Starting up some mittens, and a dog sleeps on Pendleton

This is a quick post I started before catching a flight out of town for the holidays.

In the last mail delivery before departure, I received from Colorjoy! LynnH a packet that contained these delights:

Some raspberry-colored wool yarn and Lynn’s “toe-up” (otherwise known as “tip-down”) mittens pattern.

The combination is 100% perfect for the situation I found myself in: had just completed a project, about to be traveling with carry-on, in need of very warm mittens, and without a lot of time or patience for swatching.

The mittens require no gauge swatch. They start from a small square of stitches, which was enough for me to determine whether the heft of the fabric would meet my needs. Lynn’s teaching experience shows in the clarity of her instructions, and guesswork didn’t need to be in the nonexistent schedule.

I decided on a tight gauge, hopefully pretty windproof because of the crispy weather we’ve been having, and ran out the door with trip knitting in progress.

MANY thanks, Lynn!

The biggest problem with traveling on holidays is leaving half the family at home. Here’s Ariel, sleeping on a rag rug I wove many years ago from Pendleton woolen mill rag strips:

I have at least four of these rugs. I bought the strips in Poulsbo, Washington, not far from where we are now. The rugs have traveled from there to New England to Colorado. They make a nice cushion for a fourteen-year-old dog on the basement concrete floor of my office.

The dogs like the kennel (although Tussah always forgets to eat, so she comes back skinnier than she left). But it’s good to get them back again. We need to plan our departure and arrival times around the kennel’s open hours.

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Here in Seattle we have seen more snow than we left in Colorado. We’d been here a day before we got to see my sister, brother-in-law, and nephew. The shuttles from the airport weren’t traveling into the neighborhoods (too risky) so we had to take a cab to my mother’s, and when the cab driver pulled into her area we told him to let us off at the foot of the hill and we’d walk the rest of the way. He was visibly relieved.

Most of the snow is gone now, and we made an excursion downtown to the Seattle Art Museum yesterday. We saw two primary exhibits. 

One contained ten paintings and a handful of etchings by Edward Hopper. I hadn’t seen any of these works; the paintings in particular were lovely, with his amazing color work and treatment of light. 

The other exhibit, called “S’abadeb—The Gifts: Pacific Coast Salish Art and Artists,” filled five rooms. There was one old-style Cowichan sweater, at about five stitches to the inch (20/10cm). No, I didn’t measure the gauge; nor could I see the back of a rug that looked knitted rather than twined, although only more time, and ideally a look at the reverse side, would have answered my questions. Much exquisite work in many media.