The blue/green pair I inherited from my son
when they shrank and his hands grew.
The grey and white pair were knit
by my dear friend Rochelle.
"Not to replace the ones you have,"
she assured me,
"but to give you a choice."
darning the darned darns
was too much.
Or that not bothering
to snip off the end of the yarn,
meant the situation was desperate.
But you know how it is--
the wind is howling
the dog needs a walk
your mitten has a hole...
Who has time to take off their boots
and find a pair of scissors?
I'm just grateful
when needle and yarn are at hand.
as the ones they supplanted.
which I only reluctantly replaced in '96 or so
when my friends gave me a hard time.
"You can't go to a book signing for
the sweater you have in Knitting in America
wearing those."
Good thing someone is paying attention.
Probably the dog leash.
so I've only had to darn them once so far.
A duplicate stitch darn at that!
Of course my dog is old and hardly needs a leash these days.
I prefer to put my knitting energy into sweaters.
And anyway, I don't want the previous pair
to have its feelings hurt.
They are great mittens.
Also, there is never time to find another pattern,
much less design one,
when the kid has grown,
the mittens have shrunk
and he asks for another pair.
Now.
distorts as the palms shrink.
it seems that though I haven't changed much,
my boy is all grown up.
About time I noticed.