She didn’t make it

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I’m changing planes in the Denver airport, headed for Sacramento, and I have bad news.  Frankenmitten didn’t make it.  Things looked okay for a while, but just now, sitting on the floor in Denver, I had to finally let go and understand that although we’d fought a brave fight, she just couldn’t go on. 

Difficulties began for Frankenmitten when I screwed up one cross in the braid and thought I could live with it, and were compounded by complications with gauge and stranding, and the fact that I made her cuff way to big.

Things continued to go wrong when I put the thumb too low, and the final blow was dealt when I saw that the whole thing was going to be too long, and that she sadly had a defective row that couldn’t be managed – even surgically.

Sadly, she has been removed from needle support, but will be missed – and possibly replaced.

203 thoughts on “She didn’t make it”

  4. Hi oh wandering knitter. Thought I would delurk to be able to send you a first comment post! Do so love you and your blog!

  5. I’m sorry to hear of the loss of Frankenmitten, and in an airport of all forsaken places. I hope the second attempt goes better for ya!

  6. Oh, sad day. It was looking so gorgeous, too!
    Hopefully it’ll be replaced. The yarn is far too pretty to go back in the stash.

  8. The Design process is painful & includes many slashes, rips, amputations & deletions. It’s the only way you’ll ever get what you want. They will be gorgeous when you get it right!!

  12. Good thing you have the sense to take care of it before the villagers arrived with torches! Now I want to watch “Young Frankenstein”!

  15. Is there anything more frustrating? It’s lovely anyway, and hopefully another mitten will replace her.
    I’ll be at the Denver airport on Monday… heading out to Paris! 🙂 I’ll think of you and your frankenmitten while I’m there.

  16. Oh the bittersweet emotion of grief/relief!! You hung in there for a good long time, but you should know yourself better by now. You would have been forever explaining, when people admired your mittens, that there actually was a teeny-tiny error in the braid. Going on after that mistake was ignoring your own inner knitter. Nevertheless, I mourn the death of franken mitten #1. Is there going to be a second attempt at the same pattern? I hope you took a second project with you on this trip. Cheers and red wine, Hazel.

  17. I recommend more caffeine and another try. You can rebuild her; you can make her better, stronger faster- the Bionic Frankenmitten!

  25. you stephanie- you so NEED to come to this-when does your class end on sat.? you not too far from nevada city-promise lots of laughs- i know it’s a champagne reception-but if you come i’ll bring beer!!!! see info below!
    Please join us for a gala reception for our group of local
    spinners and knitters.
    Mark your calendar…
    When: Saturday, September 19th
    Time: 3:30 – 6:00 PM
    Where: MeadowFarm Yarn Studio
    103 Argall Way, Nevada City
    (around the block and down the street from SPD Market)
    The new Spin-Off magazine has a wonderful article by spinners/kintters Lindsey Cleveland, Sue Flynn, Dee Jones, Sara Lamb and Eileen Lee, who will be here to sign your copy. The shawls will be on display (as well as the designers/authors!).
    In case you do not receive Spin-Off by subscription, you may pick one up at MeadowFarm anytime, now or at the reception!
    Hope to see you there!

  29. Very few experiments work on the first try – even Dr. Frankenstein needed to repeat his creation several times before he succeeded. Can’t wait to see your next attempt – I’m sure it will be everything you want since you’ve worked through all the kinks on this one.

  30. I wonder what I would do if I was wondering through the Denver airport, as happens now and then, and I saw you and your mitten(or sock, or whatever…)on the floor?
    I think I would leap and shout.

  31. Thank goodness you are human. Here, I thought I was the only one that sometimes forgets to stop and inspect. I’m sure that was your intent here to let your readers take a big breath of relief knowing no one is perfect not even our favorite, funny and quite spectacular ,Yarn Harlot. The next one will be twice as amazing and you will love it and so will whoever gets it.

  33. “Needle support”
    ROTFL!
    See you in class tomorrow afternoon!
    I’m ready to GROK my socks.
    I really am.
    (Sorry about Frank.)

