mitts amazing

it’s 33 degrees right now—12 hours ago it was a balmy 65 or something like that. the winds have been WILD today and the rain erratic—vascillating between tropical downpours and sunny showers all day. the half of the house which faces north is cozy and warm, while the half that faces southerly is frigid and damp. david is frantically putting up the last of the plastic to cover the french doors and porch windows. that will close us in for good—no more porch til next spring.

but it kinda makes it feel cozy inside too—good knittin’ weather. FOs are popping off the needles left and right in preparation for christmas. this when i grind into overdrive on the small stuff, and i am on a roll. i fiished two pairs of mitts—one last night while i talked on the phone . . .

and one the other night in class, which technically aren’t done-done because you can see i have a couple of ends to weave in on that bottom one.

but these are SOO nice—i can’t believe i made them . . . .they even have a halo (weird how they had the halo no matter what angle i used to take the picture). i love these with all my heart, and i MUST have a pair.
i have another ball of this cashemere which i only had to dip into for a few yards, so i’m thinking that if i knit the cuff just a wee bit shorter, i too can be a proud owner of thin, snug-fitting, cashmere mitts to work in.
or, i could make a helmet liner for cold-weather commuting.
i know that is a bit of a turnaround, but there you have it—my brain on a platter.

maybe something like EZs ganomy hat that lots of people at Zimmermania have posted about? it has the right shape for my little little head and the ear-points are perfect for covering my ears under the helmet straps . . . .
or maybe i should just make the gloves. the thing is, i love this really thin cashmere yarn—not laceweight, but a very thin DK. and that’s perfect to go under my helmet.
we’ll see; maybe i WILL just make the gloves and find some other thin yarn for the hat.

it’s not like i don’t have plenty of yarn choices . . .

you know what a whore i am for pattterning, right? look what came in the mail today.

a veritable bazaar of pattern. it was all folded up like a postcard-sized advertisement, and indeed, it came from a famous midcentury-modern retailer who advertises heavily in a home design magazine that we subscribe to (i know, what a joke—at this point our home isn’t even windproofed, much less designed. but we try. we do.)

anyway, this folder is all perforated so that you can tear it into squares of all different patterns, and some of them are marked on the back so that you can use them for gift tags. cool, eh? i already know that i will hoard these, and that in 10 years they will probably still be on my desk, where i will play with them periodically. i should do a post about that . . . you know, useless stuff that is mainly eye-candy that i can’t bear to get rid of becasue it inspires, or inspired, me in some way at one time?

let’s just say, that will be one helluva long post. my studio is full of that crap. but don’t you even touch it! i’ll cut your hand off.

oops, sorry—that may have been a bit harsh. sorry.

anyway, guess what’s blocking in the freezing-cold living room?

wow—i could’ve stopped sooner; it ended up being 90 inches long (i had hoped for 84). i think it will be fine once it’s on thy guy—such a big, strappin’, lace-wearin’, he-man might need every inch of it.

now several people were concerned that blocking would interfere with the wonderful depth of the texture, but i think we are fine—that texture is locked down pretty tight. i think that once it’s unpinned, it will relax a bit and scrunch up again.

it definitely opened up a lot after soaking—cashmere lets go a lot more than wool, and i should keep that in mind next time. so, next thing we need to do with this is get some modeling shots. the light has been bad, but i’m gonna go for it.

who needs light to do what we’re gonna do?