It's 80 degrees....

Which means the conditions are perfect to show off the adorableness that is this pair of toddler mittens. A little while back, I was stalled on a couple of projects that were meant to be using up odds and ends of yarn I had lying around. On both projects, I ran out of yarn within inches of finishing and both on the second of the pair. Rather than deal with the situation (it wasn't the end of the world, but it would have involved ripping all of both projects back, making the wrist/leg shorter on the first, and reknitting the whole dang thing) I cast on for these with some more odds and ends.

Pattern: Annemor#5 from Selbuvotter by Terri Shea
Yarn: Baby Ull, leftover from this pair
Needles: Um... US1? I can't rightly remember
Size: Toddler

These little mittens, like the other Selbuvotter I have made, just make me so darn happy. They are a pleasure to knit, and the finished project makes me look so much more clever than I actually am. The only problem is that I have no little one to give these to. In fact, the only explanation I can give for making them in the first place is that of frugality. I mean, I had the yarn, I had the book, and the yarn wasn't much good for anything else. I do have quite a quantity of ends of sock weight yarn, and no good idea of what to do with them. It seems that I need an army of toddlers or babies to knit for.....

Love 2

Pattern: Annemor #8 from Selbuvotter by Terri Shea
Yarn: Brown Sheep Nature Spun Sport in Ash (yes, the same as my Selbu Modern) and Dale of Norway Baby Ull in 7854 (which is a dark green)
Needles: US 1

Well, I finally managed to make a pair for myself, after the resounding success that was my first pair of Selbuvotter. I ended up making a bunch of modifications, as seems to be the way of my knitting lately. I have large hands (to match my large head) and while I love all of the mittens in this book, most are sized for Women's Medium and smaller. I went up a needle size on these and they are now a Women's Large or XL. They measure 4.5" across the palm, and fit me very well. Also, these mittens were originally gloves. My intestines try and climb into my chest cavity at the thought of knitting gloves, so after messing around a bit, I was able to fit two repeats of the initial glove chart, decreasing as soon as I passed halfway the second time. In order to make the repeats look organic, I added an extra row, fleshing out the diamond pattern, before restarting. Something odd about this pattern is that there are more stitches on the palm side than the pattern side. This is also true of the thumb, so when I finished all the decrease repeats on the pattern side, I just fudged in some extra decreases on the same row on the palm side to make them more equal. The final stitch count isn't the same, but it's virtually unnoticable.

I'm feeling an odd need for more mittens, even as I'm desperately waiting for spring.... maybe some of Bella's Mittens next?

Love

Pattern: NHM #9 from Selbuvotter by Terri Shea
Yarn: Dale of Norway Baby Ull in 5545 and 0020
Needles: US 0 and US 1

These mittens need a better name than NHM #9. Like Too Freaking Gorgeous for Words. Or Could They BE Any More Beautiful. Or Love. Maybe not even the word "Love." Just a little heart shape.

There is one less than perfect aspect to these... the left mitten is slightly bigger than the right. I've had this problem before with stranded mittens. Somehow things change between the first and the second. I soaked and blocked them to even out the stitches and managed to a certain extent to even out the sizes, but the left one is still slightly larger. Oh well. That's the beauty of handmade, isn't it? If nothing else, they make great eye candy.

I love finals week....

... and I always have. I realize this makes me seem crazy (crazier) to some people, but here's the thing. No rehearsals, no concerts, no lessons, possibly just a jury on the first day of finals (which I didn't have to do this year) and a couple of exams. Which I have lots of time to study for, thanks to the aforementioned no rehearsals, concerts, or lessons. Of course, I could also use that time to bake lots of cookies, read some frivolous literature, watch Christmassy movies (The Holiday and Love Actually, anyone?), and become addicted to this:

I swear, I could knit about forty pairs of these things and not get bored. Stranded knitting is the most addictive kind of knitting I know. It's immediate gradification (you can see the pattern developing right under your nose!) and it has the quality of making you want to knit just one more row to see how the pattern is coming out, then just one more row after that, and, oh, another couldn't hurt, could it? These are a pair of selbuvotter for my mom. It's a good thing that a) they don't fit me or they might end up in my pockets and not under the tree and b) I bought yarn to make myself a pair too.

I am reblocking my NaKniSweMo sweater tonight. I had to redo the neckline and armholes as they were not going to be big enough for my dad. Full update on that soon!

Also, in the top picture is:
- A cup of chai (one teabag, 3/4 water, 1/4 milk, two teaspoons of vanilla sugar, extra hot)
- A Swedish Almond Cardamom Star and two Espresso Crinkles from the most recent Cooking Light
- Winter Songs a various artists CD including Ingrid Michaelson and KT Tunstall, two of my favorites. Seasonal but not overtly Christmassy.
- Unravel Me by Christie Ridgway. Generally love her, plus there's mention of a knitting store in the blurb on the back.

Treat yourself today. You deserve it.