Like a House of Cards

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Well. There you have it.  It turns out that my title of the meanest mum in the world might have been trumped by my own love of all things matching (and yes, Presbytera is right, like she always is, and I do sort of have a thing.)

Sam is now the proud owner of a delightfully matchy pair of fingerless mitts.

Pattern Sakura Fingerless Mitts. Yarn: Sakura Cotton.

…and I didn’t stop there. I’m not just a person who likes matchy stuff, I’m also a person who’s pretty decidedly cheap thrifty. The idea of having knit whole mitt for no damn reason just rankled too much, so when I was done knitting the third…

Yup.  One skein, two pairs.  Done like dinner, and now I’m a gift ahead on Christmas. That’s right, I said it.  (75 days knitters. Start thinking it over.) 

PS. No yarn, although it’s been transferred to Canada Post, which is a very good sign.  It might be as far away from here as it can be (Vancouver) but that’s only 4 hours away by plane… right? There’s no baby either, although I’m walking a fine line, so far, so good.

PPS. The cool sippy cup top to Sam’s jar is a Cuppow. (Props to Soulemama for the hook-up. I’m not a "drinking out of jars" type myself.)

PPPS. To answer the question, Sam’s nail polish is Sinful Colors "Easy Going" Or as Sam said. "Something cheap. I’m a teenager."

PPPPS. Because someone will ask, Sam kept the pink pair.

136 thoughts on “Like a House of Cards”

  6. It’s kinda hard to hold something against them when it’s your own genes that make them act like that, isn’t it!? (This is another reason I don’t want children myself. I know how genetics works. Mother nature isn’t saddling ME with some monster with all my horrible traits and habits!)
    Also, kudos to Sam for pointing out how to spot a knitter by the mis-matched knit wear! I had never noticed that before but it’s absolutely right. What a smart, observant kid. =^)

  10. Yay!!
    I’m actually knitting myself a mostly matching entrelac hat and scarf from Noro…So I accept that they aren’t going to be exactly the same, but at least they’ll look super similar.
    And 75 days…I have an Owls by Kate Davies to knit by then!
    And Winter *is* coming, so it’s time to knit faster!
    Katie =^..^=

  11. Much, much, better.
    And two knitted pairs – even better.
    My first knitted Christmas gift was already done by the first week of September.

  12. I’m so glad that Sam kept the pink pair, ’cause I really like the other ones better. There you go: one Christmas present & recipient matched up for you. You’re welcome.

  14. What, she didn’t want mitts to match her jacket? Or are you knitting her a jacket to match the mitts (and the hat, scarf, socks, bag…)?

  15. Love the matchies! The pinkish ones look so delicate.
    And hooray for Cuppows! I have 2…wide mouth jar and regular. I love them both and use one or the other almost daily. And I really need to knit up a jar cozy.

  18. Yay! Two pair and both lovely, all from one skein. I googled Cuppow last night and found the company, right in my own back yard. I’m ridiculously excited about their products.

  19. If you give the second pair to one of Sam’s friends, a neighbor or someone else in the family, then both parties can purposefully un-match them at a moment’s notice! Everybody wins!

  22. Good mean mommy. 🙂
    I love the mitts.
    I love that you got two pairs out of it, because getting ahead on Christmas is gold.
    I really love that you hit 4 P’s on the end there. 🙂
    PS – I’m going nuts waiting for your yarn. I have no idea how you’re holding up.

  23. They’re just perfect!
    And just to rub it in, I’m halfway done with my Christmas knitting! 🙂

  24. WOW, two pair and both are lovely, matchy, matchy and so very nice. The pink pair look like fallen leaves lightly covered in snow, and the other pair look like flames. I have knit fingerless mitts using the all purpose mitten pattern my mother taught me, just stopping short and adding a bit of ribbing. It used up some leftover yarn, and since I wear them in the winter when I’m at the computer, I don’t care if they don’t match, nobody sees them but me. I plan to knit matching sets for friends who get cold hands at the computer also.

  25. I love the mitts. Two pair out of one skein. Great! Honestly, what were you going to do with that leftover yarn anyway. Now it’s a beautiful gift.
    I love Sinful Colors. I am wearing my sunset orange right now. I have about 10 bottles of Sinful Colors- mostly neon. I was kind of on a nail polish kick this summer. Who knows why.

