear these gloves that had the knuckles out on them to drive my Chevelle, I know pretty lame but it was fun back then
Anytime I do dishes, my hands are that sensitive!
All too ofter, I forget to wear gloves in the garden. I always regret it when it’s time to clean under my fingernails. Thanks
I should have worn gloves last spring while trimming the trees. I was using Fat Max to cut off a limb when my hand slipped and I sawed acrossed the knuckles of my right hand. Very painful and very hard to explain to hubby…
I admit, I don’t really have a glove story- nor do I have pretty nails to protect! But I do love Ethel Gloves- mainly because when the rest of me is filthy and grimy from working in the garden, at least my hands look fashionable! And I love that I can toss them in the washing machine!
Dee, I retweeted, so here’s my second entry. Robin
.-= Robin at Getting Grounded´s last blog ..Garden Bloggers Bloom Day March 2010 =-.
Dee, I could use some great gloves like that! Thanks.
.-= Robin at Getting Grounded´s last blog ..Garden Bloggers Bloom Day March 2010 =-.
Hi Dee, those are really nice gloves. They look like they cover the wrist a little better than some gloves do.
As soon as things dry up a bit outside, I need to start picking up sticks. Gloves are a must, otherwise the fingers will be full of splinters.
Marnie
I was doing some gardening and after digging and patting around in soil I pulled my hand up to find thousands of tiny antlike bugs crawling all over it >.<. terrible terrible thingss
Tweet: http://twitter.com/AsTheNight/status/10522472320.
Last year, I started gardening and I admit that I did a lot of gardening in ignorance.
I did, however, usually wear gloves.
I discovered some vines that suddenly sprouted in my front garden. I pulled on my gloves and pulled them up, discovering more and more as I went along.
Later that night, my arms started itching.
Poison ivy.
Fortunately, I had it only on my forarms – my gloves saved my hands that day.
With a woodsy yard, I have frequent encounters with poison ivy. I pay the price if I garden gloveless.
For me they’re one of my essential pieces of SNAKE protection in the badlands! And p.s. I have two pairs with holes right now, so am in need 🙂
BTW you didn’t persuade me on the balls!
.-= Brit’ Gal Sarah´s last blog ..Not on my plate thanks! =-.
thanks, always looking for quality gloves
I am a new gardener and am just beginning to figure out weeding, planting, feeding, etc. My mom and dad were never big gardeners, so I’m starting from scratch. I was just out in the yard and have a huge planter (left behind by the former homeowner) filled with different (dead) grasses and went to yank some out without gloves. I got a small, very long, very painful thorn stuck in my thumb. Who knew grasses had thorns?
I would love some of those beautiful gloves. I’m new to your site but cannot wait to learn all things gardening. I live in southeast Texas, and it is a very different climate for growing plants.
.-= jenn ravey´s last blog ..Weeds – no, not the TV show. =-.
I don’t want to win for me, I want to win for my mom. I have Ethel gloves and I LOVE them. But a long time ago, before there were Ethel gloves, I had a thick pair of suede gloves by another manufacturer. I wore them, one Mother’s Day weekend when my wits totally deserted me and I began building a dry stacked stone wall. Since the pallet of stone had been delivered to the FRONT yard, I stacked stone in the wheelbarrow and trundled them to the back. Over and over until I got them all there. Thank goodness for the heavy suede gloves. Then I began to “build” the wall. Had I ever built a wall before? No. Did I know HOW to build a wall? No. I did know to get the base level (but somehow I didn’t know about gravel and sand), so I dug a trench and got busy. The stone I was using was beautiful red sandstone, but it wasn’t very flat. I had to use a mallet and chisel to “adjust” it to make the wall stable. The wall had a curve almost immediately after the beginning, so it was even more of a challenge – it was a pretty tight curve. So all Mother’s Day weekend, I worked on that wall. I sorted stone, I “adjusted” stone, I stacked stone. And on Sunday about 4 pm, I admitted defeat. What I didn’t realize at the time was that I’d worn clean through the thumbs and one finger of the gloves, and they’d been new when I started. No wonder my hands were sore! An expert finished up the wall for me, but even years later, I thought my part looked better than his. And I didn’t have any wobbly toppers.
.-= Kim´s last blog ..Four Favorite Plants =-.
The first time I collected black walnuts I did not wear gloves. My hands were so stained and it took forever to wear off. I now wear gloves every year when I collect them
No Fair. I don’t Tweet and my face would ruin any book it was in. If I said I wanted a pair so my wife could have hands as lovely as yours do I get any extra points?
