FO: Kissing Koi mittens

It's April, I wanna make more mittens!



Am I the only one who gets kind of nostalgic for the chill of fall when spring arrives?  Yes, probably.  And realistically, it's just a passing emotion for me, as I do love the warm sun and the beach and outdoorsy things.  Still, the long days and thawing of the earth is somewhat sad because it means I should probably stop making heavy mid-winter knitwear.

NEVER! says I.  I will sit there in the park on a sunny day making dastardly winter wear no matter how hot it gets.  As an aside, everyone here says they don't get much of a summer anyway.  You'll be wearing tights and a cardi with that cute summer frock regardless of the the calender.

Honestly though, I think it's time to get out the linen and cottons and whatnot and at least do one summery project before the days shorten and a protective coating of knitwear is once again standard gear, and all of those who rolled their eyes at me purling away on a pair of socks in July will start wishing they had the foresight to be nicer to me as they lose all feeling in their extremities.

I've been slightly obsessed with colorwork mittens lately.  To me, they are perfect...they take a bit of time and concentration to get through, but they make fantastic gifts.  While I wouldn't be keen to do an entire sweater with fish or snowflakes or wolves or whathaveyou, mittens are the perfect vehicle to put your spirit animals on display.



I have a fascination with goldfish, especially the fancy, fin-bedazzled kind.  Except every time I've kept a fish tank, I've had dreams that the goldfish have tried to kill me.  I no longer try to keep fish of any kind because of this.  Totally irrational, but it's hard to wake up in the morning and throw some fish flakes to these little monsters when you are convinced they are going to slit your throat in your sleep.

Still...there's something just so peaceful about watching goldfish.



Or is there?  (cue music from Psycho)



Yarn is Knitpicks Palate in Bittersweet Heather and Cornmeal.  Palate is awesome for colorwork based on the sheer number of colors available.  It's not incredibly soft, but it's good, utilitarian, fingering-weight yarn.  Pattern is Kissing Koi Mittens.  The only mods I made was starting the decrease shaping early on the mitten tops; as written I thought they were a little to blunt.

FO: Snowflake Mittens

Hey now, it's springtime.  I should get some mittens on.



I don't know what inspired me to make such wintry-themed mitts so late in the season- maybe it was east-coast empathy!, but, eh.  There's always the sunny optimism of  next year's winter, and I will always have friends with cold hands.



The yarn is KnitPicks Palate, a fingering-weight rather affordable wool yarn that comes in many, many colors.  The pattern was also from KP, although, I can't recommend it highly.  The adult sizes run so small that I had to go up three needles sizes from the recommended gauge just to be able to get a good-sized mitt happening.  Still, they are pretty and worth the effort.



I love the wintry colors.  Those are words no one has ever said in March ever.  

Shetlands in Shetland wearing Shetlands

These photos have been circulating around the series of tubes the past couple weeks, and I couldn't be happier.

From the Visit Scotland website, naturally. I do believe I will again.

Some of my favorite things: Ponies. Handknit Jumpers. Countries that bear the name of their namesake dark liqour.

They are cute as hell. The first pony I learned to ride when I was wee was a Shetland.

His name was Snip. If you tried to put a sweater on him, I'm sure you would be out a sweater and be sporting some fancy bruises. I was so happy the day I graduated to a real horse as I disliked him much. He had two speeds: walk and stop, except for when he thought it was time to go out to the pasture, and then he suddenly became Secretariat. He had that wily pony demeanor that I fear to this day. The moment I was free to choose, I went right for the horses in the "big and dumb" category and never looked back.

Still. Shetlands in fair isle sweaters is all sorts of cute.

FO: Selbu Modern

While I'm at it, here's another hat I finished and it's my go-to winter hat this year.

It's the Selbu Modern by Kate Gagnon Osborn. I've been meaning to make it for years now.

While the pattern is written well, colorwork is always a little time-consuming as I can't read charts when I'm anywhere but home, so it takes me a little while to complete something.

