So, how was the dim sum?

I’m sick. I’ve been swimming in a lake of denial for days about it, until yesterday when the earache that I had for a while (like, a week or two) suddenly became insanely painful, knocked me arse over teakettle, rendered me mostly deaf in my left ear, gave me a fever and stuffed up my nose. (I know, I know…I’m supposed to do something about it before this. I know. I didn’t and now I’m sorry. I’m a slacker who doesn’t like going to doctors and it’s no wonder that I’m sick now. It’s just that I’m a really healthy person who totally thinks that things get better by themselves if you just wait. This is my theory. I know that this may be a particularly dumbass theory for someone who obviously has something really wrong with their ear that didn’t get better by itself when she waited… The irony isn’t lost on me.) This meant two things:
-That I missed the Stitch and Bitch last night, as well as the meeting of The Toronto Guild of Spinners and Weavers. I hate missing things. I sat here convinced that I was missing some serious fun. That this was the best night I could have gone to either one of those things, that they had probably gone out for dim sum afterwards or something, and everyone was laughing and dancing….I bet that there was free wool. I bet that as they were walking down the street, (after the dim sum) they were all admiring the moon glinting off the rain dampened streets of Toronto when a truck hit a speedbump going way too fast. The back doors of the truck flew open and enormous boxes fell out. The driver looked at his watch and then yelled out the window “Just keep it” and kept on going. Then all the knitters went over and they looked in the boxes and it was yarn and roving. Then they all said “Holy cow! Can you believe this? It’s all Stephanie’s favourite stuff. I can’t believe she’s not here! ” Then they divided it all up and vowed never to speak of this lucky moonlit night again, just so they didn’t have to share with me, then they all had to hail cabs to get home because they had so much yarn and roving that they couldn’t fit on the streetcar. It makes me crazy to think that people were having fun without me. (I’m disappointed in my lack of personal growth too. I’m trying to be more mature.)
-Lest you think that there was no entertainment had last night because I stayed home sick…there was plenty. Because I was/am having trouble hearing, the demonic changelings children passed a pleasant evening saying things just loudly enough that I could hear that they had said something…but quietly enough that I couldn’t hear what it was. Then they giggle and look at me while I say “What? What?”. Funny stuff. Hysterical. This was followed by an equally enthralling 10 minutes where they all lay on the floor laughing so hard that they could scarcely breathe while I yelled really clever things like “Are you mocking me! Are you mocking your mother!”
None of this is as funny as when (because I am showing such little personal growth) I end up banishing them to their rooms for “Mocking”. Laugh on, my little darlings.
the earache/congestion/fever apparently takes all the fight out of me, since even though the baby sweater is done. I didn’t start anything new at all. I worked on the poncho, (there is no picture of the poncho because it is raining and I am sick and don’t want to crawl in the front bushes. Use your imaginations. It’s beautiful.) I’m using the pattern (can you call two rectangles that you sew together a pattern?) that came with the yarn, and I’m halfway.
I finished a sock,
1rbsock
and I cruised the net being a good little blogger finding out if Paton’s had reissued the pattern for the lace baby sweater. They have, and it’s in here. Knock yourselves out. I made some minor changes to the pattern, mostly sizing issues, (and a sleeve thing…but you wouldn’t care) but you could make one almost exactly the same. It took me two 25g balls of the Lana Gatto “Mignon“.
Before I go and lie on the couch and engage in my extraordinarily bitter (but perfected) performance of “Speech 47A”, subtitled “Motherhood, the only job you can’t call in sick to“, I have decided to warn you. I feel a mitten fixation coming on. Anybody know of some patterns? Serious, intricate, brilliant mitten patterns?

50 thoughts on “So, how was the dim sum?

  1. Eek! Kick your feet up and have some nice soup. Don’t do anything resembling something productive (housework, cooking, etc) and just take care of yourself. Hope you feel better soon.

  2. Knitting, tea, soup and chocolate – know a pharmacy to deliver that? Thank goodness the changelings are back in school. After school, send them out on a mission to track down all those items (well maybe not the knitting ). That should have them out for at least another hour and a half! Feel better soon, Steph.
    And dontcha just hate it when conventional medicine is actually right about something?!!!?

  3. Well, we missed you, but there wasn’t any moonlit dimsum and wool-snatching… really. None at all. (But hey – dumsum. Good idea… some Sunday before the Sunday SnB, I should go for dimsum… maybe with others… hmmm). And does it make me a bad person if I’m sneakily slightly glad that you didn’t come because you were sick and NOT because you don’t love us anymore?
    Get well quickly, and we’ll promise not to wander in the moonlight until next Wednesday.