  26. I could use a pair of those mitts right about now. Luckily, I have a pair waiting for me at home. Yours are lovely!

  28. YH you are so great to Sam and to the Blog!! 🙂 Thanks for the quickest update and wow you really DO knit like the wind! Keep Robyn crossing her legs and track down that postman already.
    Good vibes to you. 🙂

  29. That frugal streak + your creativity = totally satisfying beauty…yay!
    And only 75 days til the Doctor scarf reveal :0)

  30. A pair of mitts in one day? You are one fast knitter!
    Thanks for turning me into a crazy lady — 75 days? Are you kidding me? How does this sneak up on me every year?

  31. I love that you got two pairs out of one skein. I might have to find myself a skein.
    I also love that you shared the nail polish with her. I’m starting to notice a real trend with knitters who like polish.

  35. “Done like dinner”… Love that.
    Knew you could,
    Knew you would.
    You are a wonderful mom, including the “mean” part.
    And thanks for the 75 days warning. Luckily, I’ve started actually knitting, not just thinking, or I’d be sliding into panic mode already.

  36. How great! Happy daughter and one gift ahead for Christmas! Doesn’t get better than that!

  37. ARghh. I immediately wondered which pair Sam kept. 🙂 Thank you for answering that! Both sets of warmers are lovely. I have no excuse for not having the baby sweater finished. No baby here yet either, not that I know of, and I have enough yarn, but this is such a boring little sweater! Gotta get it done…

  38. I didn’t want to say it because I had just teased you about it earlier in the week but I knew the mis-matched pair would hurt your head. Sam comes by that characteristic honestly.
    The jars are a thing right now, aren’t they? I saw a young mum at a coffee shop with jars full of kid snacks. One of them got dropped and broke so it seemed like plastic baggies might have been a better option but I’m told jars are a thing.

  39. …really Steph!! Did you HAVE to say that word…CHRISTMAS!!. Now I am afraid because I have not thought about it at all.
    bjr

  40. It’s hard to imagine why jars are a thing, especially around children. The world can be very strange.

  41. Pleased you did the second pair, being of frugal bent myself, and the yarn lasted that long!
    They look great.

  43. Yeah Mom! I like the darker pair better, myself, but I like bold colors. Which maybe part of problem with the quilt I’m struggling to finish right now. Hummm?
    75 days to Christmas!? I guess I better get myself in gear and figure out what I want to make and for whom.

  44. Yay! You dood it! Two pair from one skein? That warms the cockles of my frugal little heart.

  45. I have to say that your daughter is just so beautiful. Beautiful skin, hair, and her blue eyes are gorgeous. I’ve read your blog for several years and whenever you post photos of your daughters, I just sigh. I have two sons and coming from a family of 3 girls, seeing other mum’s girls makes me smile. Just had to share that. Love the mitts, by the way. :0)

  47. I probably shouldn’t say this and risk jinxing myself, but I started early this year and only have 2 gifts left to make. Most folks are getting washcloths and soap inspired by an earlier Harlot post, others are getting personalized mugs with knitted cozys, 2 sets of fingerless gloves and some fabric knitting bags. Left to do is a crocheted ghecko and a wool hat for my nephew, who loved his acrylic one from last year so much, he wore it out. (Don’t you love that!!) I am SO looking forward to working on something for me over the holidays 🙂 yippee..only took me 59 years to get this organized….

  48. I would have done the same thing. I really like my socks to match as closely as possible…fingerless gloves are much more visible…I would have a hard time wearing them, no matter what the pattern suggested.

  49. love the mitts. love the colors. feeling kind of on the fence about the Christmas announcement being only 75 days from now.
    About jar drinking, the only thing that tastes good from a jar is moonshine. just sayin however, no sippy top is allowed. just too strange to mix the two.

  50. I love Sam in a bloggy way. She’s always game to model or whatever. I’m on Team Sam!

  51. Bravo. I would’ve knitted the fourth one as well (misery loves company). I saw that “cuppa” and it resembles a sippy cup entirely too much.

  52. Yay for having one Christmas gift done!!!! You may have time to finish Joe’s socks this year!
    The mitts are lovely. So is the model. Idea: Plan to give the spare pair to one of Sam’s sisters — whoever would like that colorway best. Then, get more of that yarn in a colorway you and the remaining daughter would really like. Then you’d have two gifts done and something for yourself!

