All earthquake preparedness kits should include some knitting. Definitely.

Hello again! I hope y'all had a Merry Christmas, if Christmas is your thing. Ours was very nice. In fact, on Christmas Day I finished up my Redwork Mitts.


These are from Veronik Avery's book, Knitting 24/7, which I quite like. I knit them with leftover sock yarn - Knitpicks Stroll in Bare (white) and Kettle-Dyed Something-to-do-with-red-wine (I can't remember the name of the color, it's like Merlot or Cabernet or something. Maybe just Wine. Anyway, it's pretty!) - on 3mm needles. I needed 8 buttons for this project, and there were, in my button box, exactly 8 buttons that would fit through these buttonholes. So they don't match, but they're very charming.

I knit the medium size, since the one I knit in the large size was much much much too big. And there was one thing in the pattern that bugged me a bit, so I changed it: after setting aside eight stitches for the thumb, the directions said to cast on eight stitches to replace the set-aside ones and keep knitting straight for the rest of the hand. Frankly, it made the hand entirely too baggy. So I cast on the eight stitches to replace the set-aside ones, and then decreased those eight down to four over the course of the next few rounds. So I had 76 stitches (as directed) below the thumb, but only 72 above it, and when I got to the final decrease row I followed the decrease-row directions for the small size (which was 72 stitches all along). It worked really well, even if it does sound as if I'm losing my mind. :)

Speaking of losing my mind, we had an earthquake this morning. And by "we," I mean "Indiana," which is our immediate next door neighbor, statewise, so we had a bit of window-rattling over here. The truth is, I thought the rattling was a bit odd, but wasn't alarmed by it at all - till I learned there had actually been an earthquake in my personal neck of the woods. Ha ha! Earthquake! I am not freaked out at all!! I'd like to put in my order for a blizzard now, please. I know how to handle a blizzard.

In knitting news, I'm determined to finish this Synesthesia sock by the end of the year. I've turned the heel, finished the gusset, and have two more pattern repeats in the foot and then the toe to finish, so it's looking good. I should stop freaking out about earthquakes and go knit.