The yarn is The Fiber Company Canopy Fingering in the colors "Orchid" and "Fern". I wanted something subtle and washed out to go with my muted winter palate this year. I love this pattern- it reminds me of an eastern architectural motif- and I could see stealing it for a colorwork yoke sweater.

While I could have gone up a needle size on the main part of the hat to make it slouchier as written, I like it as it is. It's very warm- the yarn floats in back makes it particularly wind-proof. Coming back to Paris after spending some balmy days in New York and it's exactly what I need to keep my ears covered. It's been barely breaking freezing in the mid-afternoon, and the dark has really set in. I'm getting used to it, but it's really wrecking havoc on my sleep cycle as I'm waking up in the morning to a few more hours of night, and that's just weird. So I'm embracing it- dressing warm and waiting for the return of the sun.

FO: Mittens to Sink yer Teeth Into

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.

Fabulous Timing (and a FO)

It is my real-life job to be organized and make things work precisely. If I didn't have this skill or lacked it in any way, my boss would have no real reason to keep me employed unless I chose to resort to blackmail. Which I haven't had to yet.

When I have a personal blunder that involves scheduled, I try keep it very quiet. Like the time I showed up a full week early for a flight to Chicago. D'oh.

I had a weird week recently where I couldn't get my timing right. I showed up hours late for some things, missed other events completely, and then showed up hours early for other appointments without realizing it. At one point, I sat in the doctors office for more than an hour, quietly knitting fuming and wondering where my brain was at.

Luckily, clocks and calenders only seemed to perplex me for that one week. It was a weird phase or mindset that I couldn't shake. I just had to ride it out, and as predicted, I'm back to my regular punctual and organized self.

So I finished a hat. When I started the hat, it was 30 degrees out and freezing sleety raining, and a stranded warm hat seemed like a great idea. A couple days later when I finished the hat, it was 60 and sunny and I couldn't think of anything but shedding layers down to a cami.



Ahh well. It will be put away for next winter, when I'm sure it will be cold again. That's the risk you take when you start something toasty and warm in April.



The pattern is the Fake Isle hat by Amy King. I used a half a skein of Brooklyn Tweed Shelter and a half a skein of Noro Silk Garden that was leftover from a sweater I made last year. If I had to do it again, I would go down a needle size for the ribbing as it flares out a bit from the rest of the hat. It's warm and cozy, and a great way to use up scraps and odd balls of yarn.

FO- Norweigan Snail Mitts

I've always had a fondness for snails.

I grew up near a big, sandy beach that had areas of rocks and tidepools. This was the perfect location for plucking snails off rocks and watching their rubbery bodies retreat far into their nautilus shells.





It doesn't hurt that they are also delicious in a butter and/or cream sauce.





I love these mittens. They took some time to complete but I kept plugging away at them. They seemed like they were about 4" long for about a month, and then I got determined and completed them in three days.



I made these two at a time on two size US 1 circs. I had to stop and untangle every few rows- having four balls of yarn to keep track of seemed exponentially more difficult than two. I kept telling myself that if it got too hairy, I would put one aside and finish one at a time.



I used two skeins of Artyarns Ultramerino 4. They both started out light blue, but I threw one in the dyepot and got a deep marine blue. The green on the cuffs and the duplicate stitch is some Shibui sock yarn in "Seaweed" that I had leftover from a pair of socks I made last year.



I love these and I'm keeping them. They are tucked away waiting for the first icy arctic blast to hit, or perhaps a trip to Patagonia. The stranding makes them double-thick and quite warm.

The specs: The pattern is by Adrian Bizilia from "The Knitters Book of Yarn". I used two skeins of Artyarns Ultramerino 4 (Color 121), which is a 4-ply fingering weight 100% merino sock yarn. It was 380 yards total, and I had just a little bit of each color leftover. They were done two at a time on two circs- I used size 1. No pattern modifications except that I did a provisional cast on so I could line up the first welt smoothly. They weren't difficult, just a bit fiddly with the cuffs, and the colorwork requires constant attention.

These are also part of my ongoing A-Z stashdown challenge.