  34. That is gorgeous!! I would say to not give up. It is possible that you need to ignore it for a week, then start fresh with a new one (you were going to make 2 anyway, so an extra one is not that much more). Don’t think about it for a while.
    By the way, I think that you will really like Sacramento. I live about 50 miles away (and am totally jealous that I was not able to sign up for your seminars since they were sold ou). People in Sacramento are very nice, and are really looking forward to you being there. I am sure you will make at least 100 new friends! Have fun!

  36. Phew…for a second there, I thought you’d *lost* Frankenmitten. It’s a bummer having to frog something you were so anxious to start, but I have no doubt that since you still have all the yarn, Frankenmitten will rise again!

  38. You’re going to be in my town, and I can’t go see you. Curses. Please don’t judge us by Terminal B, if you fly into it, it’s a 70’s disaster.

  40. this might be cosmic karma for saying that Denver kills people. Or just ya’know, Denver culling out the weak mittens. It’s hard to tell.

  42. Oh my. Such a beautiful work in progress, despite the “issues.” To a modest intermediate such as I, it seems a crime to rip such a work of art all out!

  44. At least it wasn’t chased out of town by a mob of angry villagers with torches and shovels and rakes. Sounds like it a much more peaceful death.

  47. I’m picturing the thumb gusset closed up, the cuff end sewn together, some ribbing added at the end, and you’ve got a toe cover for someone with a cast on a broken foot, absolutely gorgeous and the blipped side could be worn down (as if any non-knitter would notice, and if they did, they would exclaim that oh wow, it’s handknit!)

  48. Taking a line from the RCMP……..as a Canadian you will always get your mitten. (Just not right now.)

  49. That’s so sad! But surely one try isn’t all you’re going to give this lovely mitten… Try it one more time, for us.
    My thoughts are with you and your now mittenless needles.

  51. “Good thing you like knitting.” I’m trying to think of who said that to me when I had to rip out a fatal button band – do you remember?

  52. Denver, the mile high city, seems to be one of those places for you where the light shines bright and clear with mental acuity, even though the breathable air is thin!

  55. But it was a valiant effort. Did you try teeny paddles to revive her? (“Clear!!”) At the very least, she seems to have been a yarn donor. In the wake of her passing, other (mittens) will live.

  61. Don’t take this the wrong way but it makes me feel so much better when you make the same mistakes that I do. I also know when I’ve made a mistake that I can never live with but then I carry on knitting anyway.

  62. Frakenmitten is living up to her name as what you’ve knit would probably look awesome on a zombie or other undead creature. I believe that when you are undead, your anatomy goes through strange contortions, and hey, they must have terribly cold hands what with having no blood circulation.
    BTW – I’m re-reading your archives. Yep, my second time through and still just as fun. I find myself anticipating the hilarity and certain knits such as the mango slut-tank, the cherry aran and best of all Laurie’s Rainbow socks (should have a trademark).

  63. Ok, Let’s look at this from the viewpoint of the Knitting Goddess. It’s a mitten. It’s summer. Again, it’s a mitten, not a sock. Only socks travel to airports to be photographed (or kinneared, if you will). If you, Miss YH, choose, against the will of the KG, to take a MITTEN to the airport, I, the KG will arrange for the mitten to beg to be let out of its misery (or to fall off it’s swords). NEVER cross the rules of the Knitting Goddess.
    But have a good trip and let’s see some socks!!!!

  66. My condolences.
    My husband always asks: “and you enjoy this why?” every time he witnesses the ribbiting/swearing ritual. Only a knitter understands both the pain of and the need for these decisions.
    “Removed from needle support”. I will need to remember that one.

  74. The road to wisdom?
    Well, it’s plain, and simple to express.
    Err, and err, and err again,
    But less and less and less.
    – Piet Hein
    Seems like a normal design process to me… when we’re used to looking at finished products (including patterns), it’s easy to underestimate what went into them. Thanks for bringing us along on the journey!

  77. I’m sad to see her go, but so GLAD that you make knitting mistakes too! I have yet to produce a mistake-free anything. This gives me hope to keep knitting!

