As it turns out, I am one of the folks being laid off.

Now, several weeks ago I was thinking about my stash. Those of you who have been following this blog for a while have a pretty good idea of the sheer hugeness of my stash. (Click on “Yarn” up there at the top for a better idea if you’re new!)

But how much *time* does the stash represent? If I didn’t buy another ball, how long would what I have last me? After some quick math, I concluded that with my current work schedule, it would take me less than 2 years to go through all of it. I’m as shocked as you are!

Anyhow, with the news of my upcoming unemployment, I thought, what if I don’t find another job right away? We’re in a very comfortable financial situation right now, but what about the stash? Without having to stop crocheting long enough to scan books, how long would the stash last then??

My course was clear.

As it would happen, the TTC Knitalong was being held the first weekend after the bad news was announced at work. It was the perfect opportunity to stock up!

Here are the adventures of Team Red:
(Click on a picture to see it in a larger size)

We gathered at Passion Knit

where I met a truly lovely woman who teaches crochet there. I think (hope!) I was able to convince her to join our crochet guild.

This is also where we received our swag bags. Here’s mine:

That Mary Maxim coupon is going to see some really good use! I’m thinking birthday shopping…

Speaking of Mary Maxim, that’s where we went next! It seems I forgot to take a picture while we were there. I was pretty busy, though – more on that later!

Then it was time for lunch! We went to the food court at the Younge-Eglinton Centre and freaked out some muggles:

And here we are on the subway, freaking out some muggles:

Next, it was on to Knitomatic

My favourite part of this stop was how we freaked out *other knitters*. A couple of times someone would open the door, and see this:

and say something like, “uh… I’ll stop in on the way back…”

We were feeling rather under-caffeinated, so we decided to occupy a nearby Starbucks:

Now fortified, we headed to our last yarn shop of the day: Romni!

I was pretty tired by this point. More on that later!

We decided to walk over to the Rivoli, which is where we were meeting up with the rest of the groups to compare notes, win prizes, knit some more, and drink. (It’s ok, it’s not like any of us were driving… we all took the TTC! lol)

Prizes, you say? Well, first of all, Team Red very nearly swept the awards. We had the Youngest Knitter, some award about “Interspecies Relations” (there’s a story there about one of our group making friends with the bird at Knitomatic), the Bought The Least Amount award, and the winner AND runner up for Needs A Sherpa (bought the most yarn). Oh, and one of us won the draw that one of the shops was having, too!

So, what did I buy?

Bernat Satin, of course. This is why I was so busy at Mary Maxim!

Lots of Bernat Satin (of course!).

I had known going in that there was an award for having bought the most yarn, so I had come prepared:

Would you believe that the 60 balls of yarn I bought weren’t enough to win me the prize? I was the runner up! The winner had 62 balls. So close!!

We were an interesting pair, her an I. I was preparing the stash for potential unemployment, and she was gearing up for 3 months off of work due to surgery. On her foot. The lucky duck!

Anyhow, I did get a prize for being runner up:

Pretty sweet!

Oh! And the whole point to this adventure (other than buying lots of yarn) is to knit while riding transit. Of course, I crocheted instead:

Not bad for a day’s work!

Thank you so much to the organizers, donors, and participating yarn shops. I had a blast!

I’m working on a new pattern (how exciting is that?)

Warm and toasty and cozy, I present to you:

Maybe a mitten!

So named because, like Hope’s Hat, you’ll be half-way through making this thing and thinking, “well, *maybe* it’ll end up being a mitten…”

I appologize for the fuzzy pictures, but I was just too excited about this pattern to wait for a winter sun beam!

The pattern isn’t quite right yet, but I think I’ve mostly figured it out. Stay tuned!

In other news, I’ve entered the Craftster “Advanced Accessories Challenge“, have you?

For an idea of why I was going through so much trouble to make a mitten, well, here’s the one I made next to the one I try to cram my hand into every day in the winter:

Of course, the warmer weather will be here any day now (right? Right???), so this might be of limited use this year. But I’m happy with it all the same.

…

What do you mean, I’m supposed to make two of them?

Ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to introduce to you my Appropriately-Sized-Mitten Prototype.

(This is the best all-over shot I could get before the batteries in my camera died. You’ll see a possible cause for this in a minute.)

Some of you may remember my first attempt to make a mitten (intending it for a *child* no less!)

(For an idea of scale think “oven mitt”.)

I was a bit wary of trying again; that is, until the temperature here dropped. I wore my winter coat the other day for the first time this season, and when I shoved my hands in the pockets I found one mitten. That’s when I remembered that I’d lost its twin last winter. I do have several other pairs of mittens, but they are still packed away somewhere. Clearly the answer here was to try again to make a pair. (What do you mean, “Why don’t you just unpack already?” Who’s side are you on?)

I grabbed some Bernat Satin and went to it.

I started by using the same pattern of stitches I used on some coffee cup cozies I made last year:

ch 13
sc in second chain from hook, 11 more sc across, ch1, turn.
12 sc, back loop only, ch 1 turn (repeat this as many times as needed. I did 30, but I think that was a few too many)
hold the last row against the first row, and sc them together to form the cuff.

Next I sc around one end, doing on sc at the end of each row of the cuff, and joining. I figured this would be easier to work with.

I then lifted up 36 loops to start the Tunisian Knit Stitch part. To work Tunisian in the round you need a double-ended hook and two balls of yarn. The loops I lifted up were green, and I worked them off with red. Because I’m like that. ^_^

I kept trying it on as I went, so I could keep an eye out for the thumb placement. To leave a hole, I did 6 yo, and skipped 6 stitches, then kept on going. It was a bit tricky working those yo off, but I managed. It seemed to work ok, anyway.

Trying it out; I did this a lot while making this mitten!

And the back:

Once I passed the thumbhole, I kept going with the Tunisian Knit Stitch until I almost reached the tips of my fingers. I then did a series of decreases that I don’t really like, so I’m not going to do them that way next time. ^_^

I did a few more decreases once I felt it was long enough, then did a sort of drawstring gather that didn’t really work too well. I ended up “fixing” a lot of the problems it caused when I was weaving in the green end.

I went back to the thumbhole and worked it the same way as the rest of the mitten, just with fewer stitches. I picked up 6 sts each on the bottom and top of the hole, as well as an extra stitch on either side.

I was quite pleased to see how well the stitches blended in.

I didn’t quite make the thumb long enough for my liking (I was terribly excited that I was nearly finished. Also, I really need to get a shorter double-ended-hook if I’m going to keep making mittens this way; 14 inches is *way* too much for 6 or 7 stitches!)

I do like how I finished the tip of the thumb, though, and will have to try it for the tip of the fingers on the next one. I did a few decreases on the last round, then bound it off with slip stitches like you would when finishing any other Tunisian project. Then I used the long tail I left to weave through the slip stitches and pulled it closed like a drawstring. This worked much better!

The really fun part about this mitten?

It’s reversible!

A closer shot:

Things to do on the next one:

- don’t decrease on the hand part until a round or two from the end
- longer thumb
- some kind of stitch around the bottom of the cuff for a more finished look
- find a stitch for the top of the cuff that won’t leave little holes
- join the Navy