I'm still planning to share that Journal Blanket pattern with you, but it's going to have to wait a few days as I close in on deadlines. For a break on Friday I met up with a knitting friend who showed me the mitts she was working on. I loved them. It turned out that the pattern is in the Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders book which I have. I wasn't tempted to make the Golden Eyelet Cable Mitts (the color in the photo maybe?) until I saw hers. At home, after an unsuccessful stop at the local yarn shop, new mitts in mind, I rummaged through my stash and found a soft leftover slubby gray (Regia Tweed) that reminded me of a rock found on a Pacific beach.
I am always grateful for this gray.
I take it from my plastic bag of grays feeling good about my choice,
the way that Humphrey Bogart, private eye,
would select a linen suit for a busy summer day:
morning spent on a case, then lunch at the track,
followed by the afternoon trifecta.
(Stephen Beal, excerpt from 762)
Beginning this Cables & Lace pattern was tricky. Mostly because I dislike working with five needles which inevitably develop a lively uncontrollable life of their own in my hands.
speaking of...
Once I loaned a friend from Germany a set of my dpns. She was on her way to the airport with a new ball of sock yarn and had forgotten hers. She called me for emergency assistance. We met in a parking lot, car motors running, and I handed over the needles. You use only four? she said incredulously. I could see my American-Knitter Respect Quotient plummet. When she returned weeks later, she wore the socks she'd made and without comment, handed back the needles and a gift of waschmaschinenfest, extra strapazierfahig, schurwolle sock yarn. I haven't seen her in years, but still have the blue socks I made with my four needles.
Since this new cabled/lace-in-a-small-space presented a challenge, I decided to be a Blind Follower and use five needles as instructed. After numerous false starts, a twisty-knotty string thing, fumbles, curses, I got into a Zen place (don't ask), modified the instructions, re-rolled the yarn and successfully switched to four short needles. I'm into it now. Planning a double trifecta of mitts for the women in the family. I figure if I do one pair a month they will be finished in time for this summer's visit. The yarns are already picked out. And that makes me happy (if not serene).