  78. Oh, how distressing. I’m about halfway through my very first colorwork project (also mittens) and trying to ignore the fact that they are definitely too small. If worse comes to worse I guess I’ll bring them to a homeless shelter for some lucky little girl.

  80. Those mistakes would have really bugged me too. Good decision. (I love that “needle support” line as well – move those needles to the next project!)

  81. Frankenmitten, you will be missed, but I am hoping there will be a Frankenmitten.1 to replace it.
    I hate to say it things going wrong in your knitting make me a better knitter…is that wrong?

  84. Oh well. These things do happen. But you do have something else to knit on right? That would be the real tragedy here!

  86. a project like that is way out of my league. and if I managed to get that far, to hell with the “errors”. I’d finish it (or burn it) rather than frog it back and start over. what a painful decision for you to make.

  88. Awwww, nuts! As fast as you are I figured they’d be done by now, instead of off needle-support! I’m so sorry! I hate it when a project doesn’t turn out well for me; I hope you can start these pretties over with all pattern problems ironed out.

  89. When I started reading, I was afraid she was confiscated by security or lost as she went through the X-ray machine. I’m actually relieved it was just a design issue.
    I’m sure the next version will benefit from her brief time on the needles.

  94. You have learned much from the lovely Frankenmitten (she was lovely in spite of her flaws) and that fact gives her short life a purpose and will make the next mitten even more beautiful. Sometimes in life we don’t get a second chance to make things right, but in knitting we always do. She will be missed, though, especially her beautiful snowflake.

  95. I’m sorry to hear about your mitten’s passing. But you’re heading to Sacramento where it’s generally a large oven, so it would be kinda funny to be making a mitten.

  96. ooouch. I would not frog a mitten for anything but structural flaws. Messed up designs? Who will see it in a snowstorm? But of the cuff is wrong or the thumb is misplaced, well, I do have some standards! Mittens must work!

  98. Stephanie, sorry for your frog pond adventure. Has anyone suggested “Labrador Snowflake Mittens” from Robin Hansen’s Flying Geese and Patridge Feet? I made them years ago and a woman begged me to sell them to her, so I did…they fit well and required a gauge of 7 sts = 1 inch, though I used worsted for them, if you can believe that. The pattern is not on ravelry, or I’d post a link.

  99. I might have to disagree with you about the cuff. I usually make mine twice the length the pattern specifies. There’s nothing worse than your wrist hanging out between coat and mitten.
    Hopefully they won’t lose your luggage in Denver. They were notorious for it when they first opened. Pretty airport isn’t it?

  100. It’s a shame to let excellent knitting go to waste.
    I think it would make a terrific Christmas/winter decoration hung from a mantle or a very fanciful gift bag….could you fit a bottle of wine in it?….or maybe a can of beer?

  102. What is standing in the way of my expressing my compassion is my complete shock & awe that you got so much done since you decided to do this pattern. Whereas, I have struggled all day to get a pitiful 7cm done on the cuff of my Norwegian Snail Mittens, whose ‘welts’ were kicking my butt.
    What I’d really like is a column from you on how you’ve cajoled the laws of physics into your favor.

  104. I’m working on Frankensock, Frankenmitten’s ugly cousin. So far (rip-out #5) every “creative” thing I’ve done has made it look like a K-Mart tube sock. Just pulled out the needles and cut off the now-raggedy yarn so I can start over with something worthwhile. I feel your pain. Really. I do. Dammit.

  105. When you land in Sacramento you will be 20 minutes from my house. How I wish we could do beer and pizza. Oh well, I’ll be groking (grokking) with you Saturday morning.

  107. Boy, it’s a really good thing that you have those little red arrows. I read the post first before looking at the pictures carefully and even with the description and the arrows, the only error I could see was the “defective” row. You have amazing standards. Which is a good thing. But I think I’m glad I don’t sit next to you at Knit Nite. (Although I don’t think you would ever point out someone else’s mistake. You would just lead by example.)

