Novio and I having fun with the most fun of all types of mail—yarn and books!

In the spirit of Vicki's post here, I'm making an official declaration of my good-cause knitting for the next long while. I should have posted this, oh, around the 18th, since I've had this in my head since before then and been acting on since then with the Knit Unto Others knit-a-long, so it's nice to lay it out in words (and pictures).




From Hearts to Hands: a pair of mittens from two balls of Swish Superwash (aka Cushy Superwash Yarn of Joy) in Dublin (yay green!). (December 10.)

Their current progress is rather disappointing considering how far I've gotten on everyone else that's due so much later, but they're my first mittens, and I'm a bit overwhelmed. I'm trying this cabled mitten pattern, though you would never know it from this current progress photo.




Caps to the Capital: many many many. (Okay, six.) All done except one needs seaming. (Send by January 2.)




The Red Scarf Project (knit-a-long here): a scarf out of three balls of Swish Superwash in Fired Brick. (Send in January.)

(I also have enough sock yarn for three pairs, and two balls of Shamrock because I loves me some tweed and I could use some fingerless mitts, but they'll wait, because I don't need them nearly as much as the recipients of these projects do.)

Once I finish with these projects, Dulaan and Warm Woolies are on my list.

Knitting for a good cause just makes sense, at least for me; it's easy to feel overwhelmed and impotent in the face of the suffering that goes on in the world every day, but this is a tangible expression of love that will make it to a real person who needs it. I know first-hand how important it is, when your life is tough, to receive help that's genuine, not condescending or resentful. And I love knitting way out of proportion to how much I need or can use knitted things, so it works on multiple selfish levels, really.

Last weekend the Sports Injury Gods paid me a visit. I thought I was immune, having never played, you know, a sport. Apparently, however, ballroom dancing counts, and the hubris I displayed in joining the team about a month ago has been punished accordingly.

I dislocated my left kneecap. Yeah that hurts. And when you're not really used to the idea that parts of your body can shift in ways they never have before and really shouldn't, it's scary too.  Thank god for insurance and painkillers. Especially insurance. And painkillers.

Fortunately nothing tore, and now I'm even able to hobble along without crutches! Oh the things you can be proud of after a week in bed. This was my view for that week:

Things could always be worse.

At this point I really need to be catching up on some work, but for a few days there it was completely acceptable for me to knit and listen to Sufjan Stevens all day. In that spirit of gleeful sloth, Brilliant at Breakfast brings you two opuses (opi?): the Not-Quite-Straight scarf and the Training Sock.

Opus the first:

The Not-Quite-Straight scarf, from an ingenious and quickly-memorized pattern by All Buttoned Up. I love this pattern and its results. This one is a gift for a fellow Southern Californian who goes to school in Massachusetts (brr) and is definitely not enjoying weather as clement as that shown in the previous photograph, so it's nice that I had so much downtime to make a lot of progress. If he gets this before winter is over (since it's Massachusetts, isn't that anytime before May?), I'll consider it a major victory.

Speaking of major victories, this past week marked a huge turning point in my knitting career: I may be ready for socks. Opus the second:

After a few hours/days/millennia of squinting at the Socks 101 article by Kate Atherley at Knitty, I created that work of art.

Of course it's not perfect. The block of reverse stockinette after the heel is from when I forgot how to hold the needles (Craftster be praised for setting me straight), and see that yarn needle up above it, threaded but hopeless? I was going to finish it and weave in ends and enjoy a happy life with my training sock before I realized I had no clue what the hell I was doing.

Finishing. I don't know how to do it. The baby kimono is all knitted, the baby is alive and well, and I'm wondering how long babies can fit into a size called "newborn" because I don't know how to graft it. Or seam it. Or whatever it's called. And I fear the same fate for the Not-Quite-Straight gift scarf. It's just pathetic to finish such nice gifts and then not be able to give them because of one last hurdle, so this next week—Thanksgiving break!—I'll have to set aside some time for figuring it out. It'll be handy during a few of the many hours Novio will no doubt be completely absorbed in his programming and I will no doubt shun studies to return to The Days of Sufjan and Knitting*.

*According to the musical genius' online bio, knitting and crocheting number among his interests, so this combination may have been more apt than I realized at the time. And my friend met him and he was sweet and reserved and talked to her much longer than he had to. I promise I'm not usually such a hipster, but god his work is gorgeous.