Total Mitten Mayhem!

For the past month, month-and-a-half, I have knit nothing but mittens.

It started with this scrumptious Cherry Red String Theory sock yarn. It was just too pretty to use for socks. I wanted a Public View Accessory (PVA) . I don't wear scarves--despite knitting, like, four of them last year--so it had to be mittens. Well, it could have been gloves, but I'm a mitten girl.

I started with a cabled cuff and winged it from there. First I tried traveling cables diagonally across the mitten top, but my hands are quite small so I only got the cables halfway across the mitten top before I had to cast off. Did I let that deter me? Nope, I tried it AGAIN, starting just above the thumb, but still only got 3/4 of the way across the mitten before cast off. (Both these attempts were immediately frogged without photos, which I regret now, because they looked really silly).

So I went back to the base of the thumb and started anew. This time, I decided to send a 1/1 twist up the sides of the thumb, all the way to the top. It looked okay, so I kept it:

I liked the yarn so much I ran out and bought more, determined to have a green pair of fingerless mitts. I had made a pair of fingerless mitts last year with a cable motif at the top. The yarn was scratchy and hard and the cable motif was too tight, so they needed a redo:




These have exactly the woodland nymph look I wanted. They are the most satisfactory thing I've knit in a long time. The idea in my head made it to the finished object for once.








Then, my tennis buddy got me reading the Twilight books, because she is a total Twihard. So over Thanksgiving, I read Twilight books and knit two pairs of Bella's mittens for her for a gift. Then I liked them so much I knit myself a pair. Mine are the hot pink ones.







But wait, there's more! Hooked on the String Theory PVAs, I decided to knit my aunt a pair of mittens for Christmas. I wasn't completely happy with the 1/1 cable up the side of the red mitten, so I tweaked it a bit, crossing it again above the thumb and decreasing to one cable at the top.



The blue will go nicely with grey hair, no?

Thankful Thursday, a week late

I was out of town last week and missed the real Thankful Thursday. I know Thanksgiving is all about family, friends and food, but I have to admit last week I was thankful we didn't have family and friends -- with us, at least! My husband and I had a relaxing, fun Thanksgiving by ourselves on our first vacation alone together since March 2007. And I was thankful for excellent food, as we went out for Thanksgiving dinner and I didn't have to cook and clean. The weather sort of obliged us by being relentlessly crappy and giving us an excuse to curl up by the fire and stay in and chill. I read two "Twilight" books and knit a pair of gift mittens, all in 4 days.

I have been on a mitten kick lately and have much to show for my efforts. Maybe next Thursday will be Mitten Thursday.

Thankful Thursday

I know this is going to sound very shallow and materialistic, but I am thankful for

1) money. My hubby and I are both employed, can pay the bills, and can buy extras without stress. I see a lot of people who are struggling to pay the bills, getting laid off, or having their work hours reduced. I am literally grateful every day that we are not in that situation. (yet).

2) not being materialistic. One of the reasons we can pay our bills is that we don't tend to buy a lot of stuff. Even close members of my family consider me cheap, but I don't like shopping, and I don't buy things unless I really want them. I live in a town where there's a lot of pressure to have the right accessories. People will fall behind on their bills, but buy a new car so no one suspects. I am doing billing today at work and I am staggered by the number of overdue notices I have to send out. It's at an all-time high. One of those customers just bought a new car. Another just bought a boat. I am very grateful that I just don't care what people think.

3) That said, I am thankful for the few things I have bought this year--like a sailboat--that have brought me hours of joy. And I'm thankful to the people who twisted my arm into making the purchase.

And now, I'm off to buy sock yarn. And I'm thankful for that, too.

Thankful Thursdays--the Experimental Spinning Edition

This past summer, the Knitigator VERY generously awarded me a great big honking ball of Crown Mountain pencil roving, colorway Autumn. Isn't it gorgeous?

I immediately decided that such a fine autumnal colorway had to become mittens, to make me feel a little better about the end of summer.

I was spinning this at Spinning Group last week when Carole --after guessing the roving's creator correctly--asked me if I was going to leave it as singles. I had been giving the plying issue some thought--the color changes so quickly that Navajo plying would not accomplish much, and I was concerned that if I double-plied it, the resulting yarn would be muddy. Sharon suggested plying it with another yarn, a solid. Carole suggested white, and I thought maybe brown.

