Southpaw.

today i taught myself how to knit Continental. i can't believe how fast i picked it up--i was going on a half-remembered lesson that Adriana gave last July and a photocopied page from that Anna Zilboorg book--but it took no time at all to get my hands used to the new motions.

though my main motive for picking up this techique was mainly utilitarian (read: eliminate all that annoying untangling while working with multiple colours,) i couldn't help but enjoy the very feel of it. holding both work and yarn in the same hand simultaneously both literally and figuratively made me feel more closely bound to the fabric i was producing. knitting with both hands at the same time isn't as difficult as i had thought! the resulting swatches (one in-the-round, one in the flat) are destined for a spin in the washing machine so i can finally see how garter stitch and in-the-round colourwork look properly fulled.

on a totally unrelated (but mitenny!) note, tonight i grafted the top of the first Checks and Charms mitten. it remains thumbless with about a million ends (where did those come from?) still unfinished, and it will so remain until...well, until i get around to it. as such, i'm striking it from the "On the Needles" list as it is, frankly, no longer on my needles. working mittens fom the bottom up (with the exception of Latvian mittens) just isn't satisfying or fun for me lately. i suspect i'll have better luck with top-down mittens.

Another placeholder.

this morning my mind was filled to bursting with musings on mittens--mitten technique, mitten construction and, mainly, whether the use of duplicate stitch would comprimise the historical integrity of Latvian mittens. i had mentally composed a suitably mittenny post, and carried it with me the better part of the day...

...and once at home, promptly forgot it. i did away with my chagrin while winding a good bit of my stash. surrounded by colours, i gathered together pinks, browns, oranges and ivory, fully intending to put both them and the new cast on (Middle Eastern CO) that i learned this morning to work in a new, magnificent mitten.

then i ran into the sock pattern that Adriana had shown me last night.

there's a very good chance that i'll have both a new mitten and sock cast on by the end of the evening.

¡Yo la tengo!

oh yes, i (finally) got it!

and i don't really know why short row heels have eluded me for so long, because it was so easy! no more heel flaps for me (unless i suddenly snap and decide i miss them or something. that, as they say, ain't likely.)

also, Yo La Tengo!

i (finally) got to see them this past Wednesday night. they were so good it hurt--literally (and this is coming from someone who's been at many a Sonic Youth and Nihilist Spasm Band show.) ah, so noisy and LOUD and amazing! "Sugarcube" live was downright transcendental. haven't had a moment like that in a long time.

and because it's easily one of the funniest (if not the funniest) videos i've ever seen, here's "Sugarcube." you need to see this.