Life After Stole

Yes, there is life after stole. The day I finished the stole, I also finished the Koigu Neck Cozy for my mom. I didn't start it that day ... but stoles are not the ideal knitting to work on in the doctor's office or at stop lights, so this project was waiting in the wings.








And, once that was out of the way, it was time to work on April's Monthly Mittens. I had gotten Favorite Mittens as a gift from a friend (the way I understood it, it was me or the trash can. The book was not inspirational for her) and decided to make something from there, using something from my stash. And, to make it even MORE noteworthy (pats self on back) to use some of my first handspun yarn. So we have the Salt and Pepper Mittens using yarn from Greg's Vest, with cuffs from handspun. The gauge is supposed to be 6 spi. I got 9 spi. My stitch count was sufficient for a 4-6 year old ... and the mittens are a perfect fit for a 5 year old. The moral of the story? Different people have different perfect fits.

Once THOSE were done, it was time to make the last pair of socks for a friend. Suddenly, I was hit with a severe case of Sock Aversion Syndrome. Everything, but the socks, called to me. Loudly. Insistently. And just when I was about to convince myself to go knit. Or to do a second row. Still, the little socks (little ... hah! They're about 14" tall) got finished this week as well. There are no socks in my plans at the moment, but the ones in Folk Knitting in Estonia are beautiful.

Still, it is the Year of the Monthly Mitten ... so I am ignoring most socks. I cast about in my stash to see what I could find for a pair of mittens, then cast about in some books to see what I could find for a pair of mittens ... and produced a LatvEstonibu Mitten! It's not blocked yet (and the pair isnt' done yet either), but I like it. I started with 56 stitches from EZ's pattern in Knitting Workshop, then tucked in two Latvian designs from graphs 12 adn 14 of Latvian Mittens. Next came some fudging of stitches so I could do a gusset thumb (since I do not like non-gusset thumbs, at least much) and then the decision of What Pattern To Use On The Top? I ended up with the Beam Blossom (is that a typo for Bean Blossom, I wonder?) for the back side and The Fly for the palm. And a striped thumb. And stripes along the edges. And voila ... a mittten!

The mitten is being modeled for your viewing pleasure by Filia. I was expecting a women's large, but this is closer to a women's medium -- I'll know more after blocking. One mitten is 42 grams. I knit for an entire MONTH on a shawl and used up just 65 grams of yarn. How can I spend less than a day on a mitten and use 2/3rds of that? (Fat yarn. It's better for reducing than skinny yarn.)

And I stash-reduced further yesterday, perhaps 5 lbs worth, when someone bought my loom and I let her take her pick from my coned yarn.

Now, to go make that other mitten. With the snow we've been getting lately, it's not too late for mittens!

A quiet week is ahead. The bulbs and such are poking their heads up from the ground, although we are still waiting to see anything come up in the asparagus bed, or any other bed that I planted with plants that came in the mail last fall. My new teapot came ... and it had a pre-chipped spout. So my new, NEW teapot is coming. I'm starting to think schoolbooks for next year, and some have begun to trickle in.

Tea, yarn, books. I am richly blessed. (to say nothing of my husband and children!)