  108. You know, as much as I am saddened that the Frankenmitten will not live to fulfill its purpose in life, I am entirely relieved that a person as fantastic a knitter as yourself can, at rare times (I’m sure), make mistakes. I am saddened for your loss but know that the mitten that will be YOUR pefect mitten will someday BE.

  109. Possibly the doomed-ness began when you called her Frankemitten in the first place?
    Despite these construction problems, I think it is a beautiful mitten and you should try it again.
    No Bride of Frankenmitten either.
    Maybe Snow Queen…

  110. RIP Frankenmitten. You were loved and you shall be missed….but you had a purpose and the next version shall be fully awesome.

  113. Can Frankenmitten truly die, or can she be “rebuilt”. Perhaps add a few more attractive parts to make her more appealing, a stitch here, a stitch there? 😉
    good luck

  115. Today Sun (creation) and Saturn (death) are connected in Virgo (the sign of perfection). The moon (nurturing) is dark so this had to be the end of the flawed, but lovely, creation. Franken mitten is ready to be reborn once the moon begins to grow and Sun escapes Saturn, Sunday is a good day to restart. With love of your blog and your craft. AUM.

  116. I was caught by surprise today….I saw the Denver International carpet and was like “hey where else in the world is that carpet?” Upon further reading I find you are on my local carpet losing a patient. Take care and fly safe.
    Hope you enjoyed your short stay in Colorado.

  118. Frankenmitten
    2009-2009
    R.I.P.
    (but still hoping for a resurrection. It’s beautiful, Stephanie!)

  119. I gotta tell ya, when you rip out intricate work like that I get a little sick to my stomach.
    You’re a better woman than I.
    Vaya con Dios, Frankenmitten.

  120. Good call. Looked like crap.
    Whilst you were ripping, I got to spend the whole day yarn crawling with Rams. Neener neener!

  122. What! you are coming to my town, Sacramento, where will you be? Is this a working visit or for fun? I agree went Presbytera good call on the mit.

  125. Sometimes things continue without too much fuss.But other times once you make a knitting boo-boo,
    Things keep going wrong.

  126. Thank God for your honesty about your trips to the frog pond. It is so encouraging to those of us who take regular trips there.

  127. What else can be said…such wit & sympathy…I would have needed a knitting break. Perhaps it’s time to have a finishing stint. Who knows what today is?! Three months until Christmas!! Maybe start the Lene schedule upon your return home? Fight for a peace filled yule.

  128. That was One. Beautiful. Mitten.
    And the best way to celebrate the being-and-passing of something incredible is to begin again in its memory!

  129. So sad! She was looking so lovely, too! I’m learning the art of circular needles at the moment, and start number 4 is looking like it may actually amount to something(!?!). It’s helpful for us novices to know that even ‘proper’ knitters have these issues sometimes, even if it’s in a completely different knitting universe 😉

  130. “I love how far you’ll let yourself go before admitting there might be a problem.
    Posted by: Rachel H at September 18, 2009 2:15 PM”
    Yes, and that, too… I SO much understand that!!

  132. I am so inspired by your blog. I am somewhat right-left dyslexic and learning to purl and am having the most dreadful and amusing struggles. People walk by, lean over, and exclaim “Oh, she’s trying to purl!” in the way we comment on my 15 month old nephew when he tries to kick the ball and goes sprawling. Much like a toddler I often burst into tears of rage, then I rip back the swatch and start over. Today I read the blog of a knitting goddess and find that she just frogged soemthing.
    Okay, so that’s like comparing singing your ABCs to soloing in Phantom of the Opera. I feel better anyway.
    It’s a lovely mitten and your next try will be spot on. Wish I could buy you some good vino and watch you purl for a bit!

  133. I feel your pain, I am on the third time knitting a sock that clearly does not want to be knitted. No stitch pattern, by the way, just plain stockinette. On this third try, I have had to tink the heel flap back 3 times. The heel flap. It is a battle of wills now. Anyway, knowing that the woman who wrote the book on knitting and also invented Kinnearing has mitten woes makes me feel a little bit less like setting this stupid sock on fire and walking away. So thanks! We will prevail!!

