Tell me what you’ve got. I haven’t started another stocking yet, I’ve had other knits on my plate.

A mom in Liv’s class has some weird health condition in which her body thinks she’s freezing to death at any temperature under 72 degrees, so it routes all of her blood to her vital organs and not to her limbs. She has to wear gloves all the time now to avoid her fingernails falling off and her hands eventually shriveling and dying, if I understand correctly. She was wearing those small, stretchy gloves you get at the grocery store, and was complaining about what a pain it is to wear gloves all the time. I asked her if she could wear fingerless mitts and she didn’t know what I meant.

Oh sweetie, let me show you a beautiful new world.

Janel blogged about Fetching, the fingerless mitts she was knitting, and I thought they might be a good fit for Mary. I emailed her the pattern, she liked it a lot, so I’m knitting with Cashmerino again.

Fetching is a one skein pattern, so I went to the yarn store intending to buy one skein for Mary, and one for me if I found a color I liked. I didn’t see a color for me, but I came home with so much more.

The very first yarn I ever fondled and strongly desired was alpaca, back when I was a newbie and didn’t even know what I was looking at/for. Six years later, I finally have a project in mind for alpaca. Don’t cringe, but I want leg warmers. Not decorative, wear over my pants, ’80s throwback leg warmers, but something lower profile that I can wear under my jeans or long skirt to keep cozy. Maybe in an eyelet rib or something. I don’t know, but it’s alpaca, it’s a fantastically dark, earthy green color, and it’s mine. Six skeins of sport weight and it’s about time, I say.

Also, this particular yarn store frequently has sinful and indulging amounts of Koigu. I usually say no, but Wednesday, I said yes.

This will start out as an earflap hat for Clark, hopefully one that buttons under the chin so he won’t pull it off. If when knit up it isn’t looking “boy” enough, I’ll appropriate it for socks. For me. Along with this

Which seemed destined for my feet the moment I saw it. In the form of cable ribs or something, at which point I will step into the world of toe up socks. I’ve never done them before, as I really enjoy making heel flaps and turns, but I want to use every gram of this beautiful yarn, so toe up seems like the way to go.

So I want to knit stockings again. I really do. But I need to finish the mitts for Mary, and I might dabble in alpaca a bit before I get there again.