Writers have NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). Knitters….well, they just pick a month and knit the heck out of things. I’ve heard of NaKniSweMo (Sweaters), and October usually is dubbed “Socktoberfest”. January is apparently NaKniMitMo, which translates into mittens.
It started out so innocently. I thought I would knit my Mum a pair of socks for Yule. Keep her feet toasty warm. Then, when my proficiency with knitting socks became apparent, the hints started dropping. I now knit a minimum of four pairs of socks per Yule. One for each of our parents. I put a pair of socks in a decorative tin with their name on it. The deal is that if they want socks next year, the tin comes back to me. Without fail, the tin comes back. The request is fulfilled. I have some family members with very happy feet.
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The first socks, of course, were seen on Tuesday. These were my Mum-in-Law’s socks, and as mentioned, the Husbeast picked out the colours. What you didn’t see on Tuesday were everyone else’s socks. These weren’t even the first ones finished.
If there is one thing that Granny Martin tried to impress upon me as a youngster, it was that you should always have warm feet and warm hands. As I’ve learned since, you can cover the rest of yourself in as much wool as you like, but without those extremities taken care of, you’re still going to be a chilly, chilly body on a cold day.
I love mittens and handwarmers. I think they’re a great accent to wrap up your winter outfit. Sometimes it’s the only thing you can see! Having lived North of 60, I’m well aware of how to bury yourself in your jacket, hopefully with hood (and plenty of layers beneath). The only thing with whimsy is the hands.
My brother’s family is still in the Yellowknife area, so I like to make the kids fun things that they can wear over the long winter. For my niece, I love mittens. She loves being fashionable, so I figured she’d love a pair of traditional, lined, Latvian (stranded) mitts.
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Nope. The pattern really wasn’t working out. Sure, I got the lining right (yay!), but the pattern was getting lost in the colours of yarn. Time to take it back to the basics.
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m horrible at self-editing and not posting current projects as they wind up becoming gifts for family and friends and I never want to either get hopes up or ruin a surprise. I’m hoping to stop that practice come the New Year, as I’m going to try spacing my knits out […]
The problem with knitting so many things that you eventually give away, is that you wind up not blogging about things until months have gone by and you’ve finally tracked down the person you’re gifting it to. I never want to spoil the surprise. I’m thinking I’m going to take a leaf from the Yarn […]
Lost: One (1) sock knitting mojo. If found, please return thisaway. In the meantime, you’ll likely see me over here spinning away * and knitting frantically on shawl/ettes **. Maybe I just need more really nice self-striping sock yarn. * ITW Call Box – 50/30/20 Alpaca/Merino/Silk, half of 8.5 oz ** Quaker Yarn […]
I meant to post before now, but things have been scattered and hectic over the holiday (I consider it ‘the holiday that wasn’t’ because I worked for most of it, but what can you do, right? It’s the nature of the beast when you knowingly continue a career path that includes features shift work). So, […]
About a year or two ago, I made the Husbeast a hat. I used the Ripley pattern by Ysolda Teague, and made it out of a dark grey alpaca blend from Michael’s. It itches. And an itchy hat doesn’t make for happy husbeasts. (This is not the first occasion when an alpaca blend has caused […]
It started innocently enough. I saw a pattern and thought it looked intriguing. I had a couple of balls of Noro sock yarn that were languishing due to the fact that I have some known issues with Kureyon, and got curious as to whether they would look good together. The answer to this, by the […]
For kicks, I asked my extremely tall co-worker Jeff if the Magnums fit his hands. I guess that answers that question. Still slogging away at the Yule knitting. Hoping to have something viewable soon. I hope.