It started innocently enough, with a facebook message to my sister-in-law and a modest order to Knitpicks: four skeins of “Wool of the Andes Bulky.” A trip to the winder in mid-October, and they sat by the couch, needles at the ready.
Then, they started appearing.
And multiplying.
Are they mittens or tribbles?
I had budgeted two weeks to make these little mittens, and they were done in ten days! The “Radiator Mitts” pattern by Cheryl Andrews was so fast and easy that I could do one and a half in a sitting. The boy-cousins were going to have toasty hands this year. As requested, I doubled the length of the cuffs. Nothing more annoying than snow getting into a gap on the wrists.
I do have my perennial row gauge issue – the issue being that my rows are a bit short. Though they prefer “vertically challenged.” As usual, I didn’t account for this, so in obeying the row-by-row instructions in the pattern, I did not have enough room to give the mitts a good felting as directed. I put them through the washing machine to full them just a bit, to make them less susceptible to wind and wet, but they couldn’t afford to get any shorter.
When they were fulled, they were supposed to be finished, but this strange urge came over me. They needed a little something more. I found myself pulling out a large yarn needle and adding little letters to the bottom left of the back of each hand. (Added post-felting, by the way Em, so they can more easily be snipped off if they need to be handed down or given away before they wear out.)
In case they don’t already feel like the Weasleys. Next year it’ll be big pullovers with a giant letter in intarsia worked on the front. In their designated dirt-stick-and-leaf colors, of course. (Kidding. I am not committing to that.)
May these hands throw many snowballs this year.
Happy feast of… oh wait, it’s an ordinary day! Just the fifth day of Christmas. Okay, it’s the feast of the circumcision, but that’s a bit awkward. Not going to link that to a bunch of gifts for little boys. Nope.
It’s a toasty warm -12 C today, so the girls and I already took their new sled to the playground. Throw a snowball, slide down a hill, and come in for some hot chocolate before it gets dark. Happy Christmas.
Osborn Fiber Studio 