Our rehab work is moving ahead; we have a dining room ceiling and light and the furniture isn’t piled up in the living room. Progress!
Once again, sheet rock hoist =tru luv. However, it’s not the only home rehab going on around here. The residents of White Pine Manor are back and strengthening the nest.
I see them at the maple trees, snapping off little branches and bringing them over to the penthouse. I wish I could figure out a way to get a webcam up there for when the babies arrive. I looked at the date on the red tails post I did last year and it seems as though the hawks are right on time. They’ve been working for a few weeks already. Our current harbinger of spring isn’t snow drops, though. What do the hawks do when this happens?
I’ve been working on some new patterns designed for Frog Tree Pediboo, my new favorite yarn. (Like Fair Trade Coffee? How about Fair Trade Yarn?)
One pattern is for a family of basic fingering weight mittens. Good for transitional weather (March through May?) or chopper liners. If you don’t know what choppers are, you don’t need transitional weight mittens. These would be warm enough for you any time. I made them with peasant thumbs, because working a fingering weight mitten takes some time and they go faster. They are not perhaps as anatomically correct as gusseted thumbs, but I like them. For a complete elucidation on thumbs and some dang cute mittens with a variety of critters on them, go visit Tori.
I called these 7/28 mittens, because when the draft name was Fingering Mittens it just seemed like a field day for smutty spammers and search engines. Yes, 7 sts to the inch and 28 sts over 4 inches or 10 centimeters is uninspired, but I needed a name. I googled 7/28 or 7-28 to see what came up.
“Eagles score 28 in final 7:28 to stun Giants” We are are still laughing about this in my family, as my B-in-L, “Mr. Giants,” left that game in the last 9 minutes to beat the traffic. Sore Loser Mittens?
Or this biblical reference: ” But those who marry will face many troubles in this life.” Unhappy Marriage Mittens?
I could have named it for stitch and row gauge, but you know what I think of row gauge, that lying sack of stitches. How would that look? The 28/40 39 41 mittens? Maybe not. I’ll stick with uninspired.
MLE
Yarnerinas 
Wow your snow sure looks deep. Love the colours on the mittens. I did not know what choppers were, yet I find myself needing a pair.
Frog Tree Pediboo was what I used for the inner mittens in my Dimorphous Mittens. It’s lovely stuff, and I still have over a skein left. Can’t wait to see your patterns for it!
It must be wonderful to watch the hawks. I guess it is necessary to feed them?
Your mittens look great. Super colors.
Mittens in March through May? No . . . no, I guess I don’t need transitional mittens. Actually, I wish mittens were more useful in my climate, because there are so many fabulous patterns out there. Too bad!
I love the naming thoughts! Naming something is never as easy as it seems like it should be… The mittens are great, though, and with all that snow, it looks like they’ll be getting lots of wear yet.
I was actually looking for a good fingering weight mitten pattern – no I have one. Had not heard of “choppers” before. That snow is amazing.
Here in Australia, everyone is impatiently waiting for the end of summer. February has the worst weather here. Sticky, hot and humid. Because it is only one month, we don’t have air-conditioning in the bedrooms, but some nights are revolting.
I think at least some of the redtails stick around all winter – I see them lurking on lightpoles along the freeway, waiting for roadkill…
I hadn’t heard of choppers either, but I certainly use transitional mittens. I have three “gauges,” so to speak, of mittens. The light, transitional mittens, the fleecy, most-of-the-winter mittens, and my down-filled mittens for the really effing-cold days. I usually pull those out when it’s -20 or so – before wind chill.
Didn’t know they were called choppers, but I left a pair behind in Montreal. Don’t really need them here on the south shores of Lake Ontario. A pair of 99 cent drugstore gloves inside a pair of woolen mittens is usually enough for our worst weather.
7/28 mittens sounds good to me, but Sore Loser is a close second.
Chopper mittens! The things I learn. You didn’t go out, bag a deer and skin it too, did you?
Sorry about your new snow. It’s just SO not entertaining this time of year. Those mittens are beautiful, I love the color range. March Madness Mitts? My MIL had many Weather Theories, one of which was always a huge snowstorm in March during high school basketball playoffs .
great post! I will check out the Pediboo. I’m in mitten mode these days. Love to knit them but have taken a year or so off. Look forward to more posts about the neighbors! Wish you could do a web cam …