  134. how very sad…..shall I wear black on Sunday? It’s not my best color, but to honor your loss, it could be done.
    I do agree, thought – it’s a swatch!

  135. Oh dear. It seems that all of my knitting has ended up this way lately. I feel your pain.

  136. Gone so young. My condolences to the Frankenmitten family….. but there is reincarnation, right?
    BTW-just read your tweet about Sacramento-yeah, it’s wicked HOT and dry-that’s where my daughter moved to (and for the life of me I can’t figure out why a girl from a small town in NH could live where it never snows, they don’t have brilliant fall foliage, and all the trees look like they are dying). But I do wish I was there visiting-so I could catch your visit. 🙂

  137. Oh well. The actual snowflake motif in the main body is amazing though! I hope you redo this with that in the next one.

  138. Wait, wait, wait! Why are you in Sac??? I live there! Where will you be? Why? And can we have lunch?
    Oh, and sorry about your mitten. She would never have been happy had you continued.

  140. I will have you know that Sacramento is lovely. If you come east up highway 50 about an hour from Sac you will reach the lovely area called Apple Hill. Way back in the Gold Rush many people settled in this mountain area and planted apple orchards. Some are still owned by those same families. This time of year there is live music, vendors, even wine tasting. You can have a picnic lunch in the middle of a cool apple orchard under a sunny blue sky. You’re not quite in time for the greening-up of the foothills; that happens later in October. But the fading native Buck-eye trees have the most beautiful flaming foliage. Oh, and it does snow.

  141. Stunningly beautiful first draft. I am sure that the ripped-and-resurrected Frankenmitten is going to be a thing (or a pair of things, hopefully) of outstanding beauty!

  142. Number one reason for me to learn how to knit mittens from tip of fingers, then you can try on as you go, tweak, and keep knitting. The colors are beautiful for this pattern, reminds me of freshly fallen snow.

  143. Sometimes knits just have to learn when to leave!
    Amazing the clarity of perspective that occur in airports. Look forward to seeing more of Stephs mitts.

  144. When knitting problems accumulate, it is best to cut your losses, call it a learning experience, and move on. Have fun in Sacramento!

  145. I second the earlier suggestion of taking a look at Janel’s new Winter’s Eve mitten here: http://www.beebonnet.com/. Pretty picot edge, no ribbing, snowflakes, pointy, blue and white. Either than, or Frankie Jr., which I’m sure will also turn out lovely (eventually!)

  146. RIBBBBBBBBBBBBIT….ribbbbbbbbbbbit….
    RIP Frank! May your successor be by design and not a pain in the behind!

  147. I’m sorry, but I do feel so much better when one of the knitting gurus has to frog something. It makes me feel a bit less dunce-like. 😉

  149. Isn’t it amazing how as knitters we see every single error and at first try to tell ourselves, it’s OK, no one else will see it, when really we feel like there are large red arrows pointing to the errors for everyone else to see? It makes me feel good to know that most knitters are just as obsessive-compulsive as me. So sorry about the mitten. I am sure you already have a grander plan for the next one!

  150. Honestly I knew there was a mistake in the braid, but since you did it for both of them I thought oh what the heck! I did the same thing on a mitten . . .
    sometimes the best thing to do is rippppppppppppppp
    Do start up again as they are going to be wonderful!

  154. Awww… I’m not sure which hurts worse… seeing such a promising project not working out, or the fact that you’re going to be in Sacramento, and I couldn’t afford the classes!!!!

  159. I hope it wasn’t just the lack of oxygen in Denver that made you give, that maybe would have looked better at a lower elevation! She was beautiful.

  160. I really really love the way the thumb started though. I would have been beautiful. Good thing you have more time before the snow comes.

  161. Not only talking on my own behalf I would estimate that 83,7% of all Norwegian mittens have these kind of “problems”. Ibsen (yes, the famous Norwegian play writer) once said: The perfect is boring, and 83,7% of all Selbu mittens live by that slogan.
    Too bad you have fallen into the Just the Perfect is Good Enough-trap. Bye, bye, Frankenmitten, you would have made all the difference.

