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Misbehaving Mitts, Glorious Gloves

One mitten is finished and the other is knit down to the invisible thumb, but they are defying indoor photography. So! I'll take photos over the weekend in natural light. One thing I'm doing with the pattern that you can see in the rather crummy photo here is what Meg Swansen sometimes does: reverse the colors in the pattern. When I began shaping the cuff, I switched the background to the foreground. I think it makes things much more interesting.

Cool, isn't it! One thing that has slowed progress is that a ball of the Applebutter wool has collapsed and fallen apart in a snarly heap of wooly vermicelli. I don't think this has ever happened to me! It needs to be sorted out and then rewound before I can finish the mitten-mate. Good thing it's Friday, otherwise, we'd be rather grumpy about it. Observe the tangled web we must un-weave:

While my mitts are misbehaving, we can look at Maritobita-san's "Pansies in the Snow." Nanette brought these to our attention in March, and Mari and I immediately began looking for back issues of the SpinOff issue in which the gloves-chart appeared. Ultimately, we were both successful, and Mari has kindly given me permission to show you her glorious glove:

Isn't it the most gorgeous thing? Imagine the utilitarian splendor of gloves like these! You could go anywhere and do anything and be anyone if you were wearing handknit gloves such as these. You can see the fronts and backs and even the beautifully stranded and impeccably tidy glove interior if you go to the Glove Gallery. Please do go look; Mari's gloves are small and wonderful woolen jewels.

Pups

Mike, Jack, and Della are all in the pool over at Sister's with Dyna and Apple. Get ready for Nearly Intolerable Cuteness, then grab your flipflops and a MaiTai and head on over! While you are preparing yourself for the wanton adorability of swimming pups, why not prepare yourself for the best Friday ever? C'mon! We've won again!

Cheers!

Knittin Mittens

That's what we're up to here. It remains extremely hot, yet so far, I haven't seen anyone burst into flames...I keep expecting to, though. Meanwhile, we have news about Anatolian Knitting Designs from the Schoolhouse Press Knitting Goddess; with her permission, I quote:

Meg Swansen wrote:

I am the US distributor for Anatolian Knitting Designs - and I bought the last existing copies from RedHouse Press in Istanbul -- so when our copies are gone, that's it (we supply Needlearts and Unicorn).

Please consider yourself forewarned, color knitters and color knitter-wannabes.

Take Me Now

Look what the brilliant Cynthia has found. It's a crazy little thing called cross stitch.

Cynthia also has links to a couple of textile projects in which you can participate: this art quilt project by Terese Agnew, and the previously mentioned SharonB's Textile Textale. Spread the word, knitters!

Pups

We took Sarah's advice and had a pup pool party Wednesday afternoon. Thanks, Sarah! Next time I have to remember to make those little drinks with parasols in them; other than that, it was perfect.

Speaking of perfect, we hope your Thursday is!

We're Melting

Way too hot here. We'll be brief.

SocksX3

When we were talking about Socks Socks Socks last week, Pubah mentioned errata. I've been meaning to tell you that Pubah is quite right; there are errors in a number of the sock patterns. The XRX website is a bit difficult. Google for 'knitting universe' and you should find a working link to the splash page for Knitters. From the front page, try to find the link to XRX Books, then look for a link called Knitters Books Help on the right side of the page (their .php pages don't seem to transfer off the website or I would give you an exact link--sheesh! that website gets more and more difficult to navigate!). Thanks, P!

Will Buy or Trade

If you have a copy of Dale No. L55 and are willing to part with it, would you please contact me at the address in the sidebar? Courtesy of Dalegarn, here's a reminder of the cover:

Pups

Does it ever get too hot for mosquitos? Shouldn't they be frying in the sunshine here, considering their size and the air temperature? The pups are considering a swimming pool but we are reluctant to invite any more mosquitos to the party. The uninvited ones are thriving.

Oy! Way too hot. Take it easy, okay? If possible, share the ride and spare the ozone.

High Summer: Mittens and Books

Summertime! I was so pleased with my new copy of Knitting for Anarchists that I hauled out all my other A. Zilboorg titles (Magnificent Mittens, Fancy Feet, and 45 Fine and Fanciful Hats). I recommend them all to you, particularly if you are interested in color knitting. What an imaginative and scholarly knitter! Many of her designs have a historical basis, but after casting on stitches, her designs take flight into colossal knitterly realms.

I cast on some mittens from a design in Magnificent Mittens. Mittens are a wonderful project for August, especially here in the Southwest, because of size and design possibilities, and because I am bored with socks. The design I chose is based on the hook motif in Turkish knitting.

The wool-mohair-nylon blend I'm using is from Apple Laine, and is called Apple Butter. And it really is buttery-feeling! Very soft hand, and the mohair halo makes the colors shimmer. The two handpaint colors in my mittens are "Pretty in Purple" and "Arizona." These mittens are a birthday gift for a friend who has an August birthday; aren't the purple and gold perfect for a Leo?

Nice wool and a nice design made for some fun Sunday knitting. And the hook design made me wonder about other Turkish designs, so I took Betsy Harrell's Anatolian Knitting Designs off the shelf, too. Do you have this book? There are over 150 charted designs inside the covers, and it is wonderful. It's from Istanbul (you can buy it from both Needlearts Bookshop and Schoolhouse Press, to name two of my favorite booksellers), and I hope it is available forever. Common stitch motifs and the use of color in Anatolian knitting were researched, primarily in a small Turkish village, by Harrell between 1968-1978. The book's subtitle, in fact, is "Sivas Stocking Patterns Collected in an Istanbul Shantytown." I'm not certain, but this book may have been the first modern comprehensive knitting research project. Many of the motifs are completely unique to the area, but others, like stars and some small borders, are seen in many other charted designs from many other knitting traditions. Isn't that clever of knitters? Presumably, you could knit a garment with any number of motifs that could be read and understood in many cultures! Our own secret handshake! Fascinating! Anatolian Knitting Designs is an odd-looking little book, printed on something resembling recycled newspaper, and you must have it in your library if you are even remotely interested in traditional knitting. I have spoken. Buy this book.

The pups were too hot just from helping pose the mitten-in-progress, so we didn't linger for close-ups. It can't be healthy for them to be lounging about all day indoors, waking up only to look bored, then resuming snoozing, but I haven't quite figured out temperate replacement activities for them. Suggestions will be most welcome. The "feels-like" heat index for Monday is supposed to be 106-108 F. Too hot for pups to be playing fetch or chasing squirrels or barking at the neighbor's dog. Poor little furry slobs. Thank heavens for air conditioning and for being able to play inside with squeaky toys.

Two of the poor little furry slobs join me in wishing you a very pleasant Monday. Mikey stays in the shade except in the earliest and latest parts of the day.

Drink plenty of water wherever you are, check on the elderly, and follow Mikey's example for heat safety. Oh, and get the Harrell book while you still can, okay? Cheers!