Santa Claus Singing on Naughty Snow

Wow, how can it be Christmas Eve already? This holiday season has flown by, what with the weather problems, sick dogs, and feverish me. I finished up my holiday knitting last night, and it feels good, even though the recipients won't actually receive them on Christmas. There are quite a few other things I planned to knit, and some that I might take a crack at later, but what's done now is it--I want to move on to other things!

The last two items are the felted clogs (not yet felted) above, and the Postwar Mittens. The Felted Clogs are HUGE, and I was worried about running out of the color I used for the sole on the second clog so I knit the first couple of rows with the top color. It would have bothered me if I ran out of yarn on the edges of the sole, but a contrasting row on the bottom doesn't bother me a bit. There's not much left of the grey yarn, so I think I made the right choice.

I am pleased with the way the Postwar Mittens came out, but the second half glove and especially the thumb were a slog. My mental powers must have been particularly lacking this last week, because I could not concentrate on that thumb for more than about 5 minutes at a time, and even working slowly and deliberately, I made a lot of mistakes. They're fixed, as far as I can tell! The pattern and yarn are great (the pattern is available from the Twist Collective, and the yarn is Dale Baby Ull), but for myself I prefer wearing a gussetted thumb over a traditional thumb. Adjusting the pattern for a gussetted thumb wouldn't be too difficult, athough it would mean sacrificing the dated thumb (which I love) and probably the continuous pattern. Maybe not though?

Have a great Christmas (if that's what you celebrate)!

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Santa Claus Singing on Naughty Snow: Stephen Colbert, Another Christmas Song

Mitten,You Got It Going On

Notice I didn't say "MittenS". Just one mitten done, but in less than a week it still feels pretty fast. I'll cast on mitten #2 on Thursday or Friday, but I'm already thinking about color combinations for my next pair--there's a ton of that Baby Ull under my bed, waiting to be made into mittens!

The pattern comes with two options for the top of the mitten, a pointed tip or a rounded tip. I opted for the rounded tip (obviously). I was a little worried about the size as I was knitting, they felt a little big even though my hands are large. They might block out a little bigger, but they actually fit pretty well. If they were for me, I might make them a tad longer, but since they aren't for me, the fit should be perfect.

Even though it's a pain to sew up the picot edge, I really like the way it looks--it's a nice little detail, even on a mitten with a lot going on. Not as much as this guy, but still a lot.

I Turn it Around, and I Give it One More Try

I woke up still feeling uncertain about the orange in my Postwar Mitten. For a brief period of time I thought that a hot pink would be perfect, but I didn't want to buy more yarn for these mittens--I have a lot of this yarn already. So I dug out some red, gave it a try, and I am much happier with the results. I'm pretty sure that it's also Dale of Norway Baby Ull, I believe that I bought it for a February Baby Sweater (Rav Link) that has long since been abandoned. I'm a little alarmed by how purple these are, but I've got someone in mind for these who should really like the purple. I really like the colors of this yarn line--they're a great alternative to the pastels that were the main choice for baby knits when I first started knitting. The colors are bright and clear, and easy to combine (and the yarn is plenty soft, and not fuzzy--good characteristics for crisp stranded colorwork). I had some early tangles while juggling three skeins of yarn, so I transferred some of the red yarn to a bobbin for better manageability. I only use it every four rows, and the bobbin makes it easier to keep out of the way.

I'm not sure that I'll make much more progress this weekend--I want to switch over to one of the Raha Scarf for awhile, and tomorrow's another day packed with non-knitting responsibilities. Maybe I can sneak in a few rows here and there, though!


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I Turn it Around, and I Give it One More Try: "Jacksonville", by Sufjan Stevens, from the album Illinoise. I've been listening to it a lot lately--it's a really interesting album, and I don't mean that in a detached, music-critic way. I mean that I've had the album for a few years, and I still notice new things when I listen to it.

Who Needs Sleep?

The new Twist Collective is up, and there's a lot of patterns to love. I'm up past midnight working on the cuff of the Postwar Mittens, the pattern comes with three different patterns for stranded mittens. These mittens are made with Dale Baby Ull, which is in my stash in spades--I went through a phase a few years ago where I thought I'd knit a bunch of delecate baby clothes on size zero needles. It was a phase that produced a single hat, and a lot of stash, so I was able to cast on as soon as I saw the pattern this evening. I'm not totally sure how much I love the orange here, so I'm going to take a break until tomorrow. Maybe more of the aqua would be better, or maybe a green (I've got three shades!) or maybe a red. Hmmmm. Any votes?