Finished

First of the pair of clown mittens is finished. Whoot!


It has to be said that, the pattern by Kristin Nicholas could not have been more clear. It was simple. I did adjust the position of the thumb, however, by knitting several rows after the ribbing before starting the thumb gusset.

Mind you, the term: "clown mitten" is all me. Not at all to do with Kristin. Kristin has a gift. A gift that was not given to me. During this project I discovered in myself, that I am a bit afraid of color. I did not think I was one of those people, but apparently, I am. Now that I am aware, I can begin the 10 steps to self discovery and work my way out of the darkness of matchy-matchy.

The second of the pair is on the needles and nearly half of the corrugated rib is complete. I decided I better cast on right away or I may have a "second mitten syndrome." Particularly since I am accustomed to knitting and finishing two mittens at once.

The colors, incidentally, are not appearing very well (at least on my monitor) the palm/thumb part is fuchia and pretty bright-grass green. (It appears to be mint and pink to me). The rib is turquoise and red and the other dark rows are navy not black.

Clown mitten

Dear Husband and the Boys picked up the book I have been wanting for a few months. For the first several days, I just read it and looked at the pretty color combinations. Then I found myself thinking about what yarn I have in the stash that I could make a colorful pair of mittens. The pattern I am following is, "Olivia's Mittens" and while it is not difficult Fair Isle, it does have a bit of it going on in the cuffs. Kristin calls it, "corrugated rib." Pretty simple stuff really.

The stash digging resulted in these:


A part of me likes this first attempt a knitting mittens in the round (all the mittens I have knit were on straights and I could do both mittens at the same time, which I find handy when you want them to be the same exact size). Incidentally, the use of the word, "handy" was an intended pun. Back to the clown mitten:


Tell me what you think.

I somehow escaped it

While I have had a runny/stuffy nose, I have escaped the plague that has gone through our little home. Whew.

The Boys and I are off today observing President's Day. I have this book on hold at Barnes and Noble for the next few days. I had hoped to go out there today (the closest B&N store is 35 miles north) but the roads are looking a bit slick and probably not worth the trip. Possibly tomorrow would workout. It's knitting night tomorrow and I might just have to take a detour.

I have been wanting this book for about three months now. And now that I am in this KAL, I probably should actually get going on something of Kristin's! While I do not have any project specifically in mind, I have some stash that keeps swirling around in my head as possibilities. She designs some cute mittens and fingerless mitts, and since I love mittens, I'm thinking that might be the first project. I have never made mittens on double points (gasp!...I know many of you have never made them on straights, but I find making both at the same time wonderful. It's like doing a little magic trick.)

Since I have a sneaking suspicion that Kristin's mittens will be double point jobbies, I will have to buck up and get'er done.

The One-Piece Baby Kimono for the co-worker is knitted. Now the 5,000 ends will begin. I need to take a photo of it and all of those ends, but it is pretty gray outside and the pic will not be its best. Look for that picture later.

The Irish Hiking Scarf is going well. I worked on it on and off most of yesterday and have it about half done. Scarves just take SO long. I love making them, but enough is enough already! But ain't he pretty?

We share

There has been this thing going around our community for about two weeks now. First, children were getting it and passing it along in school. Then, happily bringing it home to moms and dads, who gladly took it to work to share. We have had people out for days at work. Bronchitis, and strangely enough, pneumonia have been fairly common terms.

On a personal level, the Boys had the stuff last weekend (over a week ago) and the beginning of last week. Dear Husband started his share at the end of last week. It was ironic that the Boys didn't have school yesterday, but DH would not have gone to work anyway. He didn't go today. Dear Husband rarely misses work.

Today we received word that yet another co-worker is out and will be for the remainder of the week. Late this afternoon, the plague has had its way with me. I've got it. I am tired. My glands are actually hurting (rarely does this happen to me) and my nose is running like Wilma Rudolph. I'm going downhill fast.

I cannot miss work. See above. I am said co-worker's back up for a major portion of her job functions.

Airborne here I come.

Count me in

The latest knit along. It's going to be beautiful.

5,000 ends

The one-piece baby kimono from this book, which has been on my needles for coming on three weeks, is full of blue stripey goodness; and. about. five. thousand. ends. to weave in. A more accurate number might be 55 so far (still have the second shoulder/front to finish), but to a person who hates ends, 55 does, in fact, equal 5,000.

This would be a good time for an end-weaving fairy to enter my life. Come on. There is a tooth fairy, why can't there be a end-weaving fairy? I mean, how productive is a tooth fairy anyway? All he/she does is fly in and grab a tooth that has already fallen out. The freed tooth is usually quick to find, the fairy drops some change and then flies out. Big deal. It's not like the damn fairy had to work much. I say we need dish washing fairies, laundry fairies, lawn mowing fairies and an end-weaving fairy.