It’s Furious Balancing

Pattern: Mitered Mittens from Knitter’s Almanac (May), by Elizabeth Zimmermann

Yarn: Rowan Tapestry in Moorland, a little over one skein’s worth (approx. 145 yards).  You could make them with just one skein if you shortened the cuffs, but the long cuffs are the best part.

Size: Adult small

Needles: U.S. Size 5  (3.75 mm)

Mods: The pattern as written has an “afterthought” thumb, similar to EZ’s afterthought pocket.   Despite the adrenaline rush I get from cutting steeks, I passed on this way of adding thumbs because I think mine would turn out too sloppy for my liking.  Many Ravelers followed the instructions for making a thumb using a gusset method found here.

Comments: I’m fond of these mittens, but I’m thinking I need to make six or seven pairs with self-striping yarn.  I’ve already cast on for a pair in Noro Silk Garden in the light neutrals colorway.

Subtitled:  Because posting my wayward, disjunctive observations is better than posting nothing at all.

1. One of my goals for the weekend to finally, finally, FINALLY complete my body donation information for the University of Tennessee Forensic Anthropology Center.  I need to send in photographs with the paperwork, and I’m wondering if I should give myself a facial beforehand.

1(a). I think I’ve been having more fun playing around with online photo-editing than with trying to select acceptable pictures of myself to submit to UT.  Click for bigger version, if only to see the tombstones on the darker background:

1(b). Once I mail everything off, I will treat myself with a UT hoodie.  I look rotten in orange, so I’m thinking this one or this one.

2. Even though I sometimes complain about how busy I am at work, I truly enjoy meeting and talking with many of my clients.  I had a retired professor suggest that it would be a wonderful idea if you could designate a person in your Will who would be responsible for finishing all the unread books you have in your library when you die.  This adds new meaning to the words “literary executor.”

3. Teh Husband and I bought enough Halloween candy yesterday to pacify ten busloads of preschoolers.  I’m not even going to count the bags.

3(a). 29, not counting the mini Butterfingers for me and the mini Almond Joys for him.

3(b). Something tells me we will have enough chocolate in this house to last until Epiphany.  The number of trick-or-treaters we get at our house is dependent upon the weather.  I remember Halloween in Michigan.  Sometimes we had to wear parkas over our costumes.

4. I’m knitting a pair of mittens for me.

This will eventually turn into a pair of mitered mittens.  One mitten down; one to go.  Thumbs are for last so I can match the colors from the leftover yarn.

The pattern is from Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitter’s Almanac, and I’ll do a full write up with yarn info and such when they’re finished.

5. Here’s a photo of Christopher.  Just because.

These are photos of my twin brother and me, taken somewhere in the neighborhood of 1970-1972 or so.  Teh Husband and I bought a printer cum photocopier cum scanner, and I’ve been messing around with scanning old photographs.  You know, the ones from back in The Dark Ages when everything wasn’t digitized and there were such things as film and negatives.

I scanned these with the idea that I would update my Facebook avatar with a photo of myself, albeit one taken almost 40 years ago.  It may sound odd, but every time I see this avatar of myself, I feel happier.  It reminds me, somehow, of when I was feisty and playful and had all those years stretching out ahead of me.

I’m not saying that I’m no longer feisty, or that I feel that I’m out of time.  No, it’s not that.  I see this little girl and know that she’s still a part of me, that I’m still pretty damn feisty, and that I would like to get out of this dress, please, and into my playclothes so I can go climb trees or play down by the creek.  Milk and cookies afterward.

Big doesn’t necessarily mean better. Sunflowers aren’t better than violets. — Edna Ferber