A Progression of Mittens

I've been on a mitten kick of late.  I like mittens.  I like that they're more old-fashioned and quirky (and warm) than gloves.  I like that everyone else I know likes gloves better than mittens, because I'm contrary like that.  I like that they rhyme with kittens.

My first pair of mittens were of epic proportions.  I'm not sure why I felt it necessary to knit them at such a large gauge, except that I have long fingers and perhaps I was worried that they wouldn't fit otherwise.

I can easily fit both of my hands into one, though the thumbs turned out to be exactly the right size.  I wish I had kept that in mind when I knit up the next pair with the same pattern, this time on the correct needles.

They are much more reasonably sized, though still quite roomy, but the thumbs came out just a tad short.  At the time I was not so brave as to try adjusting the pattern itself to fit.  They're my go-to winter-wear right now.

I love how the slip-stitch pattern plays with the variegated yarn.  I do not love the jarring seams up the side or the fact that they're stiff enough to stand on their own, however windproof that makes them.

I really want a pair of red mittens, so Hermione's mittens screamed out to me, "Make us!"

The first one is done, minus weaving in the ends.

I know, I know, I should be working on Jenn's mittens exclusively, but I was laid up in bed with a cold, absolutely miserable, and these were so comforting to my frazzled mental state.  They look crazy long, but that's okay, because I have such long arms that most of my coat sleeves are a little short.  My current mad rainbow mittens don't have enough coverage.

I love the elegant increases for the thumb.  It seemed like an odd way of doing it, but it worked up beautifully.  I'm unsure about the bobbles.  They really are like little knitted tumors.  My husband thinks they're hilarious, and my cats bat at them and try to chew them off.  The way the traveling cable emerges from the ribbing makes me smile every time I look at it, too. The eight stitches I added to the pattern worked out alright in the end with the decreases.  I had to be a little creative with them, and I squeezed in an extra bobble that looks a wee bit awkward, but I'm pleased with the overall result.

Now back to those other mittens . . .

2012!

Yes, I know it's been forever since I posted anything - why, it's been since LAST YEAR.  I'm terrible.  Here are some pictures of my cats to make us all feel better.

Can you tell we've been cleaning?  All the stuff piled on the desk used to be on the floor.

It was a mostly successful Christmas as far as gifts went.  I still haven't finished Laura's hat or Jeremy's blanket, but there's no rush there.  They haven't found a permanent place to stay yet, so I'd rather wait and know that they will receive any package I send them.

Mom, after some convincing, loved her fingerless gloves.

She doesn't really "get" fingerless gloves, but she has poor circulation and I thought they'd be nice for around the house, especially when she's typing.  She's always saying how her hands get so cold.  Of all people Phillip came to my aid to explain how they keep the fingers warm by warming the blood at the pulse points.  My brother has hidden depths in his general awesome.

He got a gun cleaning kit for Christmas.  I thought about making him some potholders for his new house, but then it occurred to me that Mom might want to do that, since potholders are her specialty.  I passed the idea along and she was thrilled.  She's on a potholder/coaster making kick now - you can never have too many.  As for her granny square slippers, I frogged them, decided to put any other knitting for her on hold until Mother's Day, and bought her yarn and knitting looms instead.  No time left.

Jenn's mittens, alas, were not finished in time for Christmas.  I gave it  the old college try, as my husband would say, but it was not to be.  However, one was worked up enough for her to see, try on, and approve of the pattern, and assuming I don't give up in a hissing rage on trying to weave in the ends, she should have a complete pair by Valentine's Day.  As the pattern is called "Valentine's Mittens," that seems appropriate enough.  The original, from "Stitch and Bitch: Nation," is red and pink with duplicate-stitched hearts, but Jenn does not like pink hearts. She likes stripes.  And bunny hats.

Another pattern from the same book (which she gave me for Christmas several years ago, the enabler :P).  The original hat, naturally, was pink and infant-sized, but it turned out that by using two strands of white Caron Simply Soft held together and size10 or so needles, I didn't have to change the pattern directions at all to end up with Jenn-sized super-adorable hat for marching band practice.



On the mitten front, Ryan finally got his two-years-in-the-making argyle flip-top mittens.

 

I even blocked them, since I had to wash one anyway.  While the second was still in production he used the first while trying to fix his car.  Fortunately gentle hand-washing with mild dish detergent saved the day, and also allowed me discover that blocking is a beautiful process that turns lumpy mittens into handsome, soft, awe-inspiring functional pieces of art.  They even got a stamp of approval from my sister-in-law's fiance, a mechanic, who says that flip-top mittens are the best thing ever.