  162. Aw thats too bad! I hate ripping out, though as I knit more and more I’m finding that it is one of the hardest skills to cultivate. The pattern and color selection are lovely! Please tell me you will finish the pattern after all?
    PS I think I just found my next project!

  163. Sorry you had to rip out that mitten. My mom couldn’t rip out a way too big poncho, with mistakes I don’t make anymore. So, I waited until she left the room and ripped out 33,000 stitches. It just had to be done. I am sure the new mitten you knit will be much better than the first draft, Ms. McPhee. (PS- My mom isn’t mad anymore. She started the new poncho-by using math!)

  164. Couldn’t you, say, keep going…bind off, turn it upside down… add a strap… finish the thumb and call it a pouch ….. then voila! You have a nordic interpretation of those Incan bags with all the little side pouches for coins and such. And, of course, this would have been the plan all along. You were just trying to see if you could fool us into thinking it was meant to be a mitten.

  166. Bummer! I like using either 2 circs. or magic loop for colorwork on mittens. For some reason, I can maintain tension better. Frankenmitten will rise again, I’m sure.
    Pity you aren’t around…you could have come to our fiber fest this weekend and had many “accidents” with the plastic! Like me. 5 fleeces later.

  167. What a shame- the colorwork is so amazing- don’t frog it- turn it into some sort of change purse or something- I can’t live with the idea of that incredible snowflake and cuff frogged and laying in shamefull pile of wool

  168. Don’t even say “I thought I could live with it.” By now we all know you can’t. I hardly believe this is the End of the Mitten, though. No, it can’t be. . . .

  169. To my utter dismay, you will be in Sacramento and I cannot attend your class. Woe is me, perhaps even equalling the sorrow over the loss of Frankenmitten.

  170. What a beautiful design! May Frankenmitten reincarnate into something even more beautiful.
    Welcome to Sack-a-Tomatoes! It’s going to be hot this week.

  171. Thanks Theresa for the link to the cat mittens. I bought the patterns for the mittens, hat and socks from Jorid Linvik. They really look like what Stephanie was looking for and there are a lot of other options including zebras.

  173. I’ve every reason to believe, after reading this blog for years, that Frankenmitten will be resurrected in another form.
    Damn Latavian knitted cool braid on the cuffs (and the beautiful blue/white snowflake pattern)! Every time I see that braid it kicks off the lust in me and I run off to my bookshelf and stash thinking, “Yes! This is the year I’ll make them for myself!” only to be distracted with the other 342 projects I have on the go…

  175. OT: Have you ever noticed that in the Denver airport you seem to get an hour to get to a gate right across the concourse but 5 minutes to get to the one that is 100 gates away?

  176. RIP, Frankenmitten. Perhaps, like the monster in Mel Brooks’ movie, part of you was “Abby Normal.”
    Stephanie, bless you for showing us your projects that just don’t work the first time. (It’s not a failure, it part of the design process). Makes me feel less like a dunce. I was up last night until 2AM watching the replay of a Red Sox game I already knew they won just so I could work on a 4-color scarf of my own design. Had carefully divided each skein into two equal balls using my Weight Watchers scale so that it would be easy to figure out if there would be enough of each color as the scarf progressed.
    In the clear, cruel light of 9AM, 4-Color Weight Watchers Scale Scarf was frogged. Her parts have been willed to a Hexagon Granny scarf. Donations may be made to my favorite charity, Maureen’s Stash of Ipswich, Massachusetts.

  177. I see you have your blog back to normal – looks like you went with a service (“ken”) that uses free software (movable type) – I hope it works out for you. I’ve been using free software for years and I find it works just fine.
    Good luck with knitting the mittens. I’m practicing how to knit with two colours, one from each hand. Next: small projects (like mittens! and hats) and after that, once I have a consistent gauge, some sweaters.
    I loved seeing the dancing boys/girls on the Scandinavian mittens – it’s a different pattern than the one I had seen on the cover art of a CD called Tuq. I will try both.

  178. …and she was such a good-looking mitten, too! Ah well, these things happen. The trick lies in catching it in time and knowing when to stop putting time in on the offending project.

