Wet Wool

Here are the Komi Mittens, wet and laying out on an old dishtowel on the porch. Do you think I have a problem with delayed gratification? Yeah, I haven't darned in my ends yet either.

For people who read this kind of stuff, I'm including the technical details.

Pattern: Mitten #23 in Mostly Mittens, by Charlene Schurch; Large size.

Yarn: Red, Yarn From the Barn, Sport wt, from Rainbow Fleece Farm, New Glarus, WI.
White, Columbia Minerva Fingering wt worsted wool, vintage yarn from the stash.

Needles: US #2 double points, Ribbing in US #0 double points.

Notes and Modifications: I just launched into the larger size without a swatch. When I make the next pair, I'll make the smaller size, or use smaller needles. These will fit Mr. SABLE. My back-up plan was to felt them slightly if needed to make them fit someone. I didn't alter the pattern one bit, other than using different yarn than shown. These are really fun mittens to make. The patterns are simpler than they look. I plan to make more.

In Other News
We had an interesting time last night. About 11 p.m., just as I was drifting off to sleep, Owen came into our room to tell us that he was shivering and couldn't stop. I took him back to his room and covered him with more blankets, and realized there wasn't much more I could do for him. Like a bad mom, I went back to my own bed and tried to get back to that delicious state of just drifting off that I had been yanked from. Mr. SABLE had opened the window a bit, as it was the first warm day of the season. As I was lying there, I thought I smelled something off. I have a terrible sense of smell, so I asked Mr. SABLE if he smelled a skunk. He snorted and muttered no. About ten seconds later, he said, "Ewww, I do smell a skunk!" and slammed the window shut. We still smelled it, but not as overwhelmingly. Now I had two worries. First Owen and his fever/chill and then, realizing one of our cats had not come in for the night. And he was out there with a skunk. I checked back on Owen about 11:30 and he was less shivery, but starting to feel hot to the touch. Then I went to bed and slept until the alarm went off at 6:50. (Have I mentioned how much I hate the time change? Getting up in the dark? Again.)

I let Owen sleep, called the school to let them know he wouldn't be coming, and asked Mr. SABLE to check for the cat. Thank goodness, the cat smelled just like his normal self. And thank goodness there was no lingering whiffiness in the yard, because I surely believed that skunk had sprayed right outside my window. We had skunk action last spring. They were fishing for koi in the garden pond. I hope they aren't actually living on our property. I really don't want to find a family burrowed in the lilacs or worse, under the porch!

So, Owen's home sick today. And if I had to choose between my children, I'd rather have a sick day with Owen than the Little Emperor any day. He's far more self-sufficient.

A note about Last Saturday Knitting
We are taking a trip to San Diego for spring break, so I won't be at Last Saturday Knitting this month either. I've had more days away than there lately, it seems. Sorry. But I really really really will try to be there, as scheduled, for April.

WIP Report

Regular readers will remember back in the fall when Sarah sent me lovely hank of handspun alpaca yarn. I hemmed and hawed about how to best use this precious gift. Finally I decided this yarn wants to be a very simple lace scarf:

Just a zig zag of eyelets running the length of it, with a seed stitch border. But, Mead looks so happy, doesn't she? (Sarah named the yarn Mead and dubbed her a "she," so I'm just going with it.) The scarf-to-be is scrunched on the needles a bit, but I tugged out the stitches for a look, and I think it's the perfect choice.


In other project news, I'm about half-way done the second Komi Mitten:

These are great fun and I'm definitely planning to make more of them. If I start now and just keep making mittens as time allows, I'll probably have enough to distribute to all my family next winter. Meaning, my parents, my brother and his wife, my sister and her husband, and maybe some of the in-laws, too.

Finished One Mitten

I finished the first Komi mitten for Mr. SABLE this evening. I'm pretty pleased with it, even if my grafting was a little wonky and tends to distort the ends. I'm hoping that a little swish in water will help it all settle down. Very fun project!


Because we live at the end of a cul-de-sac, all the snow gets piled in front of our house. Our kids love this. Earlier in the season, the plow guys were using a different theory of plowing and distributed the snow much more evenly around the circle. The boys were not pleased. Earlier today, when the sun was bright and the air not too cold, I sent Mr. SABLE and The Little Emperor out to play in the snow for a while. The LE was in dire need of enforced recess. Mr. SABLE took about 10 pics of him on Mt. Snow. These two are especially cute:

Road to Recovery

Thanks to all for the well-wishes for my family. Owen ended up only staying home one day. I guess he had flu-lite, too. So far, The Little Emperor is unscathed. I still think I have a low-level sinus thing going on, but nothing too debilitating.

I am only a couple rows away from being done with the body on the Shetland Sweater, aka The Andrew Morrison Honorary Cardigan. My left hand was threatening mutiny the other night when I thought I could push on through. Having stared in the face the prospect of losing knitting for life, I know that I can't ignore those warning signs. As it is, ibuprofen is practically a food group for me.

So, here it is, just a couple rows shy of being ready to cut the steek.


Here's a detail shot of the neckline area. I've made a shallow v-neck, rather than rounded neckline, where the collar will attach, which makes the whole thing look a little strange right now. Like there's shaping for a single mono-boob up high on the chest. Have no fear, after I cut the steek it will all be fine.

So, I was loafing about getting kind of depressed with the weather and feeling like I should do something productive with all those hours when the kids are at school and not really having a focus. I just felt like napping all day every day this past week.
And while puttering in my lair, stumbled on the Yarn from the Barn I bought last spring at Rainbow Fleece Farm. (They don't seem to have a website, or I'd link it.) I still hadn't done anything with that yarn. I got out Mostly Mittens (I just noticed the shocking price on that book when I looked on Amazon for the link! I think I got mine for about $15 on Overstock.com a couple years ago!)and picked a chart. Then dug out the white sport weight vintage yarn to pair with this dark red Yarn From The Barn.

Although this is coming out a bit large, it'll work for a pair of mittens for Mr. SABLE. These mittens are a perfect little antidote-for-what-ails-you kind of project: detailed, visually grabbing, fun. They're the kind of project that impresses non-knitters and those who don't yet do two-color knitting, but in fact, the pattern is very repetitive and not overly difficult. And the gauge is different enough that it gives my hands a break from the AMHC.

Cindy G over at Baxter Knits has been exploring slip stitches with the intent to make a little tutorial on their wonderous uses. Regular readers have seen this before:

It's a detail shot of my long-standing WIP, Scott's Tweedy Sweater. The magic of slip stitches allowed me to finally use a yarn that defied every other use I tried to find for it. The beigey-brown yarn with dark brown and gold flecks came in a big batch of shetland-style yarns I bought around 1990. It would not settle in to any Fair Isle pattern. It looked ugly on its own. I kept thinking I would find a way to use this yarn (see why I have a stash problem???) and finally, I did.

Finally, here's an image from my porch, looking out toward the backyard:

I bet if I put on my boots and went wading out in the snow, I could find some cool shadows and dead plants to photograph. But somehow, I just can't seem to leave the comfort of my couch these days.