I hate to think how many pairs of gloves I go through in a season. Working sandstone is incredibly brutal on the best of gloves. I do like the snug fit of synthetic gloves but they don’t hold up as long as a good leather glove. It would be interesting to see how those gloves would hold up compared to others costing about the same. But I have a feeling it would be a waste if the gloves went to me so chose someone who can appreciate them.
.-= wiseacre´s last blog ..Fire Moss & Ice =-.
I love these gloves, they are comfortable. One evening, I put away my garden tools and come in the house before I realized I was still wearing the Ethal gloves.
I really needed them when I was attempting to pull blackberry vines. I tried wrapping a towel around the vine to pull it but the thorns went right through.
I could use those gloves to go to the farmer’s market so I support my local farmers! I would look a little like Audrey Hepburn in those cute things!! 🙂
Sorry Dee, I couldn’t resist after our conversation about the reel mower loss today.
I used to do a lot of weeding by hand, bare handed! My hands and fingers definitely showed the results of this. For the last few years, I’ve finally started wearing gloves – what an improvement in the looks of my hands!
I love to work out in my flowers, I have gone through so many pairs of gloves. One time in early spring I was getting the leaves out from under my rose bush and I didn’t take the time to put on my gloves and boy did I get my hands scratched up, that was a good lesson and I always wear my gloves now.
I have a special pair of gardening gloves given to me by my late and wonderful mother-in-law. I only use them when I work in my flowers (and not in the vegetable garden) because she loved flowers so much. When I wear them, I feel as if she’s there, enjoying the beauty of the garden with me!
My good glove story? I need to find a friend who is right handed, so we can swap off missing gloves. I have many righthanded gloves, having taken off the lefthanded one to do something finicky, and then left it behind, and forgotten where it was, and it blew away in the wind, or the cats took it and hid it, or the goutweed swallowed it…and I’m sure there’s a right handed gardener near me with the same story. We could pair up; they might not match exactly, but we’d have a few extra left/right hand gloves to lose the same way. Yes?
.-= jodi (bloomingwriter)´s last blog ..Breaking News! Galanthus spotted in Scotts Bay snowyard! =-.
Love those gloves! I am like you, a blue girl. Wish it was as nice a day as last Saturday, and I would be out in my garden with my old gloves with a fingertip out! Thanks!!!
I wear gloves for tending our blackberry bushes- the fruit is delicious, but mother nature won’t give them up easily- very thorny.
I should have worn gloves when pruning our barberry bushes – they give off the most painful tiny thorns.
I just love not having to scrub my nails after gardening.
SOMETIMES I WEAR GLOVES WHEN I AM GARDENING (WHEN I CAN FIND A PAIR) BUT WHEN I DON’T WEAR GLOVES IT IS A REALLY HARD JOB GETTING THE DIRT FROM UNDER MY FINGERNAILS AND MY HANDS HAVE TO REALLY BE SCRUBBED
My gardening gloves saved my right index finger from being puncture by a very big thorn on a rose bush! And it was the first time I wore my gloves! lol!
My soon to be ex mother knew I loved getting plants from other people for my garden. She said she had a cutting of a beautiful rose for me. (with a smirk on her face). It is the most invasive worst rose I have ever dealt with. It has thorns like razors, sends shoots up everywhere. I can’t get rid of it. If I didn’t have gloves on, there wouldn’t be any skin left on my hands.
DebP
twoofakind12@yahoo.com
Quite often when I step outside to check something out, I will notice a few weeds and not take the time to get my gloves. Instead, I just pull the weeds with my hands. I inevitably end up with ground in dirt on my fingers and under my nails that won’t go away for days. Yuck.
My glove story is sad, but, true. I bought them last summer. They were pink and part of the money I paid went to Breast Cancer Research. I used them from June until December while helping build a house for Habitat for Humanity. They were dirty and tired but made it through. I gave them a two month rest. Last weekend
I called upon them for help again. I needed to get all my gardens ready for spring. They raked, pulled weeds, and bagged. At the end of the day, I looked at them and I saw fingertips, not the gloves, mine. My poor gloves finally gave up the fight.
I always start gardening with gloves but the big, tacky ones I have always end up off my hands and then I’m down and dirty in the garden soil. My hands show it too so these new gloves would be just great.
hello well i love to garden and my gloves are good and worn out so i would so love a new pair thanks liz
The first year I had my dobie he thought the gloves were the
bad guys or something he such reached up and took them off of me.
I always start messing with my roses before I put on gloves and always…always regret it. Really gloves just save me from the overall itchiness that I always have to deal with after working with any of my plants outside.
.-= Kristy DeRoin´s last blog ..Practice Makes Perfect =-.
