The past month has been an absolute blur. I’ve been doing lots of knitting to keep my mind off of many different things, including the death of a friend, and a bout of flu (perhaps of the swine variety). Knitting has kept me busy, and feeling productive when life gets overwhelming. I think that mittens are particularly great because once you’ve made one or two pairs, it can be very predictable indeed.
I was thinking back over the many different mittens I’ve made…the first pair ever, made from robin’s egg blue, yellow, and pink acrylic yarn. I must have been in elementary school at the time, the mittens don’t fit me anymore! I sat with my grandmother as she carefully explained how to create a gusset, and the importance of doing a lot of ribbing at the cuff, even if you hate doing ribbing. She’s right, I’ve thanked myself many times when I don’t get snow down my sleeves! Even at that young age, there was a streak of knitting rebellion. No, I didn’t want to make a swatch…and no, I didn’t want to make the cuffs with matching stripes.
Fox and Geese
In high school I started knitting fox and geese mittens from the book Fox and Geese and Fences by Robin Hansen, and these became my default mittens, the kind that I can knit even in a movie theatre. I’ve made pairs for family members and friends, some being mailed to far away places like Vancouver, Germany and South Korea.From the same book I learned how to make thrummed mittens, which were also quite a hit with family and friends. It wasn’t until later that I realized there was a controversy about how thrumming should be done.
I wore a pair of thrummed mittens on strings throughout university, and would often arrive to class with steam visibly rising out of my warm mittens.
visible thrums
Over the years I’ve used mittens as projects to experiment and refine techniques such as stranded colourwork, cables, and interesting stitch patterns. I have knit for the local breakfast program charity auction, as well as silent auctions supporting the Environment club at school.
Mittens knit for a charity auction supporting the school board breakfast program
My first handspun kool-aid dyed wool became mittens that smelled so wonderful for the first few months
My first handspun mittens-can't you just smell the kool-aid?
What better gift to a sheep farmer that gives you 3 bags full of fleece, but to make a pair of mittens for him out of his kind donation.
Mittens for a sheep farmer-gold colour from dying the wool with onion
When I heard the news of my friend’s untimely death, one of the first things I did was to pick up my needles and cast on. I knew I needed a project that would be intricate enough to keep my mind occupied. I wanted this project to be meaningful to me and to his family. Since he was a lover of words, I decided upon the poetry mittens that I had seen on Ravelry. I chose the following two poems.
poetry mittens
Do Not Stand At My Grave and Weep
Do not stand at my grave and weep;
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning’s hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry;
I am not there. I did not die.
-Mary Elizabeth Frye
poetry mittens
and
Hold On To What is Good
Hold on to what is good
Even if it is a handful of earth
Hold on to what you believe in
Even if it is a tree which stands by itself
Hold on to what you must do
Even if it is a long way from here
Hold on to your life
Even if it is easier to let go
Hold on to my hand
Even when I have gone away from you
-Pueblo Indian prayer
poetry mittens
It did take a few hours fiddling with a spreadsheet and words to get both pairs of mittens charted out. I luckily had sock wool (Kroy in the cream colour and Regia silk in blue) in my stash, and 10 days later I have two pairs of mittens. True to form, I did no swatch….but luckily both pairs worked out to human hand size. These mittens have given me comfort this past month, and I hope they will do the same for their new owners.
hold_on_chart (pdf)
This blank_template (pdf) will be helpful in designing your own poetry mittens.
Hold on to what is good
