A Distinct Sense of Accomplishment

Talking to my friends last week, I realized that I never posted these pictures, which I meant to do shortly after these mittens reached their intended recipient (as a Christmas present for Hanna). We noted in our conversation that academic work can often feel awash in a sense of dissatisfaction with one's work that never really achieves resolution, and I observed that part of what I enjoy about knitting and baking is that there's an end where you can point to something definitive that you've completed. This was the first big Fair Isle project I'd done, which made it that much more rewarding.

I watched a lot of British miniseries while I was working on these. Watching The Buccaneers convinced me that there's nothing I'd like to see so much as a Downton Abbey prequel where we go back to the days of Robert as the titled fortune-hunter and Cora as the rich American. Imagine - meeting the previous Lord Grantham, he of the Entail of a Thousand Problems! Violet at what I assume must have been the very height of her powers as the mistress of Downton! Young Carson!

*pattern from Debbie Bliss Knitting Magazine, Fall/Winter 2010*