  4. Hey, I missed the S’nB and I’m perfectly healthy! And I have magnificent mittens for you – no literally – the book is called Magnificent Mittens by Anna Zilborg and I’ve made some (I think I posted them on my gallery) and they were magnificent…so I made a hat to match.

  5. Carolina beat me to suggesting you visit Lisa over at blogdogblog.
    Did you see the Poetry Mittens in a old issue of Piecework? Those were interesting…
    Feel better soon! (get to a doctor…ear infections are no fun)

  6. As one who suffered from painful, reoccuring inner ear infections when I was A Wee Thing, I truly sympathize and wish you many feelings of betterness soon. Until then, call upon the power of Mom to do the one thing children hate most: Put them to work waiting on you. That’ll learn ’em for the mocking. 🙂

  7. Aven – you mean there’s a S’nB on Sunday too???
    And what do you mean Aubergine – gloveless mittens???? are mittens already not gloves?

  8. And then there’s Nancy Bush’s “Folk Mittens”. I have the first printing – “Folk Mitens”!
    Lots of colourwork, in various folk traditions.

  9. I don’t have any mitten patterns, but I have some fabulous purple sparkly yarn left over from a scarf I made that is DYING to become matching mittens. *hint hint* (What? I’m a grad student! I don’t have time to learn how to make mittens AND knit some up before New England winter strikes!!)

  10. Feel better! I’ve never done any but the plainest mittens, so I’m much looking forward to wherever this mitten kick takes us. (Yes, us. I am sure you will convince me to knit mittens.)

  11. MITTENS?
    I just finished fringeing my poncho this morning and you’re already suggesting the whole bandwagon move on to mittens? I hope it doesn’t get cold that fast. My poncho’s cotton. Although I think all of your weather blows up from here (Windsor) so I’ll probably need the mittens before you will; eeek.
    The greatest thing happened today, that has never happened for me before: I finished knitting something and the very first day there was appropriate weather to wear it in! Whee!
    Forgive the mom tone, but infections don’t go away without drugs. Take care of yourself.

  12. feel better.
    My prescription (given me by my german grandmother):Hot tea with a liberal dollop of whiskey( or bourbon or rum, pick a favorite) and juice from a lemon. Also Garlic and honey all mushed up together. Not the greatest tasting, and one becomes anathema to family and friends for a day, but very effective for feeling better.
    Love the sock, I adore the color variations in the yarn.

  13. You have my deepest sympathies for your condition, dearest Ms. Harlot. I’m sick as well, and all because I didn’t want to spoil a Labor Day camping trip; I’m paying the piper now. Hell is having to make your own chicken noodle soup. *sigh* Here’s to hoping we both get well quick! 🙂

  14. Oh, you poor darling thing! I agree with Devon’s drink mix – and if you put enough of the liquor in, the taste won’t bother you so much after the first few sips!
    I’m going to confess to you now that I am actually morally opposed to patterns in general, but if you were to find a wonderful cable-y fun pattern for mittens… well, in that case, I might have to give in…

  15. Oooh, Stephanie. As a recurrent sufferer of chronic earache, I feel for you. Lots of hot things to drink, hot showers, sleep, and whatever drugs the doctors give you if they don’t wig you out. Get better soon!
    (And make the girls do delightful “Mama” chores like dishwashing in your absence — they’ll want you well again soon!)
    Mittens… The Folk Mittens book is good. Also anything that deals with Scandinavian knitting — it’s insanely complicated design-wise, with lots of little tiny stitches, but the shaping is pretty straight-forward and it’s all stranded knitting — not hard for a yarlot like yourself. Have fun!

  16. Sorry to hear you’re not feeling well, I hope it passes soon. Remeber, take ALL of your antibiotics…
    I have to second, or third, the “Folk Mittens” book. It has lots of adaptable designs, and if you coupled it with the mitten/glove article from Interweave Knits, I think you’d have all the mitten info a Harlot could need.
    Its getting cold here in the UP, and mittens will be needed sooner than I want to admit. yuck.

  17. Poor Harlot! Sick right after the kids go back to school. I agree with the previous posts-get the girls to do all the stuff you normally do. heh heh!
    Love the sock!

