I arrived at Port Ludlow after a long trip during which I endured, you will recall, a knitting shortage. I played with my scraps all the way here, and upon arrival I was in hard knitting shape.  Lucky for me, rescue was literally at hand.  Shortly after we got here, Tina and I began opening the boxes of delicious things destined for the goodie bags, and amongst all the amazing treats inside the boxes was a great thing from Shall We Knit. (The irony that I flew all the way here short of yarn and was then rescued by a shop no more than two hours from my house is not lost on me.) 

Inside a box were little kits for fingerless mitts called Ellie, all packaged up with yarn from Indigodragonfly a pattern from the shop, and (be still my beating heart) little glass buttons from Closure Fine Fastenings. (Not open yet, but coming soon.)  I borrowed needles from Lisa, and enchanted, I began.

It didn’t take long. It was the only knitting I had with me, and more than that… I was cold.  Cold hands, cold feet – I was under-prepared for the deep damp chill of the Pacific Northwest this time of year.  It doesn’t get cold here, not by Canadian standards, but it is a committed and fierce sort of chilly that gets right into you and can only be relieved with warm baths, hot tea and woolly things.  These are perfect. 

I think out of all the things I like about them, the buttons are what put it over the top.

When I finished them I felt that smug satisfaction that comes from knitting something. I always want to thump my chest and hold the things aloft, and boom "I made this.  Hear me – I am knitter, and these things exist because I am here! I am a CREATOR."

That’s normal, but these took on a whole other level when I sewed those dear little glass buttons on.  It made them finished, and posh, and clever.

Perfect – and my hands are warm.

(PS. I solved the yarn problem after that by buying a crapton of bison from Judith.  Done, and if I was clever I would have thought of abandoning my knitting sooner to justify it.)

(PPS: Edited to add link to the pattern Ellie, and to tell you that there are no kits, but you can get the yarn and buttons from Shall We Knit.)