Not flip-top is my newly resized Hermione mitten-in-progress, which has not seen any progress since I started my Christmas knitting, and won't see any more until after Jenn's mittens are done.

I made a New Year's resolution that I would only work on two projects at a time this year, and at least one of them has to be from my enormous and looming pile of unfinished work from previous years until it is all gone.  Finish or Frog! is my battle-cry this year.  Once Jenn's mittens are done, I can go back to these mittens, which probably won't see any service until next winter, at this rate.

I did make an exception for two little projects.

The last couple months I've been searching for some kind of first Christmas memorial ornament for Gabriel.  I wanted something angel-themed, maybe with his birthstone, but nothing struck the right chord until I read on Ravelry that a woman crocheted angel ornaments for her miscarried babies.  "I can do that," I thought, and at 1am Christmas Eve morning I started with size 20 crochet cotton and a size 10 hook.  Angel number one was finished just in time to hang it on my in-law's tree before we left for church.  I wasn't able to finish the second one before the end of Christmas at my parents, but they didn't put their tree up this year, so it was alright.  It just needs to be sewn together and it will be ready for next year.  The one pictured, the first one, has two fairly major mistakes, in the wings and in the halo, but she turned out alright, and I'm sure Gabriel doesn't mind.  I was able to catch them in the second angel, so that one should be picture-perfect once it's done.

One last picture, then, of my angel.

We will always love you.  Merry Christmas, little one.

Not Doing Well

I restarted the mittens, but now they're too big and I'm beginning to feel burned out on knitting.  I may go back and finish the smaller ones after all and call it a day; if they don't fit I'll just promise to make new ones after Christmas; deadline-free.

My older siblings are going back to Chicago today unexpectedly, so I won't be spending Christmas/Chanukah with them after all and I guess I'll just have to mail their gifts.  All that time could have been spent on mittens, darn it.

Other than that, I'm quite miserable, thank you.  I'm beginning to wonder if this depression has a capital D.

An update or two

I lost my nerve with the French Press Slippers when I discovered that my row gauge was way, way off.  Maybe I'll endeavor to finish them, but they most likely will not be a Christmas gift this year.  Instead I'm going to make Mom a pair of ChezPlum's Babouches, to commemorate our granny square evening and also because I think they're adorable.  I have a pair started for myself, but I ran out of yarn after finishing the first half of the first slipper.  This is actually exactly where I am on Mom's pair now, so here is a picture of what hers look like, if they were teal and lime green instead of plum and blue.

Her fingerless gloves are finished, ends woven in and all.  They are sweet and dainty, and hopefully not too super-snug.

Jenn's mittens hit a snag (called gauge, surprise surprise), but before I realized that, I let Theo pose with the WIP.

In other news, I think my husband may be reading my journal.  That doesn't bother me; it's mostly musings about Gabriel and loneliness, and other than perhaps the real depth of my feeling of isolation, it's nothing he doesn't know about already.  I wrote last night about missing Gabriel, about my slow loss of sensitivity to not being around him (Ryan), missing being around Phillip, and my terror and sorrow about my Dad's declining health.  I didn't mention it to him or my diary, but writing about it sent me into an intense sobbing fit that scared the cats out of the room.  Perhaps it was childish of me, but why beat myself up about crying when there are so many other things to worry about?

At any rate, Ryan sent me a text today to tell me he misses me.  That may carry me through the night.

It's Snowing! (title unrelated to post)

I went to the Yarn Basket in Carroll today to look for Karen's Christmas present.  I couldn't decide on a color, much less a yarn, but I did espy many a thing I would like for myself.  Dream in Color has a beautiful colorway that looks exactly like a sunset cloud; all peach with delicate streaks of pink. I was good, however, and didn't buy anything for me.  I also didn't buy anything for Karen, because I am indecisive, especially when it comes to matters of other people's taste. 

My friend (pseudo-sister, bridesmaid) Jenn requested flip-top mittens for Christmas.  Why do I agree to knit things for other people?  Choosing the yarn for her was easy, though.  I didn't even have to leave Wal-Mart.  She wants red and dark purple.  I bought a skein of Dark Plum Simply Soft on my lunch break, and I have a skein of Autumn Red Simply Soft at home.  It was going to be roses on a shawl for my mom, but that project is on the back-burner for now (because I started it and hated it).  I already have a pattern for convertible mittens in Stitch and Bitch: Nation, and bless the designer, it's for bulky weight yarn.  I can knit very, very fast with two strands of yarn held together. 

Mom's mittens are aaaaalmost done - just two more rows on the thumb, cast off, weave in ends, block.  (Ha ha, I think I'm going to block something for once in my life).

