Rachel H. (the other Rachel H.) of the Soaring Eagles Project needs you! Mittens, socks, and slippers are needed this year. Go read about it on the Soaring Eagles blog. I have pledged to make four pairs of mittens by the deadline (December 17, 2007)
I'm one-eighth there.
A mitten for age 5-7 years. The yarn is gorgeous superwash merino in the colorway "Mermaids," from Pippi. Sweet!
Please let Rachel know if you can contribute. She is worried she will fall woefully short of her needs. Her email address is theprocrastiknitter[at]yahoo[dot]com.
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A Ravelry question: First of all, several of the more astute of you have already noticed that I f-i-n-a-l-l-y went into my Ravelry ....uh, what's the right terminology? .... account? space? .... whatever, yesterday morning and accepted 6,233 (Ok, I exaggerate slightly. It was only 62) requests to be "friends." What's that all about, anyway? We're alREADY friends. But I digress. I know that some people noticed, because I got some responses back, the most memorable, of course, being from Margene, in which she said, "About fucking time." (yes, Margene uses the F-bomb. You didn't know that, did you? Sorry for blowing your cover, Mahhhgeeeene.)
But here's my question: I have been getting quite a few hits on my blog from a conversation string in Ravelry about Pink Chibis. I went in there to see what was being said about me and my blog post about Pink Chibis, in case it was malicious gossip or something (kidding!), but there is NO WAY I'm going to read those thousand or so posts to try to find the one that links to my blog. I searched "Pink Chibi Norma" and turned up nothing. Anyone know how I can find it?
.......
Oh, and speaking of malicious gossip, you might have heard (because Margene blogged it today, she warned me) I'm going to harass those grrls in Utah next month. I'm here to confirm the rumor. Now you have it, direct from the horse's mouth, and I'm SO EXCITED I can hardly stand myself. It was a hoot yesterday. I bought the tickets and had the itinerary emailed to Margene. Within 2 minutes 30 seconds (no exaggeration), I had a full email box from Utahans asking, "Is it true?! Are you really coming?!" Ahhh, my grrls. You know how to cheer up a person, I'll tell ya that.
Why is it that I want to call it NaBloMoFo? I have a feeling we'll all be thinking that by the end of it.
We started a little informal email support group for those of us (the ones we know about) who have embarked on this posting-every-day-for-a-month insanity journey. We encourage and cajole, disparage and tease (all in good fun, of course) throughout the day. More than once I have bragged that I've already prewritten my entries for the next week. More than once I've been called an over-achiever, teacher's pet, and showoff. Pffft. They're all just jealous.
We're casting about for names for our support group. I have been thinking SuMeMoFos, wherein the "Su" part would or could be pronounced "sue" as in "sue me, MoFo," rather than the "suh" of "sup(port) me." Not sure where the MoFos comes in, but I'm emotionally attached to it anyway.
Ahhh, yes, we do have fun.
I wonder what we'll be when we actually grow up. Boring, maybe. And in that case, I don't want to grow up, thank you.
Speaking of MoFo.....
I did a deposition for this law firm a month or so ago. When the attorney handed me his business card, I'm pretty sure he didn't expect his court reporter to have the reaction I instantly had. (and yes, you can fully imagine it)
I love their web address so much I almost gave them the transcript for free. (No, I didn't. Get real.) They have hats and t-shirts, too. Now, that must be a fun place to work. Nah, I'm probably deluding myself. The fun probably ends at the web address, though that attorney was delighted at my reaction. I guess most people might not even notice it, or if they do, they're too staid to react. I know this comes as a great surprise, but: Me no staid.
Knitting. Yes, I reckon you're all wondering about the knitting. I didn't pick up a sweater this weekend, but I did do this.
Playing the role of Vanna White in this photo is the Flower Basket Shawl.
These are my favorite mittens of all time, and they're just the liners! I am especially enamored of the fine gauge, the drape, the softness, the serene beauty, and the fact that the cuffs are made from Margene's handspun birthday gift to me. (The green body of the mitten is Fortissima Socka sock yarn.) I used US 2 needles at a gauge of 8 stitches/inch.
I think they are going to be the most useful mittens I own. They're perfect for the cooler weather of fall and spring -- that time when it's a little too warm for heavy mittens, but too cold to go bare-handed (like yesterday!) -- and they will be a supah-fantastic layer for the serious deep-winter Vermont cold later in the season. Socks for your hands, as Paula says. It doesn't get any better than that. Now on to the outer mitts, which will be made of the famous Mahhhhgene handspun.
