Ace Fingerless Mitts

The Ace Fingerless Mitts pattern is up and running on Ravelry! Thanks again for the photo selection advice. Here's the spiel:

The Ace Fingerless Mitts will help you stay warm and cozy while keeping your fingers free to grip your morning coffee or pet a friendly pup. The unique construction of these mitts allows the cables wrap all the way around from the back of your hand to the palm, while buttons add additional flair.

Our furry friends give us a lot (including much of our yarn!) and sometimes we need to give back – all proceeds from this pattern will be donated to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (http://www.aspca.org/).

Required skills include - knitting and purling through the back of the loop, picking up stitches, and crossing and cabling stitches.






The pattern is $2.00 US, and is available as a PDF download. Knit on!

Winter's last hurrah

Between Wisconsin politics and worrying about the status of the Fukushima Daiichi plant, I was ready to get the hell out of dodge. Conveniently, I had a last-minute work trip planned to go back to Berkeley, the mother-land of the blog (in the sense that I was on a three month work-visit there when I started it). Berkeley welcomed me with open arms:


But it didn't help that I was working with a group of nuclear engineers, ergo about half of the topics of conversation revolved around the aforementioned nuclear plant. But it was warm, there were no protests (remarkable for Berkeley), and you can't have it all.

A few weeks ago, I had decided I was totally over winter. Oh-ver it. Done...with the minor caveat that I hadn't done nearly enough snow skiing. What was up with winter turning into a nasty slushy mess of winter/spring limbo before I'd shredded¹ an adequate amount of gnar²? So, while in the Bay Area, I figured the copilot and I might as well take a little trip to Lake Tahoe while we were in the area.

We checked out a smaller resort, Sugar Bowl (get it?? The snow is the sugar, and the slopes are the side of the bowl...nevermind). We ventured into the backcountry for a quick off-piste trip and found:


a mini village of snow buried summer cottages. I want one (unburied, of course). But it had to be a quick trip out-of-bounds, because an epic storm was coming in...the National Weather Service actually used the word 'epic' as a descriptor in their in their forecast. And indeed it was:

Our pitiful 2-wheel drive rental car. Chains transformed him into a bad-ass!

Thirty inches of freshies, chains on our tires, and a 45 car, 7 semi pile-up (!!) that closed the interstate. Fortunately, we were trapped on the right side--the side with not crowded Sugar Bowl powder skiing. However, it turns out 30" of pow is a lot for two relatively tiny people to plow through on skis. At one point, I found myself on a black diamond run pointed straight downhill, going nowhere. I had to kind of hump my way down, much to the delight of people on the lift watching. Still, epic was the correct word. I don't have my fill of snow skiing (does one ever?), but it's a step in the right direction.

I also made a little headway in the war against winter with the completion of these babies:


Dunzo. I have dubbed them the "Ace Fingerless Mitts", a name inspired by the remedial wrist bandage that I was afraid they were too reminiscent of. I'm thinking of submitting the pattern to the Free Pattern Testers group. These are a Merry Xmas to my good friend E, and only three months late. A new record!



[1] Skied with vigor.

[2] Exciting and/or challenging ski terrain; derivative of 'gnarly'.

Bouncing back with some mitts

First, let me say that you guys rock (situation normal). My copilot encouraged me to blog about the lost sock, saying that I'd feel better with the support of some fellow knitters, and of course he was right (the three words every spouse loves to hear). Thanks for being awesome.

I took pretty much all of your advice and I'm not even thinking about socks. Screw socks (OK, no, they are still wonderful inventions. And I think Smartwool read my post bitching about their socks wearing out in specific areas, because I just got a new pair and they are totally reinforced in said areas. Go Smartwool!).

Through Dec. and Jan., I was periodically working on a pair of mitts for a friend that were supposed to be Christmas presents...they've gone through various stages of partial completion and varying degrees of despise by me; only to end up looking like this. Then I banished them to the yarn basket.

