Nonetheless, with hubby out of snow shoveling commission for the remainder of this season, I was up very early, before the crack of dawn, shoveling away. I went back to bed after that and woke later to backaches, neck aches, and knee aches because the temps were already rising late last night causing the formerly fluffy lightweight snow to become heavy with slush. Ach!
Finally some good news on the knitting front ~ two pieces of good news to be exact: I started and completed a thumbless mitt for hubby’s casted hand to protect his fingers from the elements when he goes on his evening constitutional, and the return of Sock Madness 2.
I participated, if you can call it that, in Sock Madness last year ~ a speed elimination contest of sock knitting conducted during the College Basketball March Madness March to the Final Four. Although I am quite the fan of NBA basketball, I haven’t been much of a fan of college basketball since the early 70s. Nonetheless, a contest combining sock knitting and basketball is right up my alley, even if I am eliminated in the first round because soil is made quicker than I knit.
Like last year, I will be watching my dear Spurs play rather than the college teams, but at least I’ll be watching basketball. Read more about the Sock Madness 2 details and ways to join here. If you enjoy speed knitting socks, this should be the contest for you.
The thumbless mitt, nicknamed something else by hubby (stump mitt), is the first project I have ever completed at one sitting. My progress was so quick, in fact, that I almost forgot to take pictures of it, and didn’t realize until I was near the top, and therefore the end, that it was a now or never photo opp time.
These images aren’t too bright mainly because they were taken at 3:30 a.m. under the streetlight in front of the house. It was during this photo shoot that I realized I had better deal with the snow since none of the neighborhood kids were industrious enough to come looking for some work, and the snow was getting slushier and heavier by the hour. After finishing up the mitt and the photo shoot, I tackled the gigantic driveway, sidewalk, porches, and de-snowed the car. It was an extraordinarily pleasant task because the weather was ridiculously wonderful. I had on an undershirt and my standard silk long sleeve shirt, a very lightweight pair of slacks, and my trusty Land’s End thermal clogs. I didn’t even bother with a jacket, gloves, or hat it was that lovely out. Other than the backache and knee aches after (bad knees that aren’t helped by the squatting-to-lift-with-the-knees method), I love to shovel snow.
Okay, so here is the mitt in all of its ultra simplicity. I want to throw the ROUGHLY written pattern up here for future reference because I’ll probably lose my notes on it.
Right now M has his temporary cast on until we see the orthopedic surgeon on Tuesday, and since the temp cast lacks a true cast-top, I figure I needed to build significant ease into the mitt.
The reason this project moved so quickly certainly had everything to do with the yarn: Lamb’s Pride Bulky that I had repurposed after frogging M’s very first cardigan ~ so, yay, stash knitting! ~ the size of the needles: 10.5 DPNs, and the minimal detail/shaping, and nothing whatsoever to do with my knitting speed.
Finished (see, you can tell I shovelled):
Kitchener close:
Project Details:
Yarn: Lamb’s Pride Bulky 100% wool ~ about one-half skein, color green something, band somewhere not readily available.
Needles: Plymouth Bamboo size 10.5 (6.50 mm)
Pattern: my own
Size: 11 1/2” circumference, 9” length (this should fit over an adult male hand cast long enough to protect the fingers and cast from snow and cold).
c/o 48 sts (on size 11 needle), arrange 16 stitches on each of three needles, join.
2 x 2 rib for 11 rounds.
Begin Stockinette Stich rounds, knitting for several more inches, until piece measures 8 inches from cast-on.
Begin decrease rounds:
Round 1: *K, ssk, knit to end of needle* repeat on each needle (3 times = 3 stitches decreased)
Round 2: knit even
Repeat these two rounds 10 times, 15 stitches decreased, 33 stitches total.
Begin decreasing every round for 7 more rounds:
Round 1: *K, ssk, knit to end of needle* repeat on each needle (7 times = 21 stitches decreased) 12 stitches remaining ~ 4 stitches per needle.
Arrange stitches as follows:
Move two stitches from needle 2 to needle 1
Move last two stitches from needle 2 to needle 3
Each needle will now have six stitches.
Kitchener
Weave in ends.
And can someone PLEASE tell me why the hell stuff won't stay in the sidebar in the new blogger template layouts? I am SO TIRED of trying to get images with links into the sidebar that I could just spit!!
After working on code for more than 45 minutes yesterday, I finally got the block ABC-Along image to link, and now the entire image is gone. Grrrrr!!!!!
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