knitting school dropout

back from one trip, off to another!
enjoy the holidays!

my finished norwegian mitt, next to my favorite ornament. a tracing of my hand on fabric, circa 1979 (when i was 4)

Posted by melissa at 09:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

whenever i start to feel stressed, or rushed , i seem to lose the ability to make even the simplest decisions. today my decision-making abilities hit an all time low as i agonized over which pair of eyeglass frames would hold my new, stronger, prescription. i tried on hundreds of pairs at numerous shops, only to come back to the first 2 pairs i tried on. it took me an entire hour to choose between them, but i finally did. i just hope i'm still happy with my decision when i pick them up.

i also wasted perfectly good knitting time trying to decide which color should be the main color for norwegian mittens, from EZ's knitter's almanac.

i knew i wanted a deep red and a dark blue, but i couldn't decide which to use as the main color, so i decided to use both. yup, i'm gonna knit the second mitt in reverse! i can have it all! (i may even go back after the holidays and order the second pair of eyeglasses too). these are super easy and i love, love, love them. they're a great project to have in a purse. i did a few rows in a meeting, a few while my oil was being changed and a few during 2 lunch breaks and now i'm more than half way through the first one. i think i'll take the second one along on all my christmas travels.

p.s. i was thinking about all the things i've knit in the past, and i occured to me that this was my first mitten, hence the title of this post. it feels like i should have knit at least one pair, but i honestly can't remember any.

EDITED TO ADD: i'm going to be switching the blog template around to something a little easier to read, that will hopefully work equally well in all browsers. i'll put back all of the sidebar content once i'm done.

Posted by melissa at 06:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

there hasn't been much to blog about these days. i have been knitting, but just a little bit, and on many projects, which means very little visible progress.
i left my noro silk garden striped scarf at a restaurant the other day, and when i went back, someone had swiped it. i had already given all the others i had made away. damn.
i'm over it now that i've made one out of a few balls of kureyon, i used a mistake rib this time, pretty similar to the one in
last minute knitted gifts, i think, but i cast on 35 stitches for this one. i had one ball of color 147 and one of 156(?) in my stash, so most of it is made from those 2 colors. i also unraveled an old noro scarf i had and used some partial balls from old projects, so the last 2 feet are alternating from at least 3 other colorways. i'm in love with the colors in this one, and it's thicker and warmer than the stolen one.

i've also picked up my sweater again, but i'm just not happy with it. the body and sleeves are done. the fit is great, i'm just not happy with the button bands or buttons. i had chosen some great vintage buttons for it, but in the end, they were just not right. it was the same thing with the button bands. i've just ripped them out for the second time, nothing seems right.
so, you just get to see the back. just button bands and a collar to go... someday.

i've also been trying to teach the girlfriend to knit, again. i think she's finally got the hang of it.

i want to share my favorite short film of the moment. i love miranda july.

Posted by melissa at 08:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)