I think it can be fun to look back and talk about what I was knitting a long time ago. I consider five years to be an acceptable buffer zone of embarrassment (both in knitting and in most other things) and so, like last month, I think I’ll show you what I was working on five years ago, in the winter of 2007.
I had recently gotten very excited about knitting after discovering Eunny Jang’s fantastic blog. I seriously don’t think I would have remained a knitter if I hadn’t found it– I knew about Knitty, but not yet about Ravelry, and, although I didn’t know it, was looking for someone to talk to me intelligently about knitting: technique, design, materials, the whole thing.
In (weirdly) my very first college all-nighter, I read the entire backlog of her blog (…while listening to The Earth is Not A Cold Dead Place on loop? Remember what I said about 5 years erasing all shame?). My memory has crystallized the whole experience into a sort of magical movie-montage that, to quote Michael Chabon, does indeed glisten with epiphanic dew. It was absolutely transformative. I don’t think I’ve ever read another blog that’s enchanted me as much, save Kate’s, which I think I found two years later.
All of which is to say, I was thoroughly enticed by the Endpaper Mitts, and so rode my bike down to Yarns Etc (it was still in Carrboro!) and looked around. I found 4 prim balls of Rowan Wool Cotton (not exactly suited to the task at hand, but what did I know?) and took them home.
These mitts have been my winter companions for the past five years, and I think it’s time to let them go. For one thing– and this is the main thing– they’re not particularly warm, thanks to the cotton. Therefore, they’ve biased me against mitts as a rule. I know I may well be wrong about them, and so am asking– are mitts actually warm? I’m always reading that they’re practical, and the woolen ones I’ve made and given as gifts have seen years of use, but I am still unconvinced (and know there’s only one way to remedy this). They also, again thanks to the cotton, are very drying and inelastic– not exactly something one wants to jam onto cold hands.
I think the only reason I’ve held on to them for so long is that they’re very beautiful. Which is certainly the case.
