Hat Damn summer in the city...

Gord, Geordie & I rode our bicycles in the crazy heat to the market & I finally got a chance to see the new location of Lettuce Knit. It's cute! Best of all, it's directly across the street from Paul's Boutique - so while the boys went in there, I was able to take the time to look for exactly what I needed. What did I need?

More sock yarn! But this time, not for socks - for mittens. But not just for any mittens - for these mittens:
The pattern is free at elliphantom.com & I've only done a couple rows of the ribbing (and realized I was doing it sort of wrong - the part of the cuff that gets turned under for the hem is to be knit all in the contrasting colour - I've been kniting the 1x1 rib with both my CC & MC. This, of course, will in no way mess anything up - but it sure will take a lot longer than plain 1 colour ribbing would. Does anyone else cringe at the site of "knit 1 x 1 ribbing for 2 inches"? yimminey-yuckers! yikes!

But I cast on, and here is my progress (after about 1 hour)


Good thing the temperature is in the 30s & even the thought of wearing mittens makes me cry silent tears.

Hmmm...segue alert!!!

Think about this - I bought the yarn for these mittens for a little over $40 (don't tell my mother) and I'm starting to knit them now - banking on picking them up only occassionally & having them be my project for when other, larger, more 'christmas present-y' projects don't appeal to me. To be sure, I have a good 2 1/2 months to knit this one pair of mittens. Sure, mittens in the past have been knit in worsted on size 6 needles - not with fingering weight yarn on size 1s but that's not the point. The point is, I am *willing* to spend over $40 & many, many hours on this pair of mittens that may or may not be gifted (I'm thinking not, since I'm already falling in love with them & I'm on the 5th row) - if I were to calculate my hourly wage & add that into the $40 & then come up with a retail price for these mittens it'd be ridiculous - like - in the $200 range. I must ask myself - if I saw these mittens in a store for $200(and that's not including a store's mark-up), I'd laugh & think to myself "I could knit these myself! for cheaper!" Which, of course - I could if I chose cheaper yarn - but it's trekking XXL & it's extra crazy cute!! But that's not the point & conveniently, I've rambled on long enough that I don't even remember what my original point was.

okay - so that all brings me to this story which happened as I was knitting these:



What a sneaky way to sneak in a sneaky picture of a finished pair of Jaywalkers - knit with Regia's 'Crazy Colours' They are another completed christmas knit - this time for my sister! woot!

Anyhow, last week I was sitting outside the laundromat knitting the last bit of the second sock while my clothes were flip-flopping around in the machine.

"whaaaAa? whadda you knittin'? A sock?"

The voice was boomy & warbley & not really what I was in the mood for, but always up for talking about knitting, I stopped, looked up, and smiled "yeah!"

"OHHH! is good! my grandmudder, she used to make. is good."

"yeah!"

"is cheaper too - I mean, is good to make yooself. But then, I grow some vegetables & take so much time to do & then I go to the store & I can buy....I can buy so many fucking vegetables for no money. is frustrating."

"yeah, but vegetables from your garden always taste about a bajillion times better than stuff from the grocery store - just like socks, they fit way.."

"yeah yeah yeah - you gotta say to yousef. "am I gonna go to the store & pay like $4 for a pair of no good socks? NO!" and then you go & you buy the yarn & maybe it take you like wha? 1 or 2 days? but at the end of those days you got some socks AND that $4 you wudda spent on the socks at the store. You save that money!!!"

Of course, I was sitting there wondering where his grandma found sock yarn for less than $4 & how she could knit a pair of socks in 1-2 days. He continued.

"Is like - okay, I see a designer sweater & is like $50! NO WAY I'mma gonna spend that kinda money on a no good sweater - but if I could knit, like you, I save that $50!! And at the end of the week I got me a real nice sweater!"

A sweater in less than a week for under $50?? who IS this guy? (After his rant on how dirt cheap it is to knit sweaters & socks, he started talking about how some guy he worked with punched him & now he's on Worker's Comp. I went awa to check my laundry)