September 15, 2004

Mitten? What mitten?

With the fervour of the obsessed, I am knitting mittens. (Oh..by the way. The 8lb human being who prevented yesterdays blogging is not sorry. Just thought I would let you know that she showed very little remorse. None actually.)

The thrummed mittens are done, see how nice they look? Puffy and cozy?

thrumdone

That's because the insides look like this...

insidethrum

Cool eh? The thrums are little folded wisps of fleece knit into some stitches. The ends fall to the inside, and form a soft pillow of fluffy wonderment that magically transforms the mitten into a hand furnace. Seriously. As Cece discovered, unless you live somewhere where it gets seriously cold, you are going to wear them like she did, five minutes on...five minutes off. If you do live somewhere that it gets properly cold (by properly, I mean that in the morning you check the windchill to see how many minutes it takes to freeze exposed skin, on account of you are out of milk and wonder if it's too cold to go to the corner....or cold enough that if the kids go to the recreation centre for swimming, you have to remind them that if they walk home with wet hair, they shouldn't try to take their hats off until their hair thaws...or cold enough that when you heard the expression "Me goosebumps were so big, I did'nt know where to put me bra" you thought it was funny...but could relate.) if you do live somewhere like that, then you're gonna love these, and have all 10 fingers if your car breaks down in Collingwood...but that's another story.

In the spirit of lovin' the thrum and it's unique Canadian goodness...I'm suggesting that together with Crystal we do a Thrum along? I'll start my mittens two weeks from now...let's say the 27th of September, and I'll walk everybody through it. You can use any pattern you like, Spin Off has one in this issue, there's another here, and here. I'm sure you will find more. (Including these ones. Not traditional, but devastating)

Do as pleases you...but remember, I am sworn to uphold proper Canadian knitting technique. These means that I might mock anybody who uses "pencil roving " instead of the more appropriate fleece or roving. Although it is fine stuff for other things...it has no place in a mitten. I will mock kindly, I will mock with compassion...I will mock with the respect that all knitters deserve, but I will mock.

I spend last evening knitting these two and a half mittens.

famitts

What's that? It only looks like one mitten to you? That's because you can't see the first mitten, which I ripped back in a fit of temper when it was...well, weird.
The pattern has been unceremoniously dumped and I began again with...a pattern out of my head. When halfway through that one it turned out that I was out of my mind, and that the mitten would have fit Konishiki with room left over for him to keep a hankie tucked into the edge, it was ripped back with building hostility. The mitten you see now is the end result of actual math, figuring and decent luck. I'm quite happy now. Too bad it all means nothing to me...since I have been ROAKed to within an inch of my life. Behold! The reason that I'm stuffing the current mittens into the back of my knitting basket as though they were common trash.

roakbooks

Folk Mittens is from Laurie (Yes, that Laurie, have I mentioned that I love Laurie?) who claims that she will never knit mittens, no matter how I entice her. (We shall completely skip over the fact that my particular personality reads that as a challenge....) and Latvian mittens is from fellow Canadian blogger Peggy . It is an incredible book. Stunning. I'm completely overwhelmed and feeling more than a little guilty for getting such wonderful things. I'm having a whole Wayne and Garth moment. I am not worthy. I am however, beyond grateful and thrilled to death.

As for "Tuesdays Are For Spinning"? Couldn't get near the thing.

megspin

Would you be concerned about a kid who was obsessive about spinning even though she looks like that while she does it? Oh boundless joy...thy name is Meg.


Posted by Stephanie at September 15, 2004 12:05 PM