Friday, March 05, 2010

Fairy Tale Mittens

Spring is likely to be here at any moment. In fact, it could sproing right past us all and directly into summer. How did I reach this conclusion? I finished my mittens. This has been a difficult winter for many, and for them, I should have completed these weeks ago. However, there are those of us who feel a little less-than joyous about Spring, and waiting until August seems like a better time to finish. It has been an awesome responsibility and enormous pressure, and the closer I got to the end, the more the obstacles popped up around me.

When we last left the mittens, they were finished except for thumbs. Then, they needed to wait while I did not medal in the Ravelympics with the giant lace. At my next knitting opportunity, I brought the pair back out, and spent most of my time socializing. It was important. Then the needle disappeared. As in, I am holding it to slip the stitches from the waste yarn, and the needle is gone. I cannot find it anywhere. It is not in my hair, around my neck, in my knitting bag, on the floor, in my knitting already, in the book, under the chair cushion, tangled in the yarn, or shoved between the pattern and the notebook. I looked up, down, all around, and even enlisted the aid of a fellow knitter. I crawled around on the floor once again, lifted the flap of the chair, reached into its scary coils and swiveling parts, grabbed what felt like it could be the needle, and coaxed it out carefully. I thought that I was either breaking the chair, or destroying my needle. It felt like it was going to be a bad outcome, but I was wrong. I retrieved the needle, and it was fine. Then I managed not quite two rounds on the thumb before the coffee shop closed. I figured I would finish the pair before bedtime. I made it as far as the end of the thumb, and my eyes and hands were too tired to kitchener.

The next day, we are about to head out the door, and I figure that the bright sunshine would be a perfect time to complete the first mitten and get a nice start on thumb of the second. We make our way to the interstate, and I reach into the knitting bag and cannot find my tapestry needle. If only it were in a cute purple pouch with other knitting notions. Oh, wait--it was! I just did not see it at the time, and ended up leaning my seat back and closing my eyes for a bit. I discovered that it had been there all along when I was getting things out of the bag to sit and knit for the evening. I felt special, but moved on from the experience. Then, I make it about a half-dozen rounds into the thumb when the skunk makes its presence known. It had to have been just a few feet from the front door, but I did not open it to investigate. I have already learned that lesson. Anywho, either the air cleared enough, or I just got used to the stench, and I finally was able to sit down and finish.

Despite the possible meteorological implications, I am glad to have my new mittens, and plan to wear them as much as possible.

Mitten28

Pattern: Mitten 28 from Mostly Mittens: Ethnic Knitting Designs from Russia by Charlene Schurch
Yarn: Knit Picks Palette Black and Fairy Tale (I had trouble capturing Fairy Tale's true color with the camera)
Needles: US0/2.0mm


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