Friday, October 24, 2014

MItten Madness

Those Karbonz DPNs I bought at the Knitter's Fair last month are magic. Even though they are so teensy, 1.75mm, they are a joy to use. They are light, with a slight flex so that there is no pain using them, even for hours at a time. 

Giddy with the freedom of being able to knit as much as I like on my mittens, I went on a bit of bender:



It's a glorius pile! Like having my very own little peice of Latvia.

Tonight, the view on my lap looks like this:

I'm taking a bit of a break to write this, because I can't do math. One finger has already suffered through my failings of logic, but with some discreet decreases I have sucessfully hidden my failings. I thought I'd figured out where I went wrong and carefully thought through what I was doing for the pointer finger, but no. Failed again. I may be stupid at math, but I am a smart knitter. I put the thing down and here I am!

Let me introduce you to the individual mittens in the pile. These are my Magnificent Magenta Mittens (http://www.ravelry.com/projects/LaurieM/latviesa-cimdi-rucava-370) and they are the queen of the heap:


The motif is a glorious concotion that meets perfectly at the join. The yarn is beautifully soft merino that feels so cushy and soft when you slip your hand inside. These mittens are mine, all mine!

These mittens (http://www.ravelry.com/projects/LaurieM/on-a-starry-night) are like a sweet little sister. A quietly shining star with a simple beauty:


They are gift mittens, intended for a hand smaller than mine. 

Then continuing with the theme of gift mittens, I knit what thought could be a pair (http://www.ravelry.com/projects/LaurieM/unintentional-rainbow) for a man.


I'm not sure I hit my goal. This mitten doesn't thrill me like the first two, and that rainbow was entirely unintentional. I'm sure I'll come back and knit the mate to this one, but I got distracted.

I've seen some beautiful gloves where vertical motifs travel up the hands and continue on up the fingers. It's an elegant idea that captured my imagination. Something clicked, because last Sunday morning found me pouring over pictures and books and my iPad in an effort to chart my own version.  This glove (http://www.ravelry.com/projects/LaurieM/xs-and-os):


Even unblocked, half done, and skewered with needles, this thing makes me so happy. 

I see no end in sight for the mitten maddnes. Next weekend I'm signed up to take a whole weekend worth of classes about mittens from Beth Brown Reinsel, at the Little Red Mitten. How appropriate!