Last month, I happened to be in the state of WA for work during the Great Midwestern/Eastern Snowstorm of 2011 (GMES11)--you might remember it, the one with like 3 feet of snow. The people of Richland were bitching about their unseasonable 28 degree weather--I'd hate to have seen the shit-storm that most certainly would have occurred if there had actually been any snow. Despite the lack of inclement weather, I still had a day where nothing was working at the lab--this happens every time I go there, so I'm very familiar with their antique shops and LYS. I am slowly collecting a set of Betty Crocker cookbooks, as well as a nice set of buttons from one particular antique store:



So after THE INCIDENT I decided I wanted to use some of my buttons. I had yet another idea for the mitts, partially inspired by the little flap on the Battleboro hat, and it incorporated some buttonage. The majority of the mitt was worked flat, so the texture wraps around the hand in a way that I think is pretty cool:



I like it, but I'm afraid it rides the fine line between eclectic fingerless mitten and fancy ACE wrist support. I'm sure the color has quite a bit to do with that, but I'm hoping it falls on the side of ecletic mitt. On to the next one!

Lofty Ambitions: or How I Think I'm Much Awesomer Than I Really Am

I always drop the ball (of yarn...ha! Ehhhhh.) when it comes to knitted Xmas gifts. Such lofty ambitions...but ask yourself, why would a person who has never done a two-color stranded knitting project decide to write her own pattern because she didn't like any of the ones that she looked through? The result was inevitable:


How did I not see this coming? And when I'm on the mighty Xmas deadline with more bitten off than I can chew as it is. Note to self: YOU ARE NOT AS AWESOME AS YOU SEEM TO THINK YOU ARE.

People tend to call tearing apart your knitting 'frogging'. I feel that this is an unfair characterization. Frogs are really pretty cute, when you think about it:

Awww, look at that little punum.

And think of the great frogs throughout history:





Come on. I propose a new word defining the torture that is tearing apart a project, one that truly captures the pain, one that's not so fucking cutesy. Go ponder, I'm thinking of something along the lines of 'searing gas pain-ing', 'UTI-ing', or 'shards of glass-ing' Those might be a little too cumbersome, but you get the idea.

Finished object(s) of the glove kind

My copilots gloves = done! They took a little extra time because someone, not mentioning any names, neglected to mention that the pinkie finger was too short until they were both done. So it had to be torn out and redone, with me trying to remember that a perfect fit is one of the many perks of knitting.

Sleeping Beauty was trying to nap (which is important, don't get me wrong here) but was cognizant enough to slip on the gloves for a photo shoot.


Penguin Murray is essential for a quality napping experience.





Assessment of the knitting quality.

Stats

Pattern - Sock-it-to-Me Gloves

Yarn - Alpaca Yarn Co.: Paca-Peds, from Lake Tahoe Yarn Co., Truckee, CA

Assessment - Me likey

Madison's getting pretty chilly, so I'm sure they'll be up for a test run soon.

ETA: My copilot would like to assure everyone that he is in fact much older than 12, and that I am not a child molester. He gets asked if he's old enough to sit in the exit row on flights for work every now and again...you have to be 15 to sit in the exit row. Pros: when he's 50, he'll look like he's 30.

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.

A palate cleanser

Muchas gracias for all of your kind words about the shawl debacle. I thought it only fair to offer you a palate cleanser of happiness after listening to my bitching. BAM:

Two mitts, ends woven in, blocked and dried! A true finished object! Life is about the little victories sometimes. Now to wait, oh, about four months before the weather is appropriate for wear-age.

You stay classy, San Diego

I lamented to my copilot a few days ago that I had done no proper knitting or proper knitting blogging for a couple of weeks. He assured me that life had just been busy and equilibrium would soon be restored. I'm still dubious, since life has me on the road yet again.

