Mitten Time

"For the compulsive knitter, hot weather need not put a crimp in his or her activity. Large projects may lie heavy and warm on the lap, but small things like mittens and socks are easy to carry about outdoors and can be made surprisingly fast. Stash them away as they are finished, and when the time comes, next winter, you can deal them out with a liberal hand." - Elizabeth Zimmermann (Knitter's Almanac, 1974)


photo by hyku

I am designing my first pair of mittens right now and I'm surprised by how much fun I'm having with them. Mittens, you say?

Mitten things:

1. Faster and easier than socks, but you still need to make two.

2. Designing one pair leads to designing several pairs. I have several new ideas now. Yeah!

3. I can count the number of times I've actually worn mittens on one hand. But not if that hand was wearing a mitten.

4. A list of five things is way better than a list of four things. Everyone knows that.

5. I could leave you with a cutesy rhyme of kittens with lost mittens but I am more inclined to share with you this gem from Northern Ireland instead:

A Mitten lost on Brighton Pier
by Patrick Daniel Toland

It is the most
inconsequential of things -
fallen there among wrappers,
fortunes and evening tears.

The karaoke bar is singerless,
the washing waves are morning post
waiting for the sort.
The seagulls pair and criss
and confident in their kind.

Out there, perhaps someone walks,
hand to pocket, unbalanced,
out of sight.