  179. Dude, yesterday was International Talk Like a Pirate Day! I hope you didn’t miss it, I know that’s a favorite of yours. Specifically, I’d like to know if you talked like a pirate to anyone at an airport. And if there are pictures.
    Sorry about the mitten. Obviously you will canibalize her to make another, better FrankenMitten.
    FrankenMitten! Now New and Improved!

  180. Ah…her twist will live on in Frankenmitten II. Sure is a pretty pretty mitten. Really – Sacramento. How did I miss that…enjoy the warm!

  181. Oh well, these things happen. Maybe the yarn was just telling you that it didn’t want to be a mitten, or not THAT mitten.

  183. Ok this is weird… was just catching up on my Yarn Harlot Desk Calendar… 14th September was all about the mitten that fought back… and finally got cut up into a thousand little bits….
    The Mitten Spirits came to haunt you…. woohooowooo.. and other scary noises. GRIN

  185. Yes, it’s one thing to live with A mistake. But when they are compounded, it’s too much even for “design element.” Sad but I’ve been there, too, Harlot. The mitts will live again, I’m sure.

  188. Oh, I am so sorry for your loss. She was a beautiful mitten indeed. However, you do seem to be taking it in stride. Good for you. (you are too funny!)

  189. My deepest sympathies. I usually find that once you make one error (and don’t correct it), they tend to divide like cells, then breed like rabbits. Good luck on version 2.

  190. Your kidding, I find out TODAY that you were here….totally bummed. I have been waiting forever to see you…and here you are, right by me.
    I am totally bummed.

  191. Comments from above: Good thing you like to knit.
    It was just a swatch.
    Or as we say in the lab, that’s why they call it ‘re-search’.
    BTW – in an article about author Margaret Drabble in yesterday’s Wash Post, she was quoted saying that needlework was more relaxing than writing, since you don’t ever have those emotions like “hopeless failure, self-disgust, existential despair” when you’re doing needlework. Perhaps she should read your blog.

  193. Safe travel for you! I hope the trip goes well.
    I have misplaced a first sock, and am at the cuff of the second sock. I think. But I can’t find the first sock, and I’m cleaning house, and have been for a week. Unbelievable. At least I’ve narrowed it down to the half hour I lost it. I was completely exhausted, stuck to the pillow with sleep drool, and ds2 woke me up to go to the fall carnival. And, I took my knitting bag, but I left it in the car. I think. I can’t remember. I was nearly crying at how tired I was.
    The sunburst design on frankenmitten is really beautiful. I hope it makes it on to frankenmitten #2.
    ari

  196. i hope she gets restarted! she’s a gorgeous mitten, despite her flaws, and i think if she was done properly she’d be great. 😀

  199. Oh, no! I know her only briefly, but she was great. I love the pattern, the braids, the technical difficulty. I’m grieving her loss. Please make sure a Frankenmitten, version 2.0 debuts soon.
    Julie in San Diego

  200. As the Harlot On Tour page hasn’t been update past August, inquiring minds would like to know… do you have any speaking engagements planned between now and New Year’s in California? Or should we wait until your usual jaunt during the summer? (I know you were just in Sacramento; I was unable to attend, sadly. I hope you enjoyed our hot weather! :P)

  202. Is it too late to mention the pattern I am going to embark on? It was in a copy of Vogue Knitting last winter, with Let It on one mitten and Snow on the other.
    But as I think back, it may also have had a squirrel or something, so maybe that wouldn’t work either.

  203. ‘It’s not like they teach your state capitals in our schools any more than they teach you ours.’
    Surely you jest when you say we US folks don’t learn the major cities of Canada in our schools? Have you ever attended one of our schools? Ever had to learn the capitols of every major nation?
    Or learn the difference between ‘capital’ and ‘capitol’?
    Or learn that it shows poor manners to take pot shots at the residents of the large country that is your neighbor?
    Seriously, could you lighten up on the US, please? Save the rhetoric for other, more deserving nations. Like Irag. Iran. Afghanistan. Russia. Japan. China. England. Or, God forbid, your own country.

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