Latest Projects, Part One

I have already missed 3 birthdays in early March.  Fortunately, everyone who knows and (presumably) loves me expects that.  I think I am going to sit down and make a simple little pair of handwarmers (wristwarmers/fingerless mitts/fingerless gloves?).

Aside:   Does anyone volunteer a neologism to make talking about this category of handwear easier?  We should have a contest....I'm entering "Mani-Mitts".  I just have to sell the idea on Ravelry to make pattern searches easier.)

So, one evening with a couple of hours of classic movie-watching ahead of me, I assess patterns on Ravelry, pick one that has the look I want, the weight of yarn I want to use, and beginning swatching the stitch pattern.  Before I know it, the movie is over, I have ripped out a few swatches, perhaps chosen another pattern, perhaps changed my yarn, googled some technical question on crochet, watched a YouTube video on "how to.....", sketched out some kind of stitch diagram, convinced myself that the pattern-writer's math is right/wrong.  Like Thomas Edison, I now know 200 materials that will not function as a light bulb filament, and I am sitting (figuratively) in the dark.  For the next few days I obsess, refine what I want, and make and rip out what is slowly becoming a prototype of an item which no longer resembles any of the patterns I consulted (except vaguely), and I have done enough groundwork to re-invent the wheel.  Side-tracked much?

This is what I ended up with.  One (so far) Chiloquin Mani-Mitt.  The giftee will know why I'm calling them Chiloquin. (Because that's where she's from and I like the name.)

As it stands now, I am about halfway done making the right mitt. That should only take me about 2 more hours, since I can just do it; all the thinking through is (mostly) done.  Whew!

But in all fairness, I want to acknowledge that my inspiration that got me started was Wendy Cozby's Pattern, which I found on Ravelry called Crochet Hand/Wrist Warmer.

The yarn is a little more green.  It is Lion Brand Wool-Ease in Seaspray.

And now, there are two more birthdays to catch up with.  And the April birthdays to get started with.

(That yarn is also Lion Brand Wool-Ease.)

*****************************************************

On another note, this is the view out my kitchen window.  Reminders of warmer weather.  Swings in the back, lacrosse net for shooting practice (on the right), fire pit in the foreground.

The picket fence on the left encloses the neighbor's back yard around the corner from our house.  The Y-shaped craggy tree at the end of the fence is an apple tree, one of the few left from when the neighbor's house was the only one around, and my yard was part of a saltwater farm apple orchard. (See pics of the farmhouse and barn and backyard in pics 11-13 of this post.)

This view shows a closer look of the apple tree and behind it, those golden shrub-sticks looking all barren will be forsythia!  I am reminded of this because I saw some forsythia blooming in the house of another blogger (in a warmer climate, obviously).  A few days ago, I saw and heard the most brilliant cardinal perched in the branches of the forsythia.  He's been singing his heart out the last few days, no doubt trying to find a lady love.  If Spring eeever gets here, I will get a good pic of that forsythia stand and share it here, (about the time the rest of you have moved on to the bloom of your roses, hydrangea, peonies, etc.).