I've been on a pretty steady emotional high since the ultrasound and the following appointment.  The midwife, in trying to find the top of my uterus, commented that it was difficult because of my tight abs.  I drily (if bemusedly) thanked her.  My secret, folks?  Spending all day trying to hold my stomach in because I think I look more fat than pregnant.  It doesn't do much in the way of actually trimming my waistline, but it's good for the muscles underneath.  Now if I could just be as diligent about Kegels. 

In trying to find the baby's heartbeat (which used to be my favorite part of the visit, and now I dread), she got another surprise - he kicked the doppler wand hard enough for her to feel it.  She made Ryan come over to feel it.  According to her, while it's normal for me to feel kicks around this time, it's really unusual for anyone else to do so (particularly, I imagine, given my thick layer of padding and sexy ab muscles).

Gabriel was a fierce kicker, too.

Not very interesting without graphics...

I've raved about Ravelry before.  On Ravelry you keep a notebook of projects you've made, and part of the fun is putting up pictures.  This is mutually benefitial for all users, because it means that you can see how a pattern turned out when someone else made it.  Sometimes, however, there aren't pictures available.  For instance, you may have given the finished object to someone before you joined Ravelry and therefore didn't realize that you might want a picture of it some day.

Or it may be a gift in progress, and you don't want any snooping recipients-to-be spying it before you're finished.

Or, and this is really the heart of the matter, you may have knitted a nice, serviceable hat for someone you loved very dearly, and they left it at work the day they quit and never went back for it.  You might not have a picture of the hat, but you do have a picture of the man, and access to Microsoft Paint.



Sometimes you just feel the need to be clever.

On the topic of gift-knitting (two or three paragraphs ago), I am very nearly finished with Laura's hat.  Despite all my fears of it being small and unslouchy, it turned out huge and deliciously floppy.  It's going to overwhelm her head.  It's almost too cool for her, which is an uncharitable way of saying I want it for myself.  However, I'm going to resist, weave in the ends, consult Shirtless up there on which buttons to use for embellishment, and watch it eat Laura's head on Christmas morning.

Mom's fingerless mitts are coming along so quickly that I really have time to make her a hat, too, but this too I must resist and concentrate instead on what I'm going to do for everybody else. 

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is all I'm knitting at the moment.  One hat, and one pair of gloves.  It's madness!  So I must turn to other sources of page fodder. 

I had the big ultrasound on Monday.  Tears were kept to a minimum.  It's another boy (currently kicking me in the cervix, it feels like).  Turns out I highlighted all of those girl names for naught.  A few boys' names that I like (in no particular order):

Isaac  (Hebrew for "He Laughs" or "Laughter")  For my grandpa Isadore

Levi  (Hebrew, "Attached")

Allan  (Breton, "Handsome" or possibly "Little Rock")  My dad's middle name

Elias  (Greek var. of the Hebrew name Elijah, "The Lord is my God")

Felix  (Latin, "Lucky" or "Successful")  My other grandfather's name.

December 1st . . .

The scarf, it is done.

Done, done, done.  Ends woven in and all.  On the right, you can see one of my cats, Theo, or at least as little of him as I could avoid photographing, despite lots of shoving and chastising.

Fine, I told him.  You want to be in the picture?  You're going to work for it.

All that work to get a modelling gig and the cat wouldn't even look at the camera.  Granted, my pretzels had just fallen on the floor, and nothing grabs my cats' attention like falling food.

So I started Laura's hat, and then ripped it out and started again with a larger hook, the result being a crown that was in no way visibly larger than its predecessor. 

I hate this job.

Mom's fingerless gloves are on needles.  Interestingly enough, the result of using too fine of a yarn and too large of needles is matching gauge exactly, and yet the darn things still look too small.  I think I may need a break, but it's December the First, and there are only 24 days left until Christmas. 

Needless to say, these are the only gifts I've made any progress on.  I have no idea what I'm getting for anyone else.

Oh, I made the perhaps foolish decision to stop worrying about felting the slippers and give them to my mom unfelted, as a gag, and then felt them with her there to make sure they come out right size (theoretically).  The only problem with this scenario is that she has a front-loading washing machine, which are notoriously unreliable for the felting process.  I think I shall turn it into a multi-layered gift.  As in, "With these crazy huge slippers comes the promise that you can visit me for a change (where there is a top-loader), without any hemming or hawing on my part (just lots of hectic cleaning)."  It will be a kick in the pants for me to actually clean my house, which I should do anyway seeing as there is a baby coming in four months or so.

Brilliant.

(Crazy)