But then the next day I remembered I had two skeins of Lamb Pride in Navy Sailor just sitting around my house gathering dust! Lamb's Pride is a worsted-weight singles yarn that I decided would be perfect for plying, and blue is a complement to orange, so I thought it was worth a try.

Only the first skein I made, the blue bled the orange (not, Paul Simon, "the orange bled the blue") and dulled down all the brights. So for the next skein I pre-soaked the navy. Here are the two skeins next to each other:

The first skein is on the left, the second on the right. When I see them next to each other like that, I'm not sure the presoak is worth the bother.

Swatch? I don't need no stinking swatch. I went straight to mitten:


I am very pleased with the yarn, but I have run out of navy blue Lamb's Pride. So I think the next bobbin will be plied with something lighter, like white or tan, to see how that comes out. Or I might try plying it against itself. So many choices, I just don't know what to do next!

So, thankfulness:
1) Thanks, Kathy! for the fabulous roving.
2) Thanks, Carole and Sharon, for helping me decide how to ply it.

And since I am actually writing this on Veteran's Day, for posting on Thursday,
3) Most importantly, thank to all our Veterans, past and present.

Thankful Thursdays

So Carole convinced me to join in her “Thankful Thursdays.” Unfortunately, however, I am very cranky today and frankly, not feeling that thankful. I feel more like Godzilla; I would like to roar and stomp on a village. Only if I were Godzilla, I wouldn’t trample indiscriminately. I would spread my toes r e a l l y w i d e and selectively stomp on the homes of people who annoy me. I’m making a list in my head right now. Two of the houses are right next door to each other. Two birds, one toe!

So, here’s my cranky list of things I am thankful for, not in any particular order:

1. Horror movies. Horror movies put everything into perspective. Sure, you had a bad day, no one’s disputing that. But zombies didn’t chase you into an abandoned farmhouse. Birds didn’t peck out your eyes. And some freaky creep with foot-long razor sharp fingernails didn’t kill your friends for real in your dreams. See? Things could be so much worse.

2. Beer. When you’ve had a bad day, nothing tastes as good as a nice cold beer. Or wine, if you’re so inclined. As far as I’m concerned, any song about a blue moon is an Ode to a Great Beer. I’m already dreaming about my end-of-the-day Blue Moon, and it’s only 9:30 am.

3. My dog. Because how can you stay mad when this face looks up at you?

P.S. I promise to be sincere and gracious and thankful next week. But you just can't be in a good mood all the time. Know what I mean?

A Spinning Question

Back in the early '90s, the J Crew catalog went through a period of ridiculous color names. For instance, one of the shirts I bought, of a pale blue-grey color, was called "ozone." So in my head, this is the ozone yarn. Except it isn't quite "ozone" enough--the colors are more vivid than pale and opalescent. And the yardage is about 500 yards shy of the yardage I need.

I recently read Deb Menz''s "Color in Spinning." At the very end, she discusses plying your handspun with other colors rather than with itself. I liked the samples she gave and have decided I would very much like to ply this with a white single, to lighten the colors and gain yardage. Wouldn't that be pretty?

But I've already plied it against itself! How can I unply it and re-ply? Will it be a complete disaster of lost twist? Spinners, please help!

Oh! I forgot!

I have an Eye Candy Friday:

An Avian Mystery

The week before before Memorial Day, I looked out my kitchen window and saw a robin's nest. She had picked the worst possible location for her nest--opposite my kitchen window (where every time I used the sink I frightened her) and in an overgrown Carolina Silverbell right next to the door we use.
We tried to remember not to use that door, to use the back slider instead, but often forgot. Every time we opened the door, she would fly off in a great rustle and flurry.She had three eggs. She had no baby daddy and frequently had to leave the nest to eat.Two days ago I realized I hadn't seen her in about 12 hours and went to check the nest. It was empty. No eggs, no babies, no cracked egg pieces on the ground around the nest.
I told my husband I was afraid another bird, or a critter, had stolen our robin's eggs and he hopefully suggested that maybe she had flown them off to a safer, calmer nest.

Is that possible?