I've got mail: Day 5

I'm not much of a weekend blogger, so I saved my musings on my 5th and 6th packages from the Blog Hub Swap for weekdays (I didn't wait to open them, of course). Day 5, holy smokes. I sequestered myself in the pantry for the ritual unwrapping (as one does), as the goodies were revealed I'm pretty sure unintelligible noises starting coming out of my mouth; then I came bursting out, waving a skein in each hand and demanding, "Look at this LOOK AT THIS!!!" to a baffled copilot.


Sock yarn from New Zealand, in the possum-merino blend I raved about during the Knit and Crochet Blog Week.

You know how sometimes people get so excited on the internet that they can't seem to reliably hit the shift-key? !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1!!!!!1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111111!!!!!!!!!!1!!!1 Yeah, it was kind of like that. I LOVE this stuff. It's so airy and lightweight, yet so warm! And better yet, it reminds me of the wonderful time I spent in NZ on my honeymoon.

(Total sidenote: Listening to Bob and Tom last week, they mentioned a news story about a New Zealand school that was getting heat for sponsoring a "possum throwing" contest. It was pretty much exactly what you would imagine from the name. Apparently PETA was not happy.)

Speaking of honeymoons and spouses and such, I've also been working over the past few days on a little project to help keep my copilot warm. (Second sidenote: I'm totally comfortable referring to him as my husband at this point--it's been over a year--but using the term copilot still amuses me.) Last winter, I bought some sock yarn for myself and the copilot from a neat little shop in Truckee, CA called Lake Tahoe Yarn Company. I had every intention of turning them into socks, then somehow my skein turned into this, and inspired by that, I guess, I decided to make his into gloves as well. He's not all about the fancy-shmancy stuff, so the pattern is straightforward and simple.

He hadn't been home to try on the work-in-progress until I was halfway through the index finger (thumb completed), but as soon as he did, it was clear that the thumb wasn't in the correct place. Indeed, it gave him some artificial webbing between his thumb and index finger. Unconvinced by my claims that it would help his swimming abilities, he requested a modified fit. As I unraveled the work there were numerous apologies for the inconvenience, and I may have amped up the drama a bit with some theatrical sighing, but this is part of the appeal of knitting for me. You have the ability to create something that uniquely fits. And it looks great:


His conclusion: "It's so weird...I've never had a pair of gloves that actually fit my fingers before." That right there is one of the big reasons that knitting is so sweet.