  18. I had my first ear infection at 27, gave me a whole new appreciation for anti-biotics…and a whole lot of sympathy for kids who have them chronically.
    As for the kids? Three words. Duct Tape. Velcro.
    I have dreams about yarn falling off trucks all the time or yarn stores going out of business and selling everything for $1 per skein, that and going to estate sales and finding the most amazing antiques for *nothing*.

  19. Ooh yuk, working in the schools I am dreading the start of cold season….all these little germ factories running around sneezing on me! Hope you feel better soon! I also advocate duct tape…works wonders!

  20. Yuck, hope you feel better soon. And I’m sure your friends will share some of the roving windfall. 😉
    I have just started making mittens again, although I’m not sure I’m up for the Folk Mittens patterns, as beautiful as they are. I’m working on some of the Robin Hansen mittens from “Fox and Geese and Fences.” Probably not challenging enough for a driven yarn harlot like yourself, although if you’re sick they just might be enough to occupy you.

  21. Oh, take care..those ear aches can be the pits! Knowing you you’ll find a fabulous mitten that will knock us out. Personally I like Nancy Bush’s book “Knitting In Estonia”. It has many great mittens, gloves and socks.

  22. And to think on your last post we puffed you all up with how wonderful you are, and now you’re all poopy! Poor thing.
    I will be checking these mitten ideas along with you because I have yarn just nicely aged in my stash that is a souvenier of a trip to Scotland last year. Several shades of natural sheep, including Hebridean, dk weight, just waiting to be warm mittens.

  23. HA!! I LOVE your kids! I got banished for mocking once, too! It was the joyous Christmas season and my father was watching some show where they had a boy�s choir singing. My brother and I marched around singing in extra high falsetto voices and laughing ourselves silly. My father, in all his seasonal glee, whipped around in his chair, turned a curious shade of red and said something to the effect of �This is beautiful and I don�t want to hear you two ruining it! Go to your rooms NOW!� We sang a few more bars for good measure and skeedaddled. The weird thing is that my dad is the most laid back, gentle guy in the world (think Jim Henson). Poor dad gets very stressed around the holidays.
    Feel better! I don�t have a mitten pattern, but feast yer peepers on these! http://www.interweave.com/knit/interweave_knits/Galleries/glove_gallery.asp

  24. i can’t recommend anything fancy, but a good *basic* mitten pattern for you is here: http://www.vintageknits.com/mitten.htm
    i’m making them now with just stripes out of the most heavenly yarn (jo sharp silkroad tweed), but they are pretty basic so you can stick in any sort of fair isle or intarsia pattern you darn well please.
    i also have a mitten fixation, so i shall be watching you to see what sort of patterns you turn up to knit!

  25. Oh, puddin’. Okay,here’s what you do. First separate one lucky lock from those piles of clean fleecerats and tuck it into your shellpink ear. Much warmer than cotton — you can feel it radiating concern. (If you have some Auralgan in the nice blue bottle left over from the kids to drop in first, fine — actually a little warm cooking oil helps more than nothing.)
    All of the above assumes you’ve seen a doctor and are not spitting in Sir James Fleming’s eye. But the wool’s going to feel good until you’re perfectly healed.
    Then, to reward yourself for being excellent nurse and patient rolled into one, check out the relative virtues of:
    Latvian Mittens by Lisbeth Upitis (great cuff techniques — chevron braid, integral looped fringe — but I really went nuts when I realized not a tithe of the graphs are actually illustrated. Years of exploration. Fine gauge — cobwebs on needle-exchange needles.)
    Fox&Geese&Fences and Flying Geese and Partridge Feet by Robin Hansen, as mentioned above. Maybe the only case where the sequel’s superior to the original because Hansen, although born in Maine, lacks the accent, and folks weren’t necessarily telling everything they knew … until the first one appeared without their family pattern! Hansen’s a linguist, so nifty anthropological stuff along with my favorite, Chipman’s block (and those concealed increases/decreases are NOT basic!)
    The Knitter’s Almanac by Elizabeth Godblessher Zimmerman (Dover) has a great mitten chapter, including Norwegians. Certainly her take on the genre, but a great place to start.
    I’m sorry. You’re sick. I’ll stop. Have the fuzzy afghan over your toes. Here’s the screech-in-tea. Would you rather have Moonstruck or Bull Durham? Oh. Well, I’ll see if I can find Purple Rain — the desk leg was wobbly…
    (You get well)

  26. Sigh. Since you’re apparently not going to rise to the bait to find or create the almost lace poncho I so desire, you might as well Check out Magnificent Mittens- Anna Zilborg They are full of insanely difficult and breath taking charts, and you will probabally have to learn to dye to get the exact colors you want, but it will be soooooo worth it. Also, these can only be knit while the children are in another zip (post) code. Be well, or fake being sick enough that you can lie in the bed, the knitting hidden under your pillow with a flash light for when they fiannally leave you alone.

