From Start to Finish

Here's something I bet you didn't know about me.

I almost didn't become a writer.

During my young years, I had two great loves: reading/writing, and clothing. Not like designer jeans--nah, I liked to sew. And, if I do say so myself, I was (am) pretty darn good at it. Look at it this way: I designed my prom dress using scraps of silk being thrown out by a local clothing factory that cost me a whopping $8.

When it got to be college time, I was torn: did I follow my love of books and go into literature, or did I follow my love of cloth and go into textile design? I like both equally, but I knew I didn't want to try to juggle both as careers or even as majors. Textile design involved more science and technical work, literature involved more reading and philosophy. I knew in my heart of hearts, I would only be happy if I focused entirely on one--but which one?

In the end, obviously, I chose literature. But I've always maintained a love of clothing. Which is why this poorly dressed writer who loves nothing more than oversized t-shirts and yoga pants will watch--and have very strong opinions on--Project Runway.

Segue.

Recently, I was watching a vlog of Maureen Johnson who is way cooler than me, and I noticed that she had these cool finger-less glove mitts. This particularly stood out to me because when I type, my fingers get cold. They just do. And fingerless mitts would be perfect to solve this problem!

But where to buy them?

Fortunately, I know Jodi. Yes, that Jodi--supercool amazing Jodi who not only writes, but also spins (spins!) and knits. She started with this:

And then she came up with these:

Now, Jodi says these mitts aren't quite good enough yet (which astounds me, really), but I still think they are pretty darn spiffy in the utmost. It's the perfect tie for me between my first love of textiles and my second love of writing.

Especially considering that the fiber Jodi used to make the mitts came from the same fiber that she used to describe and explain the process of spinning when she did a guest post. For. Robin. Freaking. McKinley.

You know the old game of 12 Degrees to Kevin Bacon? Well, my degrees to Robin McKinley just got a lot shorter--and since I plan on wearing these mitts while I type my next masterpiece--well, I'm gonna pretend that warm fuzzy on my hands is Robin McKinley telling me to go on and write better.