"Discovered by the Germans in 1904, they named it San Diego, which of course in German means a whale's vagina." - Ron Burgundy

As far as conferences for work go, it's hard to complain about visiting the ol' Whale's V. It also meant a good 4 and a half hours of uninterrupted plane knitting time (not to be confused with 'plain knitting time', which I assume would involve garter stitch). I decided to finish up the fingerless test mitts, which I had neglected since only one mitt was required for testing purposes. On the first flight leg, I completed the palm section and was confident that I could finish up the thumb with plenty of time to spare. I was planning to prep the yarn I'm going to use for WifeMomKnitter's shawl knit-a-long (a very free-form affair--choose your own pattern and timeline, and receive encouragement from fellow knitters). After boarding the second flight, I tried the mitt on--wait a minute...why is the thumb-hole sticking out of the palm of the mitt??? I willed the thumb-hole to shift to the correct spot. When that failed, I started willing my thumb to regrow out of the center of my palm. When that didn't work either, I sadly started pulling out the previous couple of hours' work. I don't think the woman next to me was a knitter, but she seemed to sense that a minor tragedy had occurred.

I've always been tempted to knit during conferences. I'm one of those people that tend to be able to focus better when I keep my hands busy, but I'm always afraid that the speaker will find it insulting (though personally I think it's a lot better than people whipping out their laptops during presentations, which happens all the time and seems to be perfectly acceptable). Mystery Wedding Project is a perfect candidate for this kind of thing; it's a 'turn your brain off' type of knitting. Unfortunately, it's starting to get a bit cumbersome in size to keep toting around, and damn it, I wanted to finish those mitts! This is one of the most laid-back conferences I've attended in a while, so I decided to test the waters. I whipped out my dpns and started to business, while trying to make it clear that I was still engaged. And...no one cared. Other that one of the conference organizers happily squealing "Look! She's knitting!" to her seatmate, not a soul even seemed to notice. So I learned some cool new tech stuff, and accomplished a little crafting as well:


I'm modeling it here so you're convinced that I actually made the left one, and am not just trying to pass off the right-hand one again.
Another interesting discovery is that what San Dieg-ans refer to as a 'tall boy' beer is substantially larger than what we midwesterners are used to. I was a bit embarrassed when this arrived for me:

Then on the way back to the hotel I even had an encounter with some wildlife:


Eep! American opposum! Not the cute NZ possum, unfortunately.
The only thing lacking? Actually starting on the shawl-a-long. Does picking out a yarn and pattern count?

Mittz test knitz

There was much enjoyable test knitting this weekend. Feast your eyes upon an almost completed fingerless mitt:

That's some Paca-Peds sock yarn, which as the name alludes, is a mix of alpaca, wool, and nylon. So..flippin'...soft. And the mitt itself was a pleasure; I would classify myself as somewhere between a slow to slug knitting speed, but this knit up in a handful of hours. But, more importantly, how does the hand feel about it?

Oh, good. It approves.

Can we talk for a minute about how Bill Nye (the Science Guy) has been on various news TV stations for the past week explaining the technical details behind the BP oil spill & subsequent clean-up efforts? In case you don't remember (or have never had the pleasure, for which I feel pity) here's a refresher:


He was on most recently describing the idea behind "Top Kill", using a plastic tube, rubber bands, and corn starch dissolved in water. At certain points, the little box at the bottom that identifies the speaker and the topic on all of those news channels literally read: Bill Nye: Science Guy. My knee-jerk reaction was "Really? You couldn't get a real scientist?" (which is not fair, because he is a 'real' scientist as well as an entertainer) but as I watched, I became strangely comforted by his simplified explanations and adorable bow tie. Genius who decided to bring the Science Guy on to explain tragic news: I salute you.

I know you're probably tired of playing Where in the World is AC? (Lord knows I am), but I'll dish anyway. I'm in Berkeley on work duty (hehe I said 'doody') for a couple of days. Walking from the BART (light rail train--one of my WI buddies dubbed it the 'BARF' after a particularly turbulent ride) to my hotel, I was getting all verklempt and reminiscing about the dumbest things: "Aww, there's that Walgreens the copilot and I went to for some IcyHot", "Oh! There's the UPS store that was inexplicably never open even during the hours posted on the door", "That creepy guy is still hanging out in front of the free clinic!". Here's something that was worth remembering, though:

Mmmm. Kingpin Donuts. Only a block away from my hotel. Dangerous. And speaking of the hotel, on my nightstand:

Yes, that is a lamp styled to look like a bong. Glad to be back.