The Semi-Sad Tale of the Fingerless Mitts

taj mahal mitt right w/thumb
Originally uploaded by annmcclure2000

In the before time, when Hubby and I still lived in New Hampshire (2001-2004) and I was a fledgling knitter who was just discovering the joys of yarn snobbery, my mom came to visit.
The two of us got it in our heads to go to Littleton to see the Grist Mill. This was a good two-hour drive from where we lived, but the scenery was lovely as the route went through Franconia Notch where the Old Man of the Mountain used to be (RIP May 3, 2003).
The Grist Mill wasn’t running that day because the river was frozen, but we did the self-tour and saw a video (and made the tactical error of buying some buckwheat pancake mix, boy is that stuff hearty). Then we saw Pearl’s Yarn Shop. After wandering around a bit, mom bought me a ball of bright orange flecked Opal Sock Yarn and one precious ball of maroon Taj Mahal yarn, which is merino/silk/cashmere, and just enough for a pair of little ruffled bed socks from a Plymouth Pattern.
I made the socks (it was a squeak to finish them), but then wore them around the house, eventually wearing out the heels. Sigh, that’s a sad part of the story. Not willing to write the yarn off, I decided to reclaim it for another project and had been debating fingerless mitts as the project had to be small enough for one ball of yarn and actually less because of the worn out heels.
There was a rash of staff designed fingerless mitts at Knitting Central (ok, two) and since I had been thinking fingerless mitts, I decided to get in on the fun. But then I got my Ravelry invitation, where I saw a note that the yarn has been discontinued. Can’t very well sell a pattern using discontinued yarn. (That’s another sad part.)
Then Hubby and I went to Madison so he could get his quarterly case of wine. I went into Madison Wool, which is a cute little store, and bought a ball of lilac Ambrosia yarn, which is baby alpaca/silk/cashmere. I figure this will be enough for a pair of mitts. That’s a happy part.
The original mitts are done and there is actually yarn left over. Now I just have to make them again in the Ambrosia. Which makes a girl wonder, how many pairs of lace and cable mitts does she need?