Here’s one for ya. . . a knitter walks into a bar . . .

Yup, that’d be me. I went to the MN knitters gathering at a local pub/restaurant on the right day, wrong week. I was so excited to meet some ravelry knitters that I went a week early. It was a very pleasant experience actually. I knit for about 1 1/2 hours on a comfortable sofa. The wait staff was very friendly and helpful. . . they fed me dinner and didn’t laugh at me. One of the servers is a knitting fanatic and sat and chatted with me about two color knitting, as she examined my colorful mittens, inside and out. She tried them on and found the hole in the thumb. (one of these days I’ll fix that)

On Christmas eve about 2 years ago I woke up wanting a new pair of mittens. I knit one on Christmas eve and the other Christmas day. I knit them from the top down, making the design up as I went along. The increases for the thumb are in the middle of the front/back of the glove. Thought I’d try that for a change from the more common thumb gusset. The yarn is a blend of wool/angora I purchased from Fairy Hare Fiber. They are really soft and cushy. Obviously, they are also worn often, i.e. the key hand thumb has been chewed off by keys.

I’ve digressed from my knitting in the bar. . . but that’s all there is to it. I am totally looking forward to the coming Thursday and hoping I won’t be knitting alone again.

I had a fun little side trip during our Thanxgiving trip to Chicago. . . on the way home to St. Paul we stopped in Mount Horeb at Blackberry Ridge Mill. We saw the mill running and I had nightmares about all the cones of wool that were hooked up and plying. After about an hour of oohing and awing at yarn, patterns and knit samples, I bought some 4 ply yarn to knit a fisherman sweater. Enough to fit me. This color red is great! It isn’t very traditional for a fisherman knit with lots of cables etc, but oooh this color says power.

Don’t know when I’ll get to designing this sweater but I’ve got the best yarn for it!

Off to a Holiday Party! Cheers,
Shawn