Warm Hands

Winters can be cold in Midcoast Maine and every day I find myself walking thru unheated workshops or climbing around a boat outdoors to deliver messages. By the time I'm back in the office my hands have gone from warm to downright chilly. Not anymore. My new fingerless gloves will offer a layer of warmth while my fingers are free to hold pen and paper. Made of the J KNITS Superwash Me pictured in my last post, they're knit in an overall 2 by 2 twisted rib/mock cable. The pattern came from Andra Asars' website and was as simple as they get. Keeping the pattern stitch going on the gusset while doing increases was about the only part I had to really think about. It got much easier once I decided to do increases on the same round as the twist. Although my hands don't have lovely long manicured nails like the model's on Andra's website, I decided to model for this photoshoot anyway holding the ball of left-over yarn to give some idea of how much of the 2 ounce hank was left. (If you want the exact amount, let me know. I'll get back to you!) In a panic last week I'd called the shop (Heavenly Socks in Belfast -- Highly recommend it!) and asked the owner to save another hank for me. (Thank you Helen.) Hmmmm....now what shall I do with the extra hank? While I ponder, it goes into my evergrowing stash. (BTW, if your stash is shrinking, you're not visiting your LYS often enough!)

What shall I do for my next project? It's time for a break from socks and sock yarn. The nominees are two patterns from Marcia Lewandowski's book, Folk Mittens, and a Yankee Knitter Design, Fisherlad Guernsey, for a toddler. While making a sweater would definitely be a break from socks, trying some two color knitting is tempting. Whatever the project, it has to be a manageable one that's likely to get finished. Perhaps the Mittens from Halland (No, that's not a typo; Halland's evidently an area in Sweden.) or the Minnesota Mittens that use two strands of the same color. I'd still get the same experience as if I was knitting with two colors and I'm thinking two strands, same color, mistakes won't be as obvious! Trust me, this is important. I've been accused (and I admit probably rightly so) of having perfectionist tendencies. I once 'unknit' right down to the first cast-on the entire back of a fisherman knit destined for my husband. What can I say, I would have zoomed in on that mistake every time he wore it. (Do I hear all you other perfectionists out there saying Amen?) Of course, I could have saved myself a whole lot of time had I known that he would, after wearing it a few times, put it through the washer AND dryer. That was nearly thirty years ago and I've never knit another sweater for him. Yes, we're still married and yes, he still does the laundry, most of the time.

Off to test drive some yarn. I'll let you know my decision soon...