  54. I am into these gloves. I loved the unmatched pair, a lot of potential there. But I also think the two matched pairs look wonderful. Seeing as I need new gloves this year, I am going for the unmatched look with the hat.

  55. I love that you could make a pair in a day and I love that the two pairs came out so perfectly in tune with each other. Very cool.

  56. I got not one but TWO yarn orders the last few days, both for projects not as urgent as yours, and I feel some sort of vague yarn-related guilt, as if I’m clogging up the yarn delivery systems from the US to Canada or something. Hope your yarn arrives soon. The mitts are lovely! Wait… 75 days?!!!!

  57. Christmas? They are doing that again? And in 75 days? I do wish whoever decides these things would give us more notice. 6 felted bags, 4 pairs of fingerless mitts various, 2 beanies and a partridge in a pear tree. Oh, and my husbands birthday cardigan (plain grey) to sew up, button band and button.
    Gorgeous mitts btw. You had to. You know why she’s like that. I would have kept the pink ones too.

  62. I think you should get more of this yarn and knit a matching hat and scarf for Christmas. Since she likes matching, she would have a set that is all put together, and fabulous.

  63. Great mitts — 75 days?!?! Better get into high gear! Trying to keep it simple this year, all coworkers are getting the same thing in different colors. But it’s extremely boring knitting that’s also rather fiddly, sort of the kiss of death for the Christmas spirit…

  64. Shazaam, you are fast! I’m getting suspicious that you:
    1) Have a knitting machine just out of camera range somewhere.
    2) Have a basement full of underpaid, overworked, Laotian knitters.
    Christmas….sigh. I am stuck in a continuous Yummy Mummy mitts loop. They are such a good pattern and come out so beautifully that every time I think I am done I think of someone else on my list who would just love a pair. sigh…

  65. I love the red and orange pair. The pink at the bottom to me looks like the red got gently dusted with snow–so charming.
    75 days until Christmas. OY. Christmas + brand new husband – nuclear family (moved away) = ? Fortunately we have some time to figure that out.

  66. Wow – not only matching, but exact. And 4 mitts from one skein – exactly matching. I’m so impressed. 🙂

  67. Sam only had you in mind when she wanted a perfectly matched pair of hand warmers. She knew she would be helping you out on the Christmas gift knitting. Even though I started my Christmas knitting in August, I’m a bit nervous that I won’t get it all done.

  69. Nail polish?! Do readers really ask about the nail polish in the pictures? Or are just having us on…

  71. My own plain-vanilla mitt pattern is very like that one. I came up with it to use yarn I’d spun as a color experiment. My mitts didn’t match, either. I thought un-matched was an indication of too-cool-to-care whether they were the same. Cool like a drinking jar.

  72. Left Field: Does anyone remember which one of Stephanie’s books the story about the woman dating and the happy ending is that the man she is with pulls out his OWN knitting? What book is that story in? MANY THANKS. knit knit knit.

  73. Don’t get me started with postal deliver…I shipped 3 boxes of fiber to the mill, 2 arrived and the third ended up stuck in Philadelphia. No updates since October the 8th, and all they can say is “it’s on the truck”, so eventually it may arrive…the sad part is I’m not sure which fleece has gone traveling, which makes it a wee bit more frustrating. I think if you take people’s money to provided a service, you should DELIVER on the promise..in a timely manner.

  74. I would have done the same thing if requested — and would have made the second pair to be ahead on gifts.
    The red ones rock.

  75. Love these but I can not find the yarn….. what is the weight? Do you think they would work out in wool???
    Thanks,
    Kim

  76. I was so touched by the end of the baby blanket story – by both Martha’s generosity and the new aunt & uncle’s willingness to go to any length to finish the gift of love. What a lovely gift.

  77. HA! I clicked the link for the Cuppow and it has Sam’s nail polish in the “customers that viewed this item also viewed…” section! The power of knitters never ceases to amaze me :o)

  79. The amount of liquid a newborn produces is
    clearly different than that of a toddler. As you dump a second or third spoonful, note how the center gets saturated but
    then recovers over time(as wicking transfers the liquid to
    dryer parts). Cloth diapers should be washed at least every 3 or 4 days.

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