Despite my complete inability to knit for two days a week or so ago without ripping back and reworking 5 to 20 rounds depending on the egregiousness of the error, I managed to finish my self-imposed 29 October mittens. These were to have afterthought thumbs but I added gussets and I’m very glad I did. They’d have been a little uncomfortable for me without the extra room at the base of the thumbs. I am not sure why the designer, in this case Jared Flood, left out that fine garment detail as he is the master of well placed short-rows in every sweater design of his I’ve knit. Also, the knitting of these beautiful mittens begins with a provisional cast-on for a full length knit cuff lining that’s folded up inside the mitten making a pretty picot edge when the live stitches of the cast-on are worked into a round just before a thumb gusset should begin. That’s a lovely set of details right there, and the lining makes the mittens oh, so warm and comfortable. So, why no thumb gusset?
Regardless, here’s a Ravelry Link for more details. I finished knitting them on the 14th. Next up, my 29 November challenge, a 4-color mitten pair with self-improvised thumb gussets. That’s right. White Witch mittens are designed to have afterthought thumbs too. But no! We are done settling for ill-fitting mittens!
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Now. As to why I could not knit for two days without bolloxing up the simplest of knits: On Wednesday the 9th I got a call from a fellow tutor who asked me to talk for an hour on our local NPR station’s Friday segment on education about the volunteer tutoring program I run at an inner city school. The time-slot for the segment was 12 to 1 p.m. on the 11th. In other words, two days to sweat and stew and not sleep and not knit well at all. But, somehow, out of my hands, the interview went ok. And now it lives on-line. Forever and ever. Internet world without end. Amen. Here it is if you care to listen:
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wxxi/local-wxxi-993701.mp3 Warning: I giggle, apparently, when I’m nervous. And I was nervous. Very.
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