Coma weekend

It's that time of year when my brain seems to go into hibernation, while I'm apparently living my life. Thanksgiving was a grande bouffe at the home of ever-generous neighbors who thoughtfully provided an artistically-personalized twenty-pound shopping bag of leftovers for every guest, lest they suffer from a dearth of nourishment after the main meal. Eyeing the bottom layer of this gift o' love-- a Tupperware container of English trifle, a bag of Italian cookies, a hefty slice of gingerbread buche, a slab of pumpkin pie, a nine-million calorie hunk of cheesecake with cherry topping--I knew I had to do something drastic. So I ate the cheesecake for breakfast on Knit Something Day, then trotted downstairs to the neighbors' apartment, to return the cookies, trifle, and buche--but not the pie, turkey, stuffing, and large container of side vegetables--thereby maintaining the fiction that I'm trying to follow a moderate diet. (Meanwhile I ate the pie in small increments over three days, further supporting the fiction of moderation.)

What did I do this weekend, besides eat and knit? That is the question. On Knit Something Day I zipped through Deborah Newton's Cornflower Mitts pattern, and when I thought I'd almost finished, discovered, to my chagrin, that I'd made two right-hand mitts and no left.

Well, everything happens for a reason, right? Obviously I love this pattern, which I'm giving to a friend--love it so much that I wanted my own pair. I'm about a third through the first left-hand mitt. (I keep wondering, though, that if I hadn't eaten that grotesque slice of cheesecake and my brain wasn't all befuddled by the sugar-fat-cream triumvirate, mightn't I have read the pattern correctly in the first place?)

This, my friends, is a great design! Knit on number nines, it's speedy, and the rich detailing of cables and three kinds of ribs provides texture, interest, and extra warmth. (I'm sure that the thickness of the cable on the back of the hand adds extra heat retention, and the ribs make the mitts grippy.)

But enough about me...I wanted to find out what my knitting friends were knitting on Knit Something Day. Below, a partial visual record:

Susie B, NYC, lace-edged woman's hat.

Caroline B, Connecticut, twisted cable scarf of handspun, hand-dyed wool.

Carol M. of Connecticut Yarn and Wool,  Haddam, Connecticut, Christmas stocking from  local merino sheep.

The Knitting Goddess, Providence RI, a big eyelet swatch.

And more to follow, after I catch up on my Zzzzzzzs. Please send me photos of what you were knitting on November 26th, 2010, and they shall appear on this blog in the immediate future.