Musica mitts cast on

I started the Musica mitts over the weekend when I wasn’t getting ready for our early Thanksgiving dinner…which will be tonight.  My son has to work on Thanksgiving so he and his family are coming to our house for dinner tonight.  Mr. Aitch is in charge of getting the turkey in the oven as I have to work today.

I’ve already got the pumpkin pies, candied yams, cooked/baked and the stuffing is made.  Green bean casserole and mashed potatoes will be made as soon as I get home.  I hope I can leave for home a little early today.

Anyway, back to the Musica mitts.  I am making these for Mr. Aitch for Christmas so he can smoke his cigars outside in the winter and keep his hands warm at the same time.  He is a retired band director, still directs the church choir and plays in several community bands so I thought these would be fitting with his musical life.

Musica Mitts overview

I’m using Knit Picks Stroll in fingering weight.  Knitting on size 3 (US) needles instead of the 2.5 as instructed.  I want them to be a bit larger than the pattern.  I repeated the first few rows as well to make them longer.  I also might make fingers for the ring finger and pinky.  We’ll see how it goes.

Musica Mitts closer

Sorry for the low quality pictures.  I used my phone and the lighting was poor.

It’s funny how much I contemplated over the colors: Dusk and Midnight Heather.  Mr. Aitch is partially colorblind so all he’s going to see are blue and black.  Whatever.

I hope I can work on these this weekend.  I also have to finish the soakers and Ms Ida Mittens.  The twins’ birthdays are this month and I have a few things I need to finish.

It will all come together, right?

More travel knitting

Mr. Aitch and I are leaving tomorrow morning for Tennessee.  One of his former students teaches at Eastern Tennessee State University and is hosting a regional band festival this weekend.  Mr. Aitch is one of the guest conductors.  I’ll be hanging out with Mrs. Professor on Friday while they are rehearsing so I’ll see if she knows of any yarn shops in the area.

It’s about a seven to eight-hour drive one way so I wanted to take some knitting to work on while riding shotgun.  I can be prone to some motion sickness so I can’t work on anything too complicated.

Swiffer covers (my daughter-in-law saw mine and would like a few), soakers that I started when I went to Philadelphia and haven’t touched since, and seamless slippers are relatively mindless.

I’d like to start on the Musica mitts/cigar gloves for Mr. Aitch but that yarn is “in transit” and back in Capital Heights, Maryland.

Ms Ida is still in a time-out.

Painting the living room is on my radar this weekend.  Monday is a holiday so I plan to use it for some decluttering and redecorating.  I bought a new chandelier for the freshly painted dining room and it’s waiting to be installed.

In order to paint I need to get the room emptied or at least the furniture away from the walls far enough to get the ladder in there to reach the ceiling.  What did I do last night?  Sat in front of the TV or computer.  Did I at least have some knitting in my hands?  No.

Instead of sitting doing SOMETHING, I sat doing nothing.  I would have felt guilty knitting when I should have been decluttering.  Make sense?  No, not to me either.  But that’s how I do things.

Can I change that about myself at my age?  I don’t know.

I have such lofty plans to do ABC when I get home from work.  Sometimes I do one of the things on my list but lately I don’t do anything I planned.  This morning I actually woke up refreshed.  Maybe tonight I’ll do something constructive.

My To-Do list for tonight:

  1. Dinner – I don’t have a choice.  It has to happen.
  2. Clean up dinner mess – Can do.
  3. Clean computer armoire in living room.
  4. Clean, empty and move small desk in living room.
  5. Find a place for the three boxes of music to live that currently reside beside the piano.  This has been something I’ve needed to do since we moved into this house.  I don’t have the right piece of furniture for this but I don’t know what is the right piece.
  6. Relocate bagpipes that also reside next to the piano.
  7. Take art down in the living room and spackle nail holes.
  8. Run a clean swiffer over the walls to get rid of any dust before painting this weekend.
  9. Finish Ms Ida mittens.
  10. Work on soaker.
  11. Knit myself a pair of seamless slippers.

And I’ll probably have three hours to do this tonight.  If I can do #1-4 and #9 tonight, I will be happy. 

Tomorrow is another day…

Interesting few days…

I was a bit MIA for a few days but I’m home now.  For the past few days I have been in Morgantown, WV; Springs, PA; Pittsburgh, PA; and the hospital. 

Mr. Aitch wanted to go out to dinner last Friday.  Outback Steakhouse.  The closest one is in Morgantown, WV.  Only 68 miles away.  We took the Harley and it was a nice ride and dinner.  Not crowded at all when we got there but there were people waiting to get in when we left.  Good timing! 

Broken Stork Scissors

 

Saturday morning I went to Springs on my Suzuki to see the Scissors Guy about fixing my stork scissors.  The original pivot had been riveted and screwed and he said he couldn’t repair them.  I appreciated his honesty.    

Saturday afternoon I seamed one shoulder on the Lace Hem Topping.  I don’t like how it’s turning out.  lengthening the body by an inch and shortening the armhole by an inch helped with the fit.  I really want to get this finished.  For some reason this isn’t going as smoothly as I anticipated.  I am short row seaming challenged.  

The stitches are twisted so I took a break and made these

Lampwork stitch holders

 

Knit Picks Ms Ida Chain Link Mittens

 

Sunday we made a quick trip to Pittsburgh.    I took some yarn and a new mitten pattern to work on while Mr. Aitch drove.  (I even bought the recommended colors.)  In my haste to pack something  small to knit, I forgot one set of needles and didn’t get the project started.  As soon as we got home, I found the size needles I needed and put them in my knitting bag. 

Monday became the most interesting day and I’ll explain in a later post.