One Perfect Pink Mitten

Here it is, the tale I promised. [Ignore apparent product placement--that was just the first DVD I grabbed off the shelf for proportion.]

I was born in early 1961, two weeks late. My mother had arranged for her mother, my Grandma Monaghan, to come down for two weeks to help out when I was a newborn and my older brother not quite two. Grandma took the time off work and arrived around the first of the year.

Darned if I DIDN'T. So Mom sat around with her mom and Pete, waiting. [I have done this myself, with my third baby, while my mother-in-law and I entertained the troops and she asked me every few hours, "Do you feel anything yet?" To say that it was not fun is mincing words. And if I had told her what I was feeling, I think I would not have scored points with the MIL. ;^)]

Anyway, my grandmother's vacation time coming to an end, I finally arrove, and on the day I came home from the hospital, I had a little pink sweater and these mittens, Mom says, which Grandma had knitted for me. How she knew I would be a girl, I do not know! Why the mittens were toddler size, I also don't know, but I can tell you they really aren't big at all, just big for a newborn. I'm also guessing that they were on my little fists to keep me from trying to suck my thumb. :^)

I found this little lost mitten the other day in some mementos I'd stashed away, and really scrutinized the knitting this time. It's important to note that I have absolutely no faith in my skills to knit a mitten, let alone one that is only a few inches long! But the exquisiteness of the stitching, the perfect attachment of the thumb to the main body, and the woven in end in the cuff ribbing--well, I knew my grandma knitted kick-ass sweaters, but this is ART. I can't imagine the needles were anything bigger than size 1, and could even have been zeroes. It's wool of course (Grandma lived in Maine, and wool could be a matter of life and death I'd imagine.) I think my grandmother was a master knitter and then some. (So is Mom for that matter--maybe it will turn out to be genetic--hope,hope,hope!)

When I asked Mom what happened to the other mitten (I was praying I hadn't lost it myself--I've had these mementos for years), she said, True Knitter that she is, "I don't know where it is. Perhaps lost in the archival filing system I have." 8^)

Happy knitting!
~Stacie

Knitting Away While There's Time

Here are some of the things I've finished or begun--a scarf in Noro Kochoran (#17) done from the "boyfriend scarf" pattern in Last Minute Knitted Gifts (theirs was in cashmere but whatever). The Kochoran is a bit too fuzzy for my tastes (50% wool, 30% angora, 20% silk), but once it's blocked, I think it will be a great scarf, probably better suited to a woman/teenager than someone with XY chromosomes. You'll note that, as with most Noro yarns, it has several tones, and one thing I really couldn't capture was that there is an almost tomato-red part, and it still works with the pink/purple tones because the grays separate things nicely. If there is one thing that would keep me from knitting with Kochoran again it is the white blobs that seem to be intentional, part of the Noro "rough, natural" look. To me it seems messy, and I actually tried to remove them but found that was not wise--for a few stitches it's all angora fluff and I would have actually separated the yarn strand.

On to another FO: a baby hat, simple as could be, done in that same ggh Goa that I used for the kimono. I am not happy with the decreases, probably because I did them unevenly, but I think I have a solution: I am going to embroider flowers in a contrasting Goa that I got from destash (the yarn came from veganpurls--check out her blog!). [Completely off topic: I think destashforcash is now the domain of all of us ravelry wannabes who haven't gotten down in the queue and invited yet--at least we still have this option for sharing the fiber wealth!]

OK, and here are two beauties, first the beginning of a bootie (Bev's Stay-On Booties, my favorite pattern because it doesn't require DPNs but still gives a great product), and then feline beauty in the form of one of my cats, Cleo, who was extremely curious about what I was doing in her sunpatch. Too bad I can't put in a short clip of her "talking" to me. She is chatty.8^)

Tune in again tomorrow when I have a small tale to tell, with pictures. It's the best way to explain how knitting can/might well be/surely IS --in one's blood.

[In unrelated news, my eldest, who is working hard to save the world (or at least Latin America) is living in a rural village in Mexico this summer. I deserve bonus points for not booking a ticket and flying down there Tuesday because my baby got tonsillitis. :^( She said her tonsils were so swollen that she sounded like a frog when she talked. Fortunately, the people who run her hostel called their family doctor to attend her, and he came to the hostel with . . . get this . . . a black leather bag. Wow, I'm moving to Mexico!) And also, fortunately, she emailed us today that the tonsils are much less swollen, now that she is on the antibiotics and an anti-inflammatory. I know I have to let her live her life, but what if she were in danger of dying? Ah well, I will stay sane (and stay here) and note that she took all her Dr. Mom's advice (and you guessed correctly, there was a bunch of it!). I think my best advice was to get lots of fluids, and NOT mojitos or Negro Modelas, two of her new favorite drinks.]

Ready for a Rave?

Not that kind of rave, people. A much, much better sort.

I have found a "one skein" type knitting book that I actually think is worth the money--One-Skein Wonders. It's set up sensibly, by yarn weight! Duh! The chapters start with bulky, and work down to fingering weight (with a nice "heavy worsted" section that often designers don't seem aware exists). There is also a section called worsted-mohair, and one for novelty yarns, the latter being a category many of us are still working on in our stashes from previous projects). Several projects are felted. There are so many patterns (the subtitle is 101 Yarn-Shop Favorites), and the color pictures are great. The patterns come from various LYSes around the US, with a designer usually named. I can see a sequel already, Way More One-Skein Wonders.

The only "awww, shucks" is that I just purchased the coolest shell pattern called Diotima from Valley Yarns, and here it is in the book! Dag-gonnit.

I'm just getting the top started actually, in white mulberry silk that I got on eBay recently, and am pretty excited about it. It will do nicely in the fall when it's 95 degrees in my classroom.

I'll post a photo of my progress on it when I get one of the DDs to loan me a camera--DH is visiting my MIL on Orcas Island for a few weeks of mountain biking, kayaking, and his mom's home cooking, oh, yes, and telecommuting to work via the internet and the phone.