Sneak Peek at Fingerless Mitts

Wanna see what my new fingerless mitts look like?  Here ya go:

Outside lighting

Inside lighting:

I'm not thrilled with the pattern on the thumb, I'm changing it now, but wanted to show you how the cables and lace worked up on the top of the mitt.

Take a look at how the palm side looks:

Notice the horizontal garter ribbing that I came up with?  This keeps the glove snug on arm and wrist and makes the knitting a little more fun too.  I considered straight garter, but it wasn't snug enough and it bored me to tears.   

What I'm doing now is finishing up the right hand mitt and tweaking the thumb pattern.  Next I'll be typing it up, charting the cable and lace, getting a pdf created and then be throwing it out to some test knitters to get some feedback.  If you are interested in being one of those, please let me know in the comments below.

I really need to come up with a name for these.  Fingerless Mitt Prototype just doesn't seem to be zingy enough, ya know?

Serious Knitterly Business

I gave you the goofy pics of the Florida trip that the boys and I took over the very long weekend.  Now it's time for the serious stuff!

I drug the boys into a knitting shop that I found in Cocoa, FL called the Knit and Stitch Boutique.  They were not particularly thrilled with me about this.  They thought I was joking when I said I wanted to go to a yarn store to look for sock yarn.

I really wasn't impressed with the shop for several reasons:

A.  As soon as we walked in, one of the women working there began following us everywhere like we were going to either steal something or the boys would destroy everything in sight.  I keep a very tight rein on my children when in stores, so it ticks me off to have someone do this.  Yes, I know, not everyone controls their children, but still.  I also know that this is not a very child friendly town, but honestly, do they expect every knitter to be ancient and childless?  Others in the store (regular customers) were much more friendly to me and the kids though and that was much appreciated.

B.  I got lectured by this same woman on how to handle yarn.  I pretended to hug the skein of yarn that I was holding (and eventually bought though I was tempted not to) and she began lecturing me on not to touch my face with it.  Worried about makeup getting on your yarn, honey?  You have no idea how bad I wanted to do that after the stern talking to she gave me just out of spite.

C.  If this was the owner of the shop, she has a lot to learn about customer service.  Never tick off a potential customer.  She might be a knitter, spinner, and crocheter and just might have a blog to tell others about your store and the service in it.

D.  The shop was so cramped there was hardly space to move.  A class was going on and there were large tables taking up much of the floor space.  They would have done better to have chairs set up instead.  The people in the class were very warm and friendly though and very patient with my trying to get around them to look at the shelves that contained the yarn.  They need to find a place with more space and better parking. 

E.  The yarn selection could have been a bit better.  The shop caters to those who work with thread in general as well as knitters which is cool and I haven't seen that before so it gets a plus for that.  However, if you're known as a knit shop, shouldn't you have a bit more of a selection of yarn?  Oh, and what about stuff for the crocheter?  Just my opinion.

Okay.  'Nuff said about that.

I did get what I went in for and that was some pretty sock yarn!  Malabrigo sock yarn to be exact and in the Stonechat colorway:

Pretty, huh?

I Took A Trip To Disney And All I Got Was These Really Weird Pictures

I seem to have survived my trip to Florida even though I didn't think I was going to last night after driving about 10 hours.  I was walking around like a zombie at that point.  Just for the record, a four year old stuck in a car that long is not a fun person to be around.

While on my trip, I finished my first draft of my fingerless mitt pattern.  I'll show you the results tomorrow.   I found one thing in particular that I want to tweak, but I'm pretty happy with it.

We went to Disney for one day and stuck with just the Magic Kingdom park.  In between the long, long lines and the fussing about sore feet, I think the Youngest enjoyed it.  I know the Eldest did.  I enjoyed it a little less thanks to having to carry the Youngest for most of the day.  He's still a little young to handle that much walking and has zero patience for waiting around before getting on the rides.

I got some great pics and some that are funny, but can't necessarily be classified as great.  Classic maybe.  Does anybody else have a member of a family that behaves like this when a camera is pointed at them?


Like this?

And this?

Or this?

Is it really that difficult to face your Mom (whose holding a camera) and smile?  Am I doomed to have every picture of him for the rest of my life look like this?  If so, at least I'll be laughing when I look back on them!