All DPNs, All The Time

It could be due to last week's prolonged exposure to all things sock, but I just noticed that I have three projects going at the same time, and they are all on DPNs:

Here's a sock (knee high) that I somehow managed not to finish at Sock Summit.  No idea what I must have been doing with my time.  Call me unsophisticated, but I really love a stockinette sock.  There is no better way to really see what yarn is like than to make a nice smooth tube out of it:

And here's my mom's 78th birthday sock.  It's my first-ever cable-and-lace sock attempt.  The pattern is called Clover, and it's really fun to make!  Among Clover's many charms is the fact that I didn't design it.  Sometimes following a pattern that somebody else has already perfected can be like going on vacation.  This is a particularly guilty pleasure because other people's sock patterns are definitely NOT on my book writing production schedule.  But how often is your mom going to turn 78?  We are not savages here, after all:

And finally, I'm pleased to tell you that I get to teach a class about mittens at Seattle's Nordic Heritage Museum, the first weekend of November.  I'm making something special for them that I really love.  Sneak Peek:

But this is the best part.  I sat next to Teri Shea at the Sock Summit opening ceremonies.  In between snacks and speakers, she graciously showed me how to properly gusset a Selbu mitten thumb.  I've been working slot-style thumbs on all my Selbuvotter, partly because I thought the technique would be too hard to teach (totally not true) and partly because I thought it would be too hard to learn (also a complete delusion):

Hard to get knitting sexier than that.  And it's completely anatomically correct, unlike a thumb slot.  Sorry thumb slots: Working you has been a really useful hack, but now that I know how the pros do it, I'm afraid you're dead to me.  You'll always have a place in my knitting.  It's just at the bottom of the basket now. 

And Ms. Shea, if you're listening, I'm converted:  Your work here is done.  I'm one step closer to becoming you when I grow up.

So all my knitting is pointy today.  The coffee table, and the arms of my knitting chair, and my lap, are hedgehoggy with DPNs.  Nice work, if you can get it.