I made some mitts!

Project: Winter Track Mitts

Pattern: Fried Chicken Mittens (modified)

Designer: Ellen Mason

Available: FREE on Ravelry

Yarn: Longmeadow Farm 100% Merino Wool

The Fried Chicken Mittens pattern is one of my favorites.  The mittens fit great, and the pattern is quick and easy to followp So, when my eldest son asked for a pair of warm mittens for outdoor track practice this winter, I knew exactly which pattern I’d use.  Yarn choice was fraught — he wanted “dark blue or dark grey” with little or no color variation.   I showed him some tweedy blue from my stash, and he wanted to know what “all those white flecks” were for :). No go on the tweedy blue. Fortunately, I found the perfect skein of plush worsted merino at NEFF:

I was a little afraid it would be TOO heathered for his delicate sensibilities, but lucky for me — he gave the subtle colorway the official teenage thumbs up. Since he had originally asked for mittens, I started making mittens.  About halfway through the palm I did a fitting, and he asked if I could “stop making them before the fingers closed.”  After a quick conversation I realized he was asking for fingerless mitts, so that’s what I made.

He liked them so much, he let me take a picture or two!

I finished a cowl!

Project: Malachite Lorelei

Pattern: Lorelei

Designer: Sivia Harding

Available: $6 as a single pattern, or $26 for the 7-pattern collection

Yarn: The Fibre Company Road to China Light in “Malachite”

Beads: 6/0 Czech round seed beads; dark bronze with some kind of opaque rainbow finish

Another great cowl from Sivia Harding! I am very glad that I bought the whole collection :).  This one starts as a mobius, and transitions to a round cowl (much like another of her designs, Harmonia’s Rings, but on a smaller scale).  I took the opportunity to work with Road to China Light for the first time … um, wow.  Now this is a yarn I’ve been petting and visiting at the shop for quite some time — it is so, so, so soft, with gorgeous undulating tonal hues.  But the alpaca/silk/camel/cashmere combo means that it is wicked warm and felts if you look at it funny.

Just as an example, I wound both skeins into cakes at the same time.  The 2nd cake rolled around in my project bag for about a month while I worked through the first cake.  The strands of yarn on the outside of the 2nd cake were felted to each other, just from this mild agitation. This isn’t a yarn I could use for a garment — it would surely condense into rigid felt at the mere thought of sweaty armpits.  But for a cowl — it is delightful! Perfect!