Je vis! Happy September! I'm back from a hectic but fun past couple of weeks. I have lots and lots of pictures to sort through from my travels, and even more adventures to plan in the coming months.
First, here's something fun I finished more than a month ago:
Wolf mittens! There has been somewhat of a fascination with wolves on garments for the past few years. What started out as satire has become a coveted clothing item, and we've been seeing loads of wolf shirts in Paris this season. None of them are as awe-inspiring as what you can find at the street fairs in Brooklyn. The annual Bay Ridge street fair is still the place to get your classy howling wolf shirts, but there is also a tendency in Paris for all things dream catcher as of late, so I have high hopes that one day Eurofashion will catch up.
What could be better than wolves howling at the northern lights? Nothing. Go ahead, try to argue your point. You lose.
Throw a wolf on anything and you are an instant bad-ass.
This came from a KnitPicks kit called the Winter Woodland Mittens that I impulsively bought ages ago, which gives you enough yarn to make 6 pairs of mittens. While the color combinations caught my eye, the patterns are kind of sloppily thrown together. Even though I got gauge, I ended up having to go up 3 needle sizes and adding extra stitches at each edge to get these to fit my rather average sized hands. Except these are were supposed to fit larger hands than mine. More stitches were added, for a total of 8, which is why they have a black boarder around them. So I'm kind of bummed that the patterns, as written, will only make a child-sized pair of mitts and I know few children in cold enough climates to actually have the need for double-thick mitts.
Also, the thumbs...they look a little wonky, but since taking the pictures I ripped them back and finished them after re-charting the pattern to accommodate more stitches since they were super tiny and cutting the circulation off to your most important digit otherwise. Although, not having a thumb just means you are more wolf-like than anyone else, and gives you license to pee on any tree anywhere at anytime. Design flaw or feature?
I actually made these to be worn in Norway as I was scared to death about how cold it might be. While knitting these at the height of our short Parisian summer was a little gross, I was happy that these were not needed on our summer vacation, and they are safely tucked away until we get real wintery weather.
