Running Out ...

I took two pictures to share with you, from today's crocheting project, but my computer just lost them! Bad computer! Ah well. Let me describe it to you ....

I'm making a pair of Smittens for a friend. I posted yarn colors for her, and she chose a speckled red/blue yarn. I thought I had 4 skeins of that yarn, but I didn't. When I looked closer, I realized that two of the skeins were the same, and the other two were of a slightly different red tint. Hmm.

Of the yarn she liked, I had exactly 77 grams. (I weighed it). Thus, each Smitten needed to use 38.5 grams of yarn, and no more! I wasn't sure if I had enough, but I began. I crocheted almost all of the first Smitten -- I had only 1 row left! -- and weighed it. It was 37 grams already!

So I unwound the rest of the skein, and I started the other Smitten  from the other end of the yarn. And I crocheted, and I got to the same spot on the second Smitten:  one row left.

You should have seen them. (This is when I took the lost photo.) I had two crocheted Smittens, with a solid 6 inches of yarn between them. They looked just like a pair of little-kid mittens, you know, with the long strand of yarn connecting them, running through the little-kid sleeves and around the neck?  But my yarn length was just a few inches :)  It was humorous.

In the end, I had to cut the string and complete both Smittens with one last row of the other red yarn that was so very similar. Handwork is entertaining!

I took some pictures after the fact. Although it looks dark, this photo gives a better impression of the real color of the Smittens.

 Then I tried with more light. Please note that the Smittens are resting on some books.

 Trying on the Smittens. I hope she likes them!

 The friend for whom I made the Smittens is an ardent, devoted, fully-committed lover of books. I thought she'd like to know that her very own Smittens rested on these books, before they were mailed to her: Milton's Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, and Scott's Lay of the Last Minstrel. Aren't they pretty? Adam gave them to me as a Christmas present the first year we dated.

 These are rather old books. The Scott was printed in 1806.

 And the set of Milton in 1796. That's very long ago, yes?

The Smittens are coming your way, MJ! The books, however, will be staying here :)