A Little Yarn On The Side

*  Deciding that the sport-weight yarn you found that you just love looks "small enough" for that lace-weight project you want to make. *  Spending hours making one of your first sweaters for someone who will absolutely never wear it. *  Presenting a mother-to-be with a precious, hand-knit baby sweater in a gorgeous yarn--only to have it meet it's death in the washing machine because no one with a baby has time to hand-wash anything except the baby *  Not checking gauge "just this once" because you always get gauge and ending up with a cabled tent *  Finding yourself with bags of the ugliest yarn ever that you just bought because it was more than 50% off *  Creating the king of snarls before discovering that yarn in hanks must be wound into balls before knitting *  Giving a knitted gift to someone (usually a relative) who feels the need to actually tell you that he or she doesn't like it *  Discovering that you twisted the cable the...

So, I have one mitten.  Granted, it's one really LARGE mitten and both hands would actually fit into it, but I think it still only counts as one mitten.  I can't get excited about casting on the second mitten.  I think it's the idea of felting--or perhaps that it is 40 degrees warmer than when I started the mitten, and 40 degrees makes a HUGE difference even to someone as naturally cold as I am.  So, I have one mitten.  It wouldn't even work for a golf-club cover as A) I hate golf and B) it has that little white part for the thumb trick, and even I know that golf clubs rarely have thumbs.  I'm going to give it a week, and if I can't get motivated to make the second mitten, it's off to the frog pond for the poor thing.  Why do I never have this problem with socks?

I've been thinking about this--which probably has a lot to do with the amount of cold medicine I'm taking--but I'm thinking Santa probably isn't a knitter.  I could be wrong, of course, but look at the evidence: *  Santa has reindeer.  If Santa were a knitter, his sleigh would probably be pulled by a team of alpacas.  After all, what yarn does one ever get from reindeer? *  Santa gives toys, not sweaters.  A true knitter gives sweaters to any small children that she can, because children's sweaters are small and fun to knit, and are about the only time a knitter can try out bobbles *  Not a single part of Santa's costume is knitted.  Not to say there aren't knitters who maybe don't wear knitted gloves or sweaters or other specific knitted items, but generally a knitter will wear SOMETHING knitted, if for no other reason than having run out of other people to give them to *  If Santa were a knitter, I think he'd hand out really splitty...

You know it's a bad cold when I don't even feel like knitting. Thursday night I woke up in the middle of the night to find that the cold I thought I had gotten rid of had returned and brought friends.  When I was still working, I admit that I wouldn't have minded so much--maybe a free day to knit and watch movies, but now it's just a big bother.  I have things to do, parties to attend--I even missed Finishing Friday!  Why is it exactly that we can't cure the common cold? 

So my goals for the year were to use up 150 yards of material & 150 skeins of yarn, and while I am nowhere NEAR being close to either one, I realized that I was really close to using up more fabric than I did last year, so yesterday--taking a break from the holiday party marathon--I rounded up and finished this which looks a bit like a circus tent, to be honest.  I really REALLY thought the material was nice & light and drapey until I tried this on....which incidentally left me with an odd craving for salted peanuts in the shell..... BUT Andy likes it, so I can wear it around the house, which is fine.  I used up 3 yards of material on it, so one more project finished should put me over the 75 yard mark--leaving me halfway to my goal and at least better than last year.  We've reached the "grasping at straws" part of my goals.... I think I'm going to try felting the mittens--largely because it would involve knitting 1 mitten and not 2, but we're enjoyi...

So, the mitered mitten pattern calls for a gauge of 4.5 stitches/inch, and knowing that I usually get 5 stitches per inch with worsted weights & size 7 needles, I opted to try size 8 needles.  I knit a little swatch, got out my ruler, found that I had just knit 4 stitches per inch, and said to myself, "Oh good, it will be just a little snug." ???????????????????????????????????? What happened???  A week ago I swear I could do basic math & count and everything.  We get arctic temperatures and I start talking about knitting pastries & think that somehow 4 stitches per inch is smaller than 4.5 stitches per inch. I hadn't realized that when people mention a "cold snap" that it referred to what happens to the brain when it gets cold.  I'm going to take my monster-sized mitten and go relearn the alphabet while hoping for spring......

Well, she was.  I'm doing her mitered mitten pattern and you know what that little bit of white is?  It's her "thumb trick."  When you get to where you want the thumb, you take a scrap piece of yarn and knit 1/2 the number of thumb stitches with the scrap yarn, then put those stitches back onto your left needle and knit them with the main color.  When you're ready for the thumb, pull out that scrap yarn & you have the live stitches to pick up for the thumb.  NO CUTTING INVOLVED!  I have survived steeks and will eventually steek again, but it's hard to voluntarily cut one's knitting.  It's just wrong and while I know EZ would never tell me to do something that wouldn't work, let's face it--the woman was tougher than I am.  She seems to have faced steeks undaunted.  I, on the other hand, am completely daunted.  I have spent a large part of my life trying to make sure that my knitting and sharp objects never get a chance to meet, and ...