UPDATE: I should have mentioned the specs and history a little more. These mittens were inspired by a pair of mitten liners that Paula (linked above and again below in a minute) had at Rhinebeck 2006. She had not yet made the outer mitts at that time. They were sweet little things -- a grey multi cuff and black palms. I think, much to the sadness of us all, she lost that pair! (I promise I did not steal them.) She later designed a set of inner- and outer mitts made of Trekking yarn. They are AWESOME. A thing that Vermonters and Canadians know is two thin layers is better for warmth than one thick layer. In the end, when I started my mittens I was traveling and did not have my printed-out Hired Hands pattern with me, so I used my Ann Budd "The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns" for my liner mitten pattern. I used US 2 needles and cast on 60 stitches for the cuff. I got a gauge of 8 stitches to the inch, so I followed the Ann Budd generic mitten pattern for that gauge and women's small size (Ann's patterns run large -- my hand is usually a woman's medium). Et voila! They fit like a glove mitten. For the outer mitts, I will use Paula's outer mitt pattern knit in the heel stitch. I love that it has a great texture that will also help with the warm factor. Another smart thing about Paula's outer mitts is that the outer mitt is designed so it won't cover up the pretty cuff of the liner mitt. Brilliant!
Remember the salt & pepper mittens that looked like this? 
Now they look like this:
Don't cry for me. It's all good. I like knitting, remember? I ripped them back because I had run out of the cinnamon-colored wool and couldn't see the sense in buying another skein of the Eco-Wool to finish that one mitten for Dulaan. Those skeins are h-u-g-e and a bit on the pricey side. I have much more Eco-Wool in my stash, but not in that color.
The not-quite-finished pair was distracting me, just sitting there in my office, taking up space and trying to get sexual with the dust bunnies. (The several unfinished sweaters hanging out in various other places in the house don't seem to bother me one bit, but I digress.)
I started finishing the second mitten in brown, but it just wasn't satisfying me. So I ripped them both back to the cuffs, and I'll reknit them in some sort of balanced color sequence that makes a better use of the yarn and I don't have to feel like I'm sending a "factory second" to Dulaan. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Warm is warm, and warmth is the main name of the game for Dulaan.
But, now, THIS is sad: My Robin Hansen mitten book was left in Abigail's car, which is sitting in a parking lot in Albany while she finishes her spring break in New York City. Permission to cry now granted. And if you find her car and break into it to steal the book, I'll just have to come and break your kneecaps.
Tomorrow, or sometime in the near or far future when I get around to it: Why timestamps on emails are relevant to me, and All About My Foodie Contradictions. Yes, Virginia, I do eat tuna casserole. (and shepherd's pie and goulash, but never, ever, EVER "American Chop Suey.")
Vertically Striped Mittens (double-stranded), Womens' Small
by Robin Hansen, in Fox & Geese & Fences
Yarns: Less than one skein Jamieson's Soft Shetland, in the colorway Watercricket, and less than one skein Patons Classic Wool in Deep Olive
I love these mittens. I love this book. Kristen, thank you once again for sending it to me. As I've said to several people now, when a friend lent me this book a few years ago, I never felt inspired to knit a thing from it -- until, that is, she asked me to return it. As soon as I returned it, I wished I had it back. It was out of print and hard to find, and I was not as in love with the reprint, so I never bought it. I'm just so glad to have this in my hands once again.
Ms. Hansen describes this pattern as intriguing, saying it gives the impression of knitting over the top of other knitting. She's right. I love how the green dominates and looks like it's knitted on top of the tweedy yarn. The fabric it makes is very sophisticated-looking, very soft, and very warm.
This pair was good for letting me practice some more with the two-stranded/left-and-right-handed knitting. I'm getting better.
These go so beautifully with my Loden coat that now I want a scarf and headband to match.
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I have loved all your comments lately, and I am sorry that I have not responded to all of them. That darned Abigail was home and, you know, she insisted on silly things like having a family meal each night. Harumph. But as Sandy reminded me, she's the one who will choose "a home" for me later, so if tuna casserole she wants, tuna casserole she gets. Of course I jest. I loved every minute of having her home and doing all the fun things we did together. I know you understand.
