What I Can Do with Some String and Tooth Pick (okay, not quite tooth picks, but very close...)

As most people who do some form of art know, the joy is largely in the creation. One thing I love to do is knit, but there are only so many knitted things my family of four realistically wants. That is why it was joy when I found out that Ellie's dance instructor, Marodi, wished that she had a nice pair of fingerless gloves to keep herself warm. That set me on a quest and this is what I became inspired by:


"Transition Gloves" by ShiBui. I liked them much better than just about everything else that I looked at on Ravelry.

Marodi said that she would love them done in gray and black. So, the hunt was on, and it was much harder than I expected. Oh, don't get me wrong, there were many a lovely skein of soft sock yarn in those colors, but most of them were too expensive. My favorites were $16.95 and $18.95 per skein. I just could not go there. Then I found what I thought was fine. The colors were perfect and they were oh-so-soft Alpaca yarn. I happily purchased them only to discover at home that in my glee I had overlooked the fact that they were lace yarns, not sock yarns. I remedied this by winding it so that the ply was doubled. Then I had to figure out the right needle size to get the right gage. In the end I purchased needles in size "0" and "1.5".

I did the ribbing with the "0" needles and felt like I was knitting with toothpicks. The saleswoman cautioned me that they are easy to break - no kidding. Interestingly, I found that I knit more loosely using them for fear of breakage. That might be a good thing. I switched over to the size "1.5" for the regular part of the knitting. That felt better, for now. I will have to return to the land of toothpick knitting once I am on row 36.

I am happy with how they are coming out so far. They are lovely and soft.

On an entirely different note, Ethan opened my eyes to some pretty interesting videos that he found through wimp.com. Here's one of the most interesting ones. The videos are about Theo Jansen and his "creatures" or "animals" that he is creating. He hopes they will "live" in herds on the beach one day, adapting to their environment. It's worth your time to watch them - Enjoy!