Mitten Mania

I have currently been on a mitten-knitting binge of some sort, it must be the crisp, fall air and pretty yellow aspen trees in combination with my need to use up some yarn stash. Mittens, I've found, are a wonderful way to use up stray yarn balls and make useful objects for people you care about...not as much of a commitment as a sweater, not as difficult to explain to a non-knitter as the reason I knit socks, and pretty quick and portable to knit.

First, I made some Maine Morning Mitts from a singleton ball of Noro Kureyon

You can see that the Noro had an abrupt and odd color change, which made these mittens look like the mates from 2 different pair, but they were warm and soft and handknit so therefore did not deserve to be frogged and re-knit. If I made these again, I would use 2 balls of the same colorway and make them in the same color sequence so they don't look quite so wierd. It's a great pattern, though, and I bet I have more yarn that could turn into these mitts without much convincing.

Next, I finished the pair of the "Yellow Harvest Mittens" from this post. I don't have anything to add from the previous post. I still think it's a great pattern, and fabulous yarn, but not together.















Then, I knit my husband one of the Men's Convertible Mittens from Knitpicks, in their Shamrock yarn. This is a fun pattern, sort of fiddly and annoying at the ring finger/pinky part, but fun. I couldn't get the hang of picking up stitches for the flap right out of the middle of the glove, so I knit the top separately and sewed it on after it was knit. They fit DH well and he thinks they will be perfect for hunting, yard work and driving. Hopefully he'll get lots of use out of them, and all his friends will be impressed with his loving wife and her mad knitting skills.
That mitten is modeled by my son.
It actually fits DH well, but he wasn't home for hand photos.

A couple of days ago, I received a copy of the Knitter's Almanac by Elizabeth Zimmermann, who was a true knitting genius. I just HAD to try the Mitered Mittens. And I happened to have some Kureyon just sitting there waiting to be