I had an idea a while ago for a pair of mitts with a vertical band of entrelac down the back of the hand, and finally got around to trying it. The final product right now doesn't look quite as I envisioned, but they are, I think, pretty cute.
I've another project I haven't shown off yet, but I'm only posting a little wee spoiler picture, as I want to submit the pattern somewhere, and can't have pictures up elsewhere.
That project is the source of one of my little grumbles today. I had enough yarn left over that I figured I could knit a pair of stranded mittens with it. Twice have I started and twice ripped out in the last couple days - the first time because I thought they were coming out too wide and I didn't like the cuff, and the second time (oh, horror) because it became clear halfway up the mitten that I would not have enough of the contrast color. I've got some other yarn I can use as a contrast, but now I'm just taking a break and rethinking how I'll do it - not wanting to rip out a third time!
My second little grumble is language related. I read Lynne Truss' book (Eats, Shoots and Leaves) on the case for proper punctuation, and the misunderstandings it can cause. And oh, do I sympathize with her, and with Higgin's query, "Why can't the English teach their children how to speak?". But what's making me go all Lynne Truss right now is the number of people who use the wrong homonym. I know a lot of them have a good education, so why? Sometimes the effect is unintentionally funny, but usually I just get annoyed, and find it rather hard to take them seriously, if the error is in a memo or something.
Take, for example, the flyer I got from the Student Association at the college, letting me know, among other things, that there are "...quiet rooms with study carols..." available. I presume they meant carrells, since carols are songs, and singing while one studies would rather negate the quiet of the rooms, even if the mental image of a bunch of students singing special study songs is rather amusing.
Worse was the unfortunate e-mail I received, in which the sender expressed a wish to "...illicit a response." I sincerely hope the word was meant to be 'elicit', otherwise the sentence is both ungrammatical and raises questions as to the legality and propriety of the response desired.
Then there is the fact that for years the prize list for the local fair has listed bee balm (monarda, a flower) as Bea Balm. (Who was Bea, I wonder?) And I have lost count of the times I have seen someone write that something 'peaked' their interest rather than 'piqued' it, or mix up 'discrete' and 'discreet'...
Well, it's my own little pet peeve, and enough of a rant for today on it. Have to decide what I'm doing about those mittens before I go out knitting later.
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