Ohhhh...the mittenis of things. this winter they just keep coming. I continue to be inspired to make warm things. and wear them. some of these things were designed to be gifts but once i wore them....it seemed impossible. a few things made it out and others are still waiting for their owners.

I made these for e., my best guess at the target wave mittens (scroll down) without the pattern. You can see that even after blocking there is still a pesky pucker around the thumb. It kind of goes away when you put them on. I probably knit these at least 3 times before I was happy with them. Even when they were done and blocked I still thought they seemed a mite small for a big boy.

So then came these, which i tinkered around with until I had them right. And then.....

I had leftover lopi. they're not perfect but they work and they used up lots of little odds and ends. striping is tricky with the jog between rows...i did my best to hide it. No great knitting feats here but it was fun to make it up as i went and speedy projects are satisfying.

This was, once more, a project on my odyssey to use things up. I had bought this yarn at the Fleece Artist eons ago and made several different things with it. I believe I was tinkering with it the very first winter after school when Mel was here visiting.

I used a lace pattern from one of my knitting books, it's called rickrack, don't know if you can see the zigzagging there....but it was fun to knit, it used up the whole ball, i like the softness of it around my face and i've always loved the colour. I'm actually wearing it now!

This is Quant from Knitty. Totally fun to knit and turned out well. I added big pompoms to the ties. This did go to the intended recipient even though I really liked it

The most recent knitting foray has been into the big bag of noncolour mohair. I love soft, fluffy stuff and i love almost colours so I have accumulated a bag of this stuff and never really had a plan for it.

I worked really hard to learn how to crochet in japanese because I wanted to make this.

It was something I was saving for when I had energy reserves built up. So I figured it out and enjoyed learning how to read charts and felt kind of dumb when I realized that I could probably find the same hat pattern in English easily enough but no matter. I'm not a very good crocheter but was getting better. I think. But after three attempts (three is the magic number!) I've decided to try something else. The mohair I'm using is kind of slubby so it's just not working. Trying to do a delicate pattern with it is just dumb. So I'm going to try making an afghan or a throw with it, for a wee babe or for me depending on how far the balls go. All of that fluff can be deceiving.

That said, I really would like to do a crochet project now but i don't like crochet! I like doing it but i don't know if I want to wear it. A lot of it is just yucky. People like to make things or see if they can but sometimes the journey is more satisfying than the finished product. I see this in art too...but sometimes silly is good.

This is a fungus infested finger. The fungi actually come out for kids to play with. There's more here:http://mochimochiland.co/(I think this one is actually knit....but most of this toy making, amigurumi, is done with crochet)
and then there's always room for a silly hat or two.

This owl hat is from this source: http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2006/11/fun_animal_crochet_hats_by_naz.htmlI think if I made something like this I'd make it kid size. Are all of you breathing a collective sigh of relief?

And then there's this:

which I've been threatening to make for a while for my uncle, who loves breakfast more than anyone i know. He likes to laugh too, important for a hat such as this I think. I could see him wearing it flipping eggs.

well that's all for now. more winter to come which will surely mean more knitting.

Ok mellie. I've gotta get on with this, my projects are starting to pile up! It seems funny to be starting this when my interest in knitting is maybe a bit on the wane but all the same, there'll always be something no doubt....and december and january were uber productive.


This is the Hello Bonnet from Hello Yarns,


I knit it for Sally with Twilley's Freedom Spirit which was really pretty, hard to tell in my dark photos.


It's a cute hat, very, errr...swimming cap after a light fulling. You can se my sister is inspired by this below.




















































I knit her thrummed mittens to match and I knit Katrina a drop stitch scarf with the ribbon yarn you sent Mel....very pretty. Aannnnndddd I took photos of these things that I have subsequently lost or erased.

And these are mittens that I gave to my grandmother for her birthday. The yarn came from a blanket factory on
PEI. I picked up a huge cake of pencil roving there and haven't known what to do with it...

The pattern is from Spinderella's. It worked really well. They're pretty jumbo prefelting. Kinda fun.

I thought the mittens were quite boring though and got inspired by this Norwegian book. My version is a little less ambitious but all the same...fun to do.
























And this was Jaime's late great birthday present. I wanted to knit this since I first saw it in Interweave Knits. It's free here. Totally fun to knit and pretty fast.
















































There are three or four more projects at home being blocked so will put them up and then move onto secret not for Mel's eyes project.:)
Jill-a thought re. your vibrant mohair, because I'm sure having a newborn and knitting go hand in hand, but when that fated day comes...a thought, from treats and treasures...