Braids made easy!

I’m sorry. I’ve moved blogs. You can find the post you’re looking for here.

I’m honored to announce…

I had so much fun at my knitting group last night! We’re a fun bunch. Last night there was Elli, Leigh, Kalani, Huan-Hua, and Kathrina, all people who I would not know if it were not for knitting (I like being able to go and turn off my job, turn off schoolwork and turn off stress). It was great. I was working on my last bird-in-hand mitten and professing my love for the pair.

At one point, I was explaining how much I love them and that if it were possible, I would marry these mittens. Of course, someone mentioned how such ambiphilia (love having to do with mittens and gloves, a word I made up just now) was illegal in most states. *laugh. (I know, that was a bad joke.)

Then… I kept messing up the chart and the colorwork. I missed some increases on the thumb gusset, clearly because the company was so great. In expressing my frustration, I whined, as usual. I also exclaimed that obviously I had gotten married too soon. Then, in a bit of perfect comedic timing, Leigh piped in that we should have lived together first. It was funny. Probably in a way that only knitters can truly appreciate.

Anyway…

Another reason why I like having real live knitters to talk with is because we can be crazy together (like above). Last night, we talked about how sometimes, we stay up really late because we want to finish a project. Last night, I was seriously contemplating staying up to finish the mittens – particularly because I had an 8 am meeting that I knew would involve a freezing transport to and from. But I did the math and I would have had to stay up until like 3 am… and with an early meeting, that was just not a good idea.

So, I went to my meeting. And then I came back and had 2 hours before meeting number two. So I knitted on the mittens a bit and got to the last thumb. And then I came back and had 2.5 hours before an inservice training session thing. So I knit some more. I pretty much finished the pair! And I got to wear them to my inservice thing and brag to everyone. It was great. One girl even said that I could walk into American Eagle and buy them for like 20$ (she meant that as a compliment).

The Details:

Pattern: Bird in Hand Mittens, By Kate Gilbert.
Yarn: Cascade 220 in two colors carried by my LYS that matched my jacket.
Needles: (and therefore size) – 3 aluminum
Time to knit: First one didn’t really get fair amounts of work until about 1/10/07. While it is true that I started them before christmas, Christmas knitting and some test knitting prevented me from doing anything productive on them. The second one I finished in about 4 days.
Mods: I did the braids a little different on the second mitten (much easier in fact). Look for a tutorial later today or sometime tomorrow.

Again, I’m going to be posting a “helpful” post on these mittens next, so be sure to check it out! In the meantime, now that I have some mittens, I’m now back in the knitters club.