Mossy Cottage Knits

More MittenMania

Happy All Hallow's Eve to My Dear Readers, especially new reader and beginning blogger Robbyn!

In honor of Halloween, I bring you a pumpkin sweater. No, not a pumpkin-orange sweater, not a sweater with an intarsia pumpkin, not a sweater ribbed to look like a pumpkin, not a sweater that someone has spilled slimy pumpkin innards on—a sweater for a pumpkin. A Kooky Kraft? Absolutely!

Knitting Knews
Flush with success from the Ugly Pointy Orange Mitten, I'm knitting what I call the "Mary Mittens." Dear Reader Mary was curious about my tendency to knit things too small and, try as I might, I couldn't argue with her since the Acoma Sock, the Arboretum Sock and the UPOM have all came out too small to be worn (although, in defense of the UPOM, I used a child's mitten pattern and knew it would be small). However, Mary's gentle "tweak" motivated me to get over my lackadaisical self and knit mittens that actually fit, hence the "Mary Mittens." And here it is, a perfectly-fitting right-hand mitten! Granted it flirts with being Ugly and Pointy, but its very wearable. The Gory Details: Variegated Plymouth Encore worsted weight yarn (more jewel-toned than the picture shows); 40 stitches around from cast-on to kitchener; size 5 needles for the cuff and size 6 for the hand; based on dribs and drabs of instructions from four different mitten patterns, and a lot of creative improvising.

My experience with the UPOM taught me that I could expect oogleh gaping holes at the base of the thumb so that is where I got creative. On the front, I picked up all the stitches that were on waste yarn as I was supposed ta'. On the back part, however, I picked up as many new stitches as I could cram into that small area, about 8. Then, on Rounds 1 and 2, I k2tog'ed all the new stitches until only 2 stitches remained, which is what I was supposed to pick up in the first place. It's not perfect but there's only one tiny gap left and, as an indirect consequence, the fabric of the "y" between the thumb and index finger could give Kevlar a run for its money.

Although in an ideal world I'd have two mittens, the one mitten was completed none too soon since we had record-breaking cold weather this morning. One hand in your coat pocket, one mitten-clad hand scraping the ice off your window, and Bob's your uncle. ("Bob's your uncle." What does that mean, and what does it have to do with mittens, ice and commuting to work?!!!)

(A final note: I now stand even more firmly by the Mitten Effect I noticed when I took the UPOM to work. When I finished the Mary Mitten, I gave it to K to look at. She immediately put it on her hand, made a mitten puppet out of it and started "barking" it at me and Frankie...and then turned quite red when I pointed out that she had fallen under the influence of the Mitten Effect. I guess it's just a thing we humans do. We can't help it.)

Dye Garden Dyegest
While we wait for me to get off my lazy duff and dye with the salal berries, here are, to me, interesting photos about everybody's favorite subject, composting.

The history: Despite being an avid, one might say obsessed gardener, for a long time K had no interest in making compost, although, to be sure, I nipped Yorkie-like at her heels about it. Fortunately, she was interested in small-scale woodworking so, one day, she, as we say, "whapped together" a compost bin out of some 1" x 4"s and disinterestedly tossed some vegetation in it. And now, four compost bins later...

The composting bibles would have you believe that you have to carefully nurse and tend your compost piles, controlling the heat, the humidity, the dampness, the contents, the layering of the contents, the critters within and so on. In true K fashion, she does none of these things yet still churns out yummy, friable black gold. Here, a pictorial:

The Beginning: A Bouquet On Moss. Who knew that compost piles could look this fetching?

The Middle. Eventually the bouquets, moss, twigs, grass, leaves, flowers and apples from the apple tree break down into this:

The End and, in a way, The Beginning again. After sifting, the compost looks like this. Pretty spiffy, no?

Posted by Ryan at October 31, 2003 09:10 AM