Just in time for spring planting, I could really use some new gloves!
I hate dirt under my fingernails. I need new gloves really bad. These are so pretty too just like my flowers.
Dee, I just discovered another use for Ethel gloves–they make excellent bicycle gloves. The fabric in the palms gives great cushioning without restricting precision movements–I can still dial the gears just fine, and I can even use the air pump for the tires with the gloves on. They reduce vibration on my hands and keep my left pinky finger from going numb, which happens without gloves. In fact, I prefer them to made-for-bicycling gloves, esp. in cooler weather!
.-= Monica the Garden Faerie´s last blog ..Seed GROW Project: Winter Sowing Nasturtiums =-.
I tweeted the giveaway! Jeannie
Hi Dee. I am only a recent convert to gardening with gloves, so am on the lookout for ones that allow me the same ease as naked hands without the distress on gritty fingernails and dry skin. So, I’d like to be entered in the giveaway. yea.
.-= Jeannie in Sacramento´s last blog ..Sacramento Valley Gardening Events =-.
they kept me from needing a manicure . i love to dig potatoes with these gloves i won’t ruin my nails mverno@roadrunner.com
This would be amazing!
I haven’t worn them but should have when helping mom pick the veggies in the garden.
I tweeted: http://twitter.com/kathyluman/status/10392620544 (@kathyluman)
Shared on Facebook (Kathy Luman) http://www.facebook.com/#!/kathyluman?v=feed&story_fbid=394007030711&ref=mf
I love Ethel goves because of the way fit and the protection they give me when Pruning sticker bushes.
I love those Ethel gloves. Until I tried them, most gardening gloves remained on my hands for all of 5 minutes. They were just in the way, so I had to pull them off to actually garden. For some reason, the way the Ethel gloves fit is just better, so they remain on!
.-= Carol, May Dreams Gardens´s last blog ..The Irises Waltz In =-.
Hello! I SHOULD have worn gloves when I tripped over the garden hose and tried to catch myself from falling and grabbed hold of the 6 foot Serius Cactus. OUCH! These gloves are beautiful.
o yes–and I DO have chickens !! and for the garden weeding and the pruning please
thanks for the opp
my gloves are actually the pits, I have had them so long that they always force more dirt into my nails and they have started to shred for the most part as well as the grippy stuff is wearing off, they wouldn’t save me from anything.
I don’t have a glove story per say to tell. I do rely on gloves. They make me feel like Wonder Woman. I do believe I can do more work when I wear my gloves. My hands don’t get tired as quick as when I don’t wear gloves.
facebooked and tweeted!
and Plurked!
.-= Nancy France´s last blog ..Tight =-.
I love love love the Ethel gloves I got at Spring Fling.. I even wore mine on Television!
.-= Nancy France´s last blog ..Tight =-.
Those look comfy!
If I’m not a winner of such great looking gloves, I hope it will be someone who doesn’t wear gloves now and will start with these to protect their hands.
.-= Nell Jean´s last blog ..Step Up to a Show of Daffodils =-.
Last spring, I was weeding the flower bed by the house, when baby bunnies started pouring out of their rabbit hole I had stumbled upon. Sure wish I had worn gloves when I was scrambling to catch & corral 8 tiny fur bundles and stuff them back into that tiny hole!!
I’m the one who never wears glows and then I have to spend tons of time scrubbing underneath the nails. I’m learning though and will be getting some this year.
Oh how I would feed those chickens with such loverly gloverlies!
.-= Cyndy´s last blog ..Two-a-Days =-.
I would love to win these gloves, not for me but for my mom! She is an avid gardener and she never uses gloves… her nails are always dirty and hands cracked and scratched up. It would be a great surprise and these are super cute too!
I wish I had pictures of my hands after I work in the garden without gloves – knuckles covered in scratches, blisters forming – they would be worth a thousand word story!
They are gorgeous gloves!!
.-= Stevie´s last blog ..The Aliens Have Bloomed: Euphorbia =-.
I love to look at “sticky” plants, but hate to touch them. Besides the allergic reaction, I’m not into pain. Gloves help me have the plants I enjoy. Love Jubilee design too!
I don’t know if I have any good glove stories, but I do appreciate a good set of gardening gloves. I’ve been wearing an inexpensive set for the past few years, and it’s probably about time to get a new pair. These gloves are adorable!
I love the Ethel Gloves from spring fling, too. I wore those when pruning the wisteria that I posted about in Feb., atop an 8-ft ladder, with my body up and above the trellis. Though my hands got wet because of the snow, they didn’t get too cold and it was easy to move my fingers and use the pruners.
Love these gloves!