Total Mitten Mayhem!

For the past month, month-and-a-half, I have knit nothing but mittens.

It started with this scrumptious Cherry Red String Theory sock yarn. It was just too pretty to use for socks. I wanted a Public View Accessory (PVA) . I don't wear scarves--despite knitting, like, four of them last year--so it had to be mittens. Well, it could have been gloves, but I'm a mitten girl.

I started with a cabled cuff and winged it from there. First I tried traveling cables diagonally across the mitten top, but my hands are quite small so I only got the cables halfway across the mitten top before I had to cast off. Did I let that deter me? Nope, I tried it AGAIN, starting just above the thumb, but still only got 3/4 of the way across the mitten before cast off. (Both these attempts were immediately frogged without photos, which I regret now, because they looked really silly).

So I went back to the base of the thumb and started anew. This time, I decided to send a 1/1 twist up the sides of the thumb, all the way to the top. It looked okay, so I kept it:

I liked the yarn so much I ran out and bought more, determined to have a green pair of fingerless mitts. I had made a pair of fingerless mitts last year with a cable motif at the top. The yarn was scratchy and hard and the cable motif was too tight, so they needed a redo:




These have exactly the woodland nymph look I wanted. They are the most satisfactory thing I've knit in a long time. The idea in my head made it to the finished object for once.








Then, my tennis buddy got me reading the Twilight books, because she is a total Twihard. So over Thanksgiving, I read Twilight books and knit two pairs of Bella's mittens for her for a gift. Then I liked them so much I knit myself a pair. Mine are the hot pink ones.







But wait, there's more! Hooked on the String Theory PVAs, I decided to knit my aunt a pair of mittens for Christmas. I wasn't completely happy with the 1/1 cable up the side of the red mitten, so I tweaked it a bit, crossing it again above the thumb and decreasing to one cable at the top.



The blue will go nicely with grey hair, no?

Thankful Thursday, a week late

I was out of town last week and missed the real Thankful Thursday. I know Thanksgiving is all about family, friends and food, but I have to admit last week I was thankful we didn't have family and friends -- with us, at least! My husband and I had a relaxing, fun Thanksgiving by ourselves on our first vacation alone together since March 2007. And I was thankful for excellent food, as we went out for Thanksgiving dinner and I didn't have to cook and clean. The weather sort of obliged us by being relentlessly crappy and giving us an excuse to curl up by the fire and stay in and chill. I read two "Twilight" books and knit a pair of gift mittens, all in 4 days.

I have been on a mitten kick lately and have much to show for my efforts. Maybe next Thursday will be Mitten Thursday.