Needles, needles, what's on the needles?

Version 2.0 of a felted mitten is on the needles now. But I'm on the phone with the IRS (have been on hold 23 minutes, after taking 10 minutes to find a number that didn't lead to technical difficulties and a disconnection. We're trying to get Filius reinstated as one of our children, near as I can tell.)

While I was at the hospital with Filia, I played with a new pattern for a striped hat. It ended up being a stripey argyle. With a smaller yarn, I'd have more room to play with the diamonds. It's got definite possibilities.

Then there's the Pumpkin Spice Mittens. They're finished now, but the camera is far, far from here and I like them so much I wanted to share an in-progress photo. See my ball of yarn? To deal with the twist, I S-plied the two strands together, so I can just knit knit knit. The yarn untwists as I knit it, rather than get all twisted up. So much nicer! Has anyone else discovered this? Is it a common thing to do, but my books just don't say so?


Our LYS had a sale, and I decided to get some more yarn for another striped hat. (What can I say? I like making them. And if I teach a class in them one day, I need to have some handy yarn for a nifty hat.) The yarn is akin to Noro rather than Mirasol, so I am looking forward to seeing how the gradations turn out.


Then there's the Starfish Tam. I'll order yarn to finish it with my next KP order. So far, that's the only thing I need so this is languishing on the needles. The hat has potential for disaster ... I calculated that there are 40" of stitches on it at the widest point. And it's for a 2 year old. It could be scary.

And here are my next mittens, sort of. The mittens came from Latvia, and I'm going to try and make a copy of them (before I have to return them in a month). The cable is something I've not seen before, but I have two areas of inquiry that look profitable (thanks, TwistedinStitches and Trakaigirl!) and once I get the current mitten done I'll start experimenting.

And that's what's up in my knitting life.

Still on hold with the IRS....