bouncing

when the day starts with an e-mail saying

that my library book

(which i haven’t’ yet finished and i didn’t know was even due)

is now far overdue,

it does not feel good at all.

then i go to try out the new recipe i’ve been waiting to try

and i don’t have an ingredient. i don’t have the main ingredient.

so i decide maybe  little guitar playing is in order,

but the song that i most want to play has a

solo lick that is kicking my butt.

so i think: knitting.

grabbing a skein of malabrigo mecha and dpns,

i settle in to whip up a pair of fingerless

no pattern, no pressure.

just to ward off

the chill at the bus stop each morning.

i spend a few happy minutes on the ribbing at the cuffs

only to realize that i don’t have the right size dpns to knit the rest of the glove.9700well, who needs ‘the rest of the glove’ anyway…

feeling a bit like alexander

(in the ‘terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day‘),

i decide that it’s late enough to go to bed.

every creative thing attempted all day came to nothing,

so sleep and a clean slate kind of morning

sound really, really good.

now it’s the next day.

the library fine is paid and the book renewed.

there is a huge head of califlower in the refrigerator,

i got over the hump of the tricky lick and am getting better at it,IMG_1692 sq

and a quick trip to a lys later, i have the size 10 dpns that i need to work

the rest of the mitts.

what a difference a day makes. seriously.

‘feeling’ taken from 59:10 of isaiah.

 

finalizing

winter is

not done, but i am.

i am done with winter, anyway.

therefore, today is about looking forward to spring,

even if just for a few minutes to give me enough hope to get through the rest of the cold,

you know?

growing things and happy colors and transitioning to warmer weather…

in my opinion, that all calls for a couple of new patterns.alaku and longing for springhere are ‘alaku’ (wrap on the left) and two different ways to wear ‘longing’.

can you believe that the days to wear fingerless gloves outside

(as opposed to double layers of mittens)

are maybe 6 weeks away?

i want to believe.

i really do.

‘forward’ taken from 20:2 of deuteronomy.

cey & i: blog tour, day 4

it is a given, that the area ‘backstage’

pretty much any backstage

at nearly every venue anywhere is

going to feel somewhere between cold and not at all warm.

‘on stage’, however,

at the exact same club,

is going to be “wow, it’s getting really hot and the temp is rising”.

you’ve got lights (lots of ’em), the warm generated

by multiple pieces of electric amplifying equipment,

and the body heat of the crowd.

for me, the silve mitts

are at least a partial answer to this phenomenon.7347btthese fingerless gloves are fitted.

i like things to fit snug on my wrists

and guitar playing would be impossible with any positive ease.

the yarn is classic elite’s mountain top vail,

which is a sweet, luxurious mixture of

the ‘ooh so soft’ of baby alpaca

and the sheen of bamboo.

this makes them

just right for warding off the backstage (or early morning) chill,

while fine enough to fit in your back pocket (or jacket pocket)

when things start to warm up.7365bt

for today only,

buy the pattern

through ravelry,

and you’ll automatically

get 10% off in your cart

(no code required).

be sure to check back

tomorrow

and i’ll direct you

to the next stop

on this blog tour

for ‘artistic differences‘.

while it is still called today, hop on over and read the knitter’s pride blog tour post.

at this very moment in time i am so very

ready to start packing for vklive next weekend in nyc.

‘warm’ taken from 2:16 of james.

photos courtesy of classic elite yarns.

a little to the left

placement is key.

in trying to make these

mountain colors hand-painted mitts

simple enough that i could work them without a pattern

(after i’d gotten through two or three pair to learn the way),

i find that just where all the bits go matters so very much.

IMG_5152cropi started with one cable.

that left a big,

awkward swath of

reverse stockinette

at the base of the thumb.

no good.

without reworking the rest,

i tried a second cable

at the base of the thumb,

but then it seemed

to rise up out of nothing and

i didn’t like it a bit.

7ef426673050a557eacd6344248513afthere aren’t that many

stitches

to work with here

so i figure

every time i knit them wrong,

i’m getting closer

to the few options left

of where they

really do belong.

slow but steady wins

the race.

‘key’ taken from 11:52 of luke.