Monday, May 4, 2009

How Did This Happen?

I've felt much like the white rabbit from Alice this week, running around muttering, 'Oh, dear, oh, dear, I shall be late!' as I dashed from task to task, ever conscious of the whoosh of deadlines zipping by me. Somewhat to my surprise, I got through most of what I wanted to (leaving aside those items which were never more than purest fantasy on my part).

Now the funny thing about stress is that it doesn't actually slow down knitting, if it's the *right* knitting- easy knitting that's quick to pick up and put down. So when I sat down and took a deep breath yesterday, absentmindedly weaving in another set of ends to keep my hands busy, I was a little surprised to find myself with these:

knitting,socks
Plain socks, Red Heart Heart and Sole, 70% wool/30% Nylon with Aloe, size 0 needles, 72 sts around.

knitting,mittens,colorwork
These are (kind of) the Spruce Mittens from Robin Hansen's Fox and Geese and Fences. I have managed to screw up the end decreases in two different ways, one per mitten, and I'm still not sure what they're supposed to look like. But I decided that given that their eventual fate will probably be burial in snowbank by juvenile non-knitter, I can live with them as is.

And last and quickest:
knitting,mittens
Just plain mittens, but I really liked the yarn. I have no idea what it is- some kind of bulky weight acrylic that my mom gave me. But I thought this yarn looked like an explosion in a crayon factory. I took my standard adult mitten pattern, went down a couple of needle sizes (to make the fabric nice and dense), converted the pattern from straights to dpns and then took off a few stitches here and there to make more kid-sized mittens, and...well, they still look like mittens, so I think it all worked.

Next up, more socks, probably- I should have just enough time to pick out some yarn to throw in my bag before I'm off again! See you on the other side of the Rabbit Hole....