Or: Why I like to knit two-at-a-time mitts, socks, sleeves, etc.
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First things first: If you have not already, go donate to help those in Haiti whose lives were torn apart this week. However much money you may think you do not have, they definitely do not have… and to a greater extent than you will ever know. Pick your favorite charity from the many who are sending aid to the area and give. You may think your donation a pittance, but in a country where people live on less than $2/day in “normal” times, your smallest gift will still make a big difference. I wouldn’t presume to tell you what charity to choose, as that’s a personal choice, but I’m making mine to Doctors Without Borders/Médecins sans frontières.
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Second things, well, second: I am much better. Thanks so much for your concern and well wishes. I’m still not 100 percent, as it’s only been 5 days since this cold hit, but I should be soon.
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Now, on to the dreaded object lesson.
You will no doubt recall (or scroll down to see) the photo of the left FIL Dashing mitt. You may even recall that I had almost finished the right mitt when last I updated, but had not yet photographed my progress. Well, last night at work (on my break), I took this shot:

"Pardon me, sir, but your waste yarn is showing!"
A beautiful companion to the left mitt, don’t you think?
I thought so, too, until I put the two side by side to take a photo of the pair “so far”.
Here’s what the picture told me, in that undeniable and irrefutable way of photos: One of these things is not like the other.
Don’t believe me? Check it out:

Not a trick photo. Not a special effect. Sigh.
WTF, right?
I thought at first that the right mitt must have many more rows between the cable and the thumb hole than the left one, but careful (if not perfect) counting came up with 24 rows on each mitt, with 15 above the thumb holes. On each.
Again, you might ask (as I did), WTF?
If you could hold the two and compare the fabric, you’d figure it out pretty quickly: the left mitt is much denser, much tighter and therefore much smaller than the right.
I can only surmise that I was much more tense while knitting that first mitt, probably because I was one night sicker and wasn’t sure how far the yarn would go. And I definitely didn’t want to run out without having enough yarn left over to attempt to make a “mitten cap” for the thing.
On the second one, when I knew from the amount left over on the left mitt that I would in no way run out of yarn too soon, I relaxed and knit at a more natural gauge. (Well, more natural for me, anyway.)
The result? Um, yeah. I refer you to the photo above.
I considered trying to even the pair out by blocking the frak out of the left mitt, but finally decided the difference was too great to fix that way. Besides, my FIL might wash them sometime and wonder WTF happened, ya know?
I decided I’d have to do something more drastic. But what? I pondered and debated and thought and schemed and cursed a lot bit. I finally decided to rip back the right mitt to the point under the waste yarn where it was the same length as the left mitt, row count be damned, then make the right mitt match the left mitt’s measurements, again row count be damned.
Cheating, right? Totally.
Justifiable, right? Maybe Totally.
A quick fix, right? Sort of Totally.
Here’s what the pair looked like post-ripping:

"But I thought you said you were gonna rip the right mitt...?"
How observant of you!
I did indeed rip the left (completed) mitt instead, to the row right below the cable cross.
“Why on earth…?” you may be asking yourself.
I just liked the looser fabric of the right mitt better. And I was worried that the smaller size might be too small for my FIL, as it fit me like a custom-knit glove (heh, heh), but I’m pretty sure his hands are wider and thicker than mine. (Most people’s are.)
From the point you see above, I knit an extra row before the doing the cable cross, to make it come out even with the cable cross on the right mitt. (A purist would have ripped to the cast-on and started over, but this girl hasn’t been pure in much of anything for a long, long time!) Then I knit another 5 rows before my break ended and I had to get back to work. (No new picture, sorry.)
I should have time tonight to finish the left mitt and the thumb on the right mitt, then to start fiddlin’ with the mitten caps. I’ll let you know how that works out, ‘kay?
Lesson I learned from this: Knit something else next time and wait until I have the materials on hand to knit both mitts at once! Never again, I tell you.
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Now, I’m ff to bed. I’m doing a special work assignment tonight, going with a small team to work in a neighboring county’s communications center all night, so the regular employees can have the night off to spend with one another as they struggle to come to grips with the death of one of their sheriff’s office captains. He was killed yesterday afternoon in a shootout with a fleeing double-homicide suspect and I know this very small agency much be torn apart about it.
Public safety agencies become the employees’ extended families, sometimes dysfunctional families, but they’re our families and we suffer when something this horrible happens. The effect is magnified when the agency is as small as this one, in a largely rural county. Many times, the officers and dispatchers are from the same biological families (either by birth or by marriage) or they may have known each another all their lives, having gone to school together as kids, dated in high school, attended the birthday parties of one another’s children. The ripples from losing one person in such a tight group as this can swamp everyone.
To give them some time and space, our sheriff has authorized us to do this for as long as we are needed and, almost certainly, for the day of the captain’s memorial service/funeral. We wouldn’t want any of the dispatchers to not be able to attend because of work conflicts. To start the process, our agency sent a dayshift team over this morning and I’ll be going with the night crew this evening.
It’ll mean an hour’s less sleep today for me, but that’s a miniscule price to pay for the opportunity to help fellow telecommunicators in a way that no one not in this profession could.
Keep them, and the people of Haiti, in your thoughts and prayers. They can all surely use them.
G’nite.