Yesterday was long. We drove in two cars to Bennington, Vermont, of all places, where we saw a great little (professional) play that her boyfriend was in. It was wonderful!
The drive was hairy for the first half. Nasty driving weather. I was able to finish the mitten on the drive, and then.... well, I was going to tell you that we "did lines" for the rest of the drive, but then I realized what I was saying. Not THAT kind of lines. I helped her with memorizing her lines for her next play. (she is Shaylee) Her character has a Chicago accent. I love listening to her badass Chicago self.
The upcoming two or three (or four?) weeks are probably going to be super-busy with work for me again. I might not be around the blog or the email as much as usual -- just so you know I haven't dropped off the face of the earth.
I probably should have been doing my transcripts instead.
It's Margene's birthday. Have you said happy birthday to her yet?
So Abigail blew back into town Sunday evening in time to be served a dinner of chicken pieces marinated in fresh ginger, fresh garlic, and lemon juice, then baked 'til crispy; roasted zucchini, carrots and onions; and brown rice and green peas. The life.
She commended Match Point, which we have not yet seen because I'm not so much the Woody Allen fan, really. Anyway, she had bought the DVD in a 5/$20 special, and informed me that she knows me as well as anyone can, and that therefore she knows that I will like it. But we were all too tired to watch it that night and went to bed early.
Well, they did. I sat up alone with Vincent, knitting on the second Salt & Pepper mitten 
'til I ran completely out of the rust/cinnamon Eco-Wool, and then, still suffering from Robin Hansen fever and trying to stave off The Headache Which Was Imminent, I immediately started combing the stash for appropriate yarns to make Ms. Hansen's striped mittens in a size and color for me.
I hit paydirt with some dark olive green Patons Classic Merino and some lovely Jamieson's Soft Shetland in the colorway "Watercricket." The first try resulted in a HUGE mitten cuff, so I ripped it back and changed needle size from US 4 to US 2, and used the "small women's" size pattern. Good Lord, those Maine women must have big hands. I don't consider myself to have small women's hands -- more medium -- but that mitten was going to be big enough for Mrs. Sasquatch. Now it seems to be a more reasonable size for me. I just love the colors together. The Soft Shetland is gorgeous and complex, and the olive sets it off so well. My tension is still not the most even, but I'm working on it.
Monday was Girls' Day Out in Burlington: Shopping to get her outfitted for an upcoming interview in New York, a few errands, and a lovely lunch. She looks like a million bucks and it only cost us half that. Haha. No, listen: It turns out Ann Taylor (we did not know this when we went in, and the info was only forthcoming when we were standing there hemming and hawing over whether we were going to buy all this stuff) is having some sort of "wardrobing sale" dealio. It's for these couple or three weeks in March. It seems to be geared toward these college kids who are going out for interviews on Spring Break, as near as I can tell. You only have to spend half a million dollars on a business wardrobe, and they'll give you 25% off. I'm exaggerating. Seriously, it's a good deal for all involved: it's $300 for 25% off. Everything we picked up, except the shoes, was already on sale, so we got an extra 25% off. You were supposed to have called ahead for an appointment with a "wardrobe consultant" or something, but they offered it to us after the above-mentioned hemming and hawing. Of course, Abigail already had her wardrobe consultant: me.
It works out well for them, because they have hooked their tentacles into the young set possibly just heading into the business world, and it really did work out well for us, too. We got a lot of good stuff for our three hundred bucks. All classic and tasteful, and yet not stodgy. Abigail is even more fiscally conservative than I am, and she made me assure her repeatedly that this stuff was not going to go out of style in a year, or she wasn't interested in buying it. I reassured (?) her: "Well, in a New York law firm, people might very well say, 'Oh, that's so last season's Ann Taylor,' but no, this will NOT be out of style in a year."
Ah, it's the life. No trips to Mexico or the Caribbean for us, but we still know how to have fun. I'm unofficially on Spring Break, too. Amazingly, UVM's Spring Break coincides with the beginning of Abigail's, and my office has promised to not call me this week unless they have exhausted every other possible option. I do trust that they will honor that. (The new regime is wonderful.) However, since I took a couple of long depositions last week, the transcripts are hanging over my head, so it doesn't feel like that much of a break. However, the temperatures have soared up near 50F, which is break enough in itself. The snow is melting in rivers, there are no bad storms at the moment, and having the girl at home is the icing on the cake.
(click images for a bigger version) Mmmmmm, cinnamon and oatmeal......
