The Land of Unintended Consequences

I have a whole conceptual category of things that "you couldn't do if you tried". Like hooking your coat on the doorknob on the way out of the house and having your hat fall into the dog's water bowl as a result. I don't know about anyone else, but I excel at these things.
The other day, I was playing with Jules in the backyard. I was multi-tasking, (a not untypical exercise and possibly one of the reasons that my actions often have "unintended consequences") by carrying a bucket of water out to Maggie the Mexican pony, but pausing along the way to chuck an ice lump or two for Jules to chase. Somehow I managed to hit the one remaining plant that I have growing in an elevated container. (If I had tried to take aim and hit it, I most certainly would have missed it.) As a result, I managed to have one section of the plant fall off and land on the snow. This, I realized in split second decision mode, was a tragedy waiting to happen as Jules would no doubt be all over that plant section and have it in his mouth in a flash. So I swooped down and grabbed that plant section up. The punchline here is that the plant in question was a prickly pear cactus. This would have been terrible for Jules' mouth but instead my entire mitten and hand were immediately pierced by fifty or so very sharp quills.

I like prickly pear cactus (Opuntia). They are native (who knew?) and look like Mickey Mouse when young, having upright rounded ears. They look dead and deflated like shriveled balloons all winter and then inflate and revive come spring. They also surprise you by flowering . I really like quite a few nasty prickly plants. I like Eryngium and yucca and milk thistle. (I don't like holly or barberry so go figure.) Bob thinks I'm nuts; he points out that I have what he calls "watery skin" that it is easily pierced and so it's ultra counter intuitive that I like spiky plants. But I think they're interesting. A few years back, I did a Southwest themed window box. I planted the whole thing with little cacti and arranged rocks and a fake rattlesnake in it. Very effective and low maintenance. Once every week or so, I'd hose it down briefly simulating a sudden desert down pour. But planting it was dangerous as I wound up with quite a few thorns in my wrists (I wore leather gloves).
I finally got all the thorns out of my hand, but does anyone have any clever ideas for removing cactus spines from knitwear? Please forward to me if you do. I already lost one glove from another pair and am lucky that the winter may soon (hopefully) be at an end as my other two pairs now have holes in them.
(The above picture really has little to do with this post. But I guess it was yet another "unintended consequence". Bob used the snow blower to remove the snow in two grand avenues out to the barn and his studio. But then it refroze as double rivers of ice and made for treacherous footing. But huzzah! The ice has now departed and there is actual grass showing!)