Good morning!

No pictures, yet, but I am trying to post more often.

Yey! Halloween is almost here! ::wriggles with joy:: I love Halloween!

So, I went to a Silent Weekend last weekend. ???, you ask? Silent weekend is a kind of immerse American Sign language camp. From Friday to Sunday, you do not talk. At all. Only signing. In your cabins, at meals, everything. It's fantastic. I always learn so much.

So anyway, I get up there, (having grabbed a few balls of wool and my knitting needles - never leave home without it, eh?) and realized I had no costume. I had exactly 1 day to come up with it, and I was 50 miles from a store, with no car, and couldn't talk.

What to do?

You guessed it. I whipped out the odd 'spice' colored yarn I had brought (kinda dull peach) to do a Tangle on Saturday night, and cast on ten stitches.

My goal? Somehow knit myself ears. Mouse ears....

So I knit along, increasing as I go, till I've got a bit of a crescent in my hand. I think to myself, 'gee, I wish I knew how to do short rows; this would be perfect for that! Oh well...'

Then I smack myself. Why not? I mean, I know the theory behind short rows. Even read the knitty.com article about wrapping stitches... why couldn't I?

So I tried it. And by gum, it worked! So I sat up Friday night, matching the one little cupped ear I had made, and then did a simple twisted cord (basically making a HUGE strand of yarn) for the tail. A black eyeliner penciled nose, and i was ready.

Ok, two more bits about this story. One: Everybody else had these great, elaborate costumes. One girl had made hers herself; a picture perfect Dorothy costume, complete with glittered shoes. Sewed the whole thing... And i was in grey pants, a grey shirt, and pink ears and tail...

The other thing is that there were these two Deaf kids there. I love kids. I love signing. I love signing to Deaf kids. See? So I had been teaching the girl to knit (she was fascinated by me knitting the ears), and playing with them both. I knit them little Kitty Nosewarmers. They used them for hats. I told them a story in ASL. We had fun....

Ok, so we're all standing up, waiting to be judged on the contest. I don't even want to be up there, as my 'costume' is pretty lame compared to the others... and out come the judges.

yup, the kids.

So they look us over, and I try to be 'rat-like' (in ASL, body language is very important) and the kids laugh at me. Good thing...

I won. I didn't mean to cheat! I didn't KNOW the kids would be the judges... Anyway, I won a free silent weekend... and all because I decided to try wrapped short rows!

Knitting: is there anything it can't do?

mouse