I was in a mitten mood this weekend, and I have here a practice piece: A Salt & Pepper mitten from Robin Hansen's Fox & Geese & Fences, A Collection of Traditional Maine Mittens, an out-of-print book. It has been, at least selectively, reprinted in a combined volume with Ms. Hansen's other book. Kristen's alert eyes managed to spot this for me. I love this book, and prefer the original over the reprint. I have picked up the reprint several times and put it back without purchasing it. I can't explain why -- it just is.
A copy of the original was lent to me by the same friend for whom I recently completed the thrummed mittens (His wife lent it to me, to be precise.), but I had to return it a couple of years ago, so I'm very happy to have this copy.
A side note: When Kristen was spending her most recent year in Moscow, a pair of my thrummed mittens made their way to her there, where she definitely needed them, so she has a bit of a vested interest in my mittens. She sent me this book a couple of weeks ago. Thank you, Kristen!
The Salt & Pepper is a very easy stranded double-knitting design. I'm still trying to teach my left hand to be adept at carrying strands of yarn, so this mitten was intended to be knitted as practice and ultimately given to a charity project. I need much more practice! The stranding tension fluctuates quite a bit. My overall gauge was off (this yarn is slightly thicker than regular worsted), so though I intended to knit this for ages 4-6, it almost fits me. We will therefore call it for ages 10-12, I guess. That is another wonderful thing about charity knitting: It'll fit someone. I've immediately cast on for the second mitten, so hopefully it won't be neglected like the poor little unmated Sneetch mitten
from so long ago* or the friend's thrummed mittens that took so long to complete. *(I used the remaining yellow yarn for something else. I know! I'm a dope!)
Another problem has arisen: I've almost run out of the cinnamon/rust-colored yarn. I hope I can track down some more. It's Cascade Eco-Wool. I'm not worried about dyelots, since it's more than likely going to go to warm someone in Mongolia -- someone who will not care that the colors are slightly off.
Reason No. 145.7 that I love having the blog:
The coolest friends. (Is this really my life?!)
Regina, you know my soul and rock my world.
I can't wait to wear that t-shirt. Won't I be the coolest mama? And I'm so excited to introduce Abigail to Teddy Thompson*. Thank you! The next time I see you (soon, hopefully), I will hug my thanks to you in person.
*It's so super-cool when a mom can introduce her young adult daughter to some music before her friends can even do so. Wicked cool.
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The Contest: Or What Ancient Project Did I Finish?
The long-overdue gift for a friend -- thrummed (fleece-stuffed) mittens made from Coopworth wool roving, which was a beautiful gift from Carole, and which I spun into the yarn used for these. The thrums are locks of an incredibly beautiful Polwarth fleece, a gift from Kim. The inside of the mittens look like this: 
The story of these mittens is they were knitted for a friend, but I ran out of yarn (and there was no more Coopworth roving to be spun) before I could complete the two mittens, so I went back and took off the cuff of each mitten and knit a different cuff made of Lamb's Pride worsted. Other things got in the way (notably, the Red Scarf Project and lots of other projects), and it took me over a year to get back to these.
My friend's wife is a knitter. When he opened the package, containing one completed mitten and one still on the needles, he said: "I know what this is: A promissory note!" 
He asked me if he was going to have to wait a year before he got the finished pair, and I insisted that no WAY was he going to have to wait that long. Erk. There have been several sub-zero days this winter during which he could have worn thrummed mittens, and I feel bad that I did not get them done well before now. I'm happy they're finally done. I'll package them up and mail them out this week.
And the winner is: Margene! She is the only one who guessed these mittens. I know exactly what she needs as a prize. :)
As expected, this is shaping up to be a tough work week. But today I took a little walk in the cool, crisp air (finally!) at lunch time. I went to a favorite lunch spot, a little kiosk (locals will know the one I mean) on Church Street, to grab a salad and tea.
I was wearing these:
My Cashmerino Aran Natalya wristers, which are a little worse for wear at this point. (I made them in winter/spring, 2005)
The young woman in the kiosk asked the question we all love to be asked about our handknits: "Where'd you get your gloves?"
When I said, "I made them," she looked disappointed. (as in, "I don't knit.") She said, "I've seen some in places, but they're never quite right. Those are just right."
It was enough to get me through the rest of my day.
P.S. It's only Monday. The dead tired I feel is probably not a good sign, is it?
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