Quick Mitten Story

My cousin made his confirmation today. He is officially a confirmed Roman Catholic. Afterwards, the family gathered at a restaurant and had dinner. It was very lengthy and I am the oldest of my cousins. Of the 7 of us (one of which is my sister who is 20) one is a boy, and we range in ages from myself (almost 22), my sister is 20, boy cousin is almost 14, his sister recently turned 10, girl cousin almost 8, girl cousin, almost 5, girl cousin 4.

I say almost __ years old because our birthdays (the exception is my sister) are between Oct 27 and Dec 3rd. Six of us are born within six weeks of each other. Boy cousin and I are one day and 8 years apart. Fun facts ;)

So, this is where I'm going with this story, outside of cousins, our parents are present at dinner, as well as our grandmother and her sister (our great aunt). Girl Cousin, who is almost 8 years old, somehow notices that my freshly finished mittens fell out of my peacoat pockets, and onto the restaurant floor. Of course, almost-8-year-olds are very in tune to what is on he floor of a somewhat crowed restaurant.

Naturally, she thrusts the mitten into my face, it is not shiny nor does it have buttons, so it is not interesting. I should mention, I all but kept my cellphone in my bra to keep it away from my dear, adorable cousins. As the mitten is thrust into my face, my grandmother yells across the table about how she wants to look at my mittens. I hand her the mitten and my grandma, her sister and my aunt start talking about the mittens. Granny tries them on, yells at her sister (she is nearly deaf) about how proud she is of me and my mittens and I knit them and the whole nine yards.....

When she hands them back to me, she points out that I have a hole in each mitten. (I had issues with the thumb, I'll point it out in other pictures) I reply that I never said they were perfect mittens.

She is not a knitter, although I asked if she wanted to learn. She said people who are 79 don't want to learn new things. I don't mind her criticism of my knits. Granny will say what everyone else is thinking, and I appreciate that. If she thinks my mittens are ugly, she'll tell me they are ugly.

That's all I had to say. The story didn't quite come out the way I wanted it to, but you get the idea. It made me laugh when she handed them back to me. I may or may not have my strongly desired photo shoot this weekend, because I have to write a paper for American Literature. I would also like to mention that I am a science major, and although English and other classes make me a better, more rounded out person, I would much prefer to take an additional physics class, than American Lit.

There. I said it.
knit on! - jersey

Ah yes, FO's.

* Originally I had posted this blog on Nov. 12th, but my awesome picture shrinking skills were less than stellar. I took the blog down, recropped the pictures so that they would be smaller, and better viewed on the blog and I will eventually repost this blog. Thanks! Jersey

Yes, it is November of 2007 and I can actually say I suddenly have quite a few FO's (finished objects) and let me tell you, saying that out loud, IS WONDERFUL! A far cry from my mittens in January, [and getting the jist of how to post pictures....] I have since completed a pair of mittens, an earflap hat and from Knitty, Calorimetry which I just tell my non-knitting friends it's some type of a large headband that I've been wearing to lacrosse.

I should also mention that I've gotten a TON of compliments on my version of Calorimetry. Seriously, a ton. Including lacrosse teammates, my aunt, boyfriend, boyfriend's mom and a stranger or two.

I feel proud. I don't have finished pictures yet, but I will soon. I have to somehow sell taking pictures of me bundled up in mittens/hat and random scarf is fun to my boyfriend. I know. Goodluck.

I used the yarn from my Jim Thorpe, PA trip for the mittens.

Until I have the perfect photoshoot, here are some pictures to hold you over. I included my awesome pumpkin carving skills and a series of half finished mitten pictures.



The cutest dog ever.



My awesomely carved pumpkin.



Pumpkins are healthy.



Non-lit shot of everyones carved pumpkins. (L to R: Boyfriend's sister's pumpkin, mine, boyfriend's)



Lit shot of pumpkins. Same order as earlier.




Painted pumpkins watching the Giant's win. (L to R: Boyfriend's, Boyfriend's mom's, Boyfriend's sister)


The following are mitten shots:










* I originally had a few more mitten shots, but I got so frustrated with Photobucket that I only uploaded a few. I'll have more later.


I have soo much more to share, and with a WONDERFUL four day weekend that is my favorite holiday coming up soon (cough-thanksgiving-cough) I promise to have another update. I do, I promise. I've been a bad knitter/blogger.

Finally, also in italics, I have to also mention I've decided to make up a "What to Buy a Knitter for her Birthday" blog, which should be posted soon, as well as a photoshoot with (hopefully) bunches of pictures of past and present knits. I feel like I woke up to quite a few winter hand knits. Some of them are ugly, some of them are wonderful, but I feel like I am slowly developing quite a collection. Perhaps I'll even have a model .... I'd love to take the pictures myself, but there is only so much a mirror can do. We'll see. Thanks for checking in with me, I'm sorry I haven't been blogging more often. I hope you are all doing well & enjoying the colder weather. I know it took forever for New Jersey to finally get colder. Even today, it was almost 60 degrees at 2pm!

Thanks for checking in! I have plenty of upkeep to do, I joined two different New Jersey related blog rings and I have some general cleaning up of links and dates, etc.

Ok, bed time and I'm really done with my wacky updates. * All updates in italics were done Nov 13th, in case you were wondering... :)

Happy Knitting! - Jersey