Smitten by Mittens

Catchy title, no?

But really ... before I headed over to write, as I was knitting I was thinking of all the mittens I can make this year. One that is inching it's way up the probability scale is the Sanquhar Gloves. Ah, the beauty. Ah, the fineness of the yarn. Oooh, the teensiosity of the needles. Yes, I can see why these are calling my name. And more twined mittens, and more Latvian mittens, and Rovaniemi-type creations. A year might not be long enough to spend on mittens.

Of course, there's the Sampler Stole, and a dazzling Nordic-style sweater lurking in my mind as well. The last one will wait until fall. It's no fun knitting wool sweaters when it's 85 degrees inside.

An order - this year's first, I believe - from KnitPicks arrived this week. I've added 450 grams of sock yarn to my stash. Three balls of three colors each, all to make three pair of knee-high stockings for a friend. And I also ordered 200 grams of DK Merino Bare so I can finish the baby blanket. As projected, I ran out last Thursday, and started a twined mitten. The mitten used just shy of 1 ounce, so I immediately started in on the next one. I decided to use a contrasting yarn in the cast on, and found some scraps (2 yds or so counts as scraps, right?) or red yarn that I bought in Scotland back in 1991. Most of the yarn went into a Fair Isle for my mom (I should get a picture of that, shouldn't I?), but bits and pieces of it remain. It runs like the dickens.

Heathered colors aren't idea for showing detail, and you can't see most of the patterning on the mitten (cuff, back of hand, and a cute little diamond on the thumb). Still, for posterity, here's my first twined mitten of 2008. It's mate is growing nicely, and is just about to start the 10 rows of plain knitting before I put stitches on a spare piece of (red) yarn for the thumb.


I finally got the Swallowtail off the green carpeting where it was blocked, and in the same room as the camera to get a photo. I'm not particularly enamoured with the finished product, but it was a nice knit, and used some yarn I had handy. It'll make a nice gift come Christmastime, unless Filia snags it first.