  27. I’m putting in a vote for The Mitten Book, by Inger and Ingrid Gottfridsson. Just a basic mitten pattern with lots of floral and geometric designs to choose from. Feel better soon!

  28. I SAY THRUM!!!! as if you wouldn’t love a gloriously thrummed set of mittens! i know you are on a yarn diet, but i am sure you have some spectacular roving sitting around the house… but if you don’t… they used to have GORGEOUS kits at romni for just this sort of thing. mmmm. i am spinning up some alpaca i kool aid dyed for thrummed mittens that are supposed to go to a fair competition on the 18th of this month. yet, i am still spinning… with a drop spindle 🙂 when i am finished, which will be in a day or so, we could start a THRUM ALONG. if you’re into that sort of thing 😉

  29. Latvian mittens, that’s the key. There’s a group of Latvian ladies around here that make mittens, and they are wondrous mittens to behold. And when they make miniature Latvian mittens – step back!
    I, on the other hand, hate knitting mittens with a passion. Give me sock heel after sock heel, but keep those accursed thumbs away from me!! In fact, one member of our community knitting group has said that she will knit one thumb from each pair of mittens I knit for the community. (She knows how safe she is!)

  30. … and this is your low-energy-sick moment? Sweetheart, I send virtual garlicky chicken soup your way. I wish I could be there to make you some REAL soup, (I make a mean soup) but even in your delirium, you entertain us like this? I’m not worthy to share a continent with you. *heart*

  31. OK, missy, there’s already 42 posts here about taking care of that ear, so I’ll refrain from assuming a stern maternal tone and admonishing you that someone who loves babies and has made a career out of working with them ought to know that ear infections are nothing to mess with! Oops. Guess I ranted anyway. Well, take care of it and get well. Please?
    Being a vegetarian, I suggest just garlic soup–no chicken. Eat enough of it and the kids will banish themselves to their rooms! (Yes, it is an evil plot.)

  32. First, I hope you feel much better, real soon.
    Then when you feel much better, listen: THANKS!!!!!!!!
    I’m totally addicted to the Very Harlot poncho. I’ve been wokring on mine all evening, and people are already lining up for more. I can’t wait to see how the first one comes out… …THanks, thanks, thanks, for having entirely reframed the notion of String Theory in my mind!

  33. I also have to put in a vote for ‘Folk Mittens’ by Marcia (I think it’s Lewandowski?) – there are about 4 things in there I want to make. There are also a couple of adorable mitten patterns in Nancy Bush’s ‘Folk Knitting from Estonia’.

  34. I’m surprised no one has mentioned these yet:
    http://www.marinanet.ru:8101/aindex1-5.htm
    I also warmly endorse all the already mentioned books. I recently found used copies of Robin Hansen’s books. They are great for the folklore, but the patterns are not as flashy as I had expected. This is real-life utility mittens knit in two colors for warmth. Steeped in History, they are, but they are definitely not Onkel Johs’ Selbu mittens. (This is, sadly, not my uncle, but Hans’. He (Johs, not Hans) is well over 90 and still knitting mittens, and still chopping wood for charity.)

  35. Another vote for Anna Zilboorg’s mittens. They are The Mittens to end all mittens, the cast-on is unbelievably clever, and really not all that hard to do. (And yes, you really do want to do the angora linings. Swoon!) You can use any sport-weight yarn for them but can also purchase the beautifully hand-dyed stuff Anna uses from Liisu Yarns. http://www.liisu.homestead.com
    Now, having Google’d Liisu on your behalf and discovered that they are online at last, it is entirely your fault that my stash will have grown before the end of the day. Thankfully, no one has yet discovered an antibiotic for that particular “virus”…!

  36. I really just wanted to BE 47A. Okay, 48. Take care . . . you live my life. Or maybe you are reliving mine. Our ‘girls’ are 21, 19 and 17 in 3 weeks. It only gets wackier. Grace

  37. Get better soon and DO send the children to do the errands and DO eat the soup it is good for you but please don’t have us knitting mittens yet, its tooooo hot here for ponchos never mind mittens, though I don’t have your knitting speed so maybe I should start a poncho now….

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