You know, I really love knitpicks needles, but the cabley ones just keep on breaking on me. Those dang cables slip out of the tips right in the middle of a row, and all your stitches come out, and you're left with wanting to knit and nothing to knit with. Very sad. And, as of recent, they only make double pointed needles in sizes US 4+ in 8 inches long. Which is too long for double pointed needles, if you ask me.
I'm going to try to show you something. When I was in Vermont, this last summer, I had dyed some Cascade 109 before I left, because I had this sudden urge to knit a pair of chunky cabled mittens that are all the rage on Ravelry right now called Bella's mittens. Here's the back story as much as I understand it on these mittens.
There's this blood disease called porphyria cutanea tarda, where if the patients go out in the sun, their skin gets horrible blisters. Their blood also destructs, or hemolyses, so they need blood replacement. *These people spawned a race called the vampires, which even though the diseased people they sprang from probably didn't live forever, they did. The vampires were all really really good looking and hot. One day somebody named Bella fell in love with one of the Vampires. She was apparently able to change into a lamb at will, which is why she had these mittens, because she could produce her own wool for the yarn. She liked to eat apples with the mittens on but I don't recommend this because that might get the mittens sticky.
Anyhow, I arrived** and I started knitting these mittens. Now, let me tell you, there is a reason so many people have knitted these mittens: it's somewhat addicting.
Now, you might be able to tell from this picture that I've knit, ahem, three pairs of these. Almost. I'm on the last pair. So I finished the first pair, and then I took a field trip out to Kaleidoscope Yarns in Essex Junction, which is really a lovely shop. Such nice Malabrigo Chunky, which I though would be really good for knitting maybe another scarf and a pair of these mittens. So, I knit the second blue pair that's squished in the middle, and fiddled with the pattern a bit.
Wow. I. Love. Malabrigo Chunky. It's such smooth, lovely knitting. Very, very nice. I decided I couldn't end our relationship there. So I ganked two of the lime skeins of yarn from the previously to-be scarf and started another pair of mittens.
Until that is, I arrived at the O'Hare International Airport. I learned a few things going through O'Hare that day. If you wear a nice dress, security will complement you and let you through easier. If you're planning on waiting it out with knitting, bring extra yarn. If you wear a nice dress, store a hairbrush, some toothpaste, and a change of clothes in your carry on for when your flight gets canceled.
Because I ran out of yarn right at the tips of the mittens, I stalled. I couldn't go any further, even when I got home. And now the mittens are right there, where you see them.
Almost done.
Sob. So close.
Love,
A
*This is called sarcasm, by the way.
**Not in the same place as Bella the vampire-loving lamb/woman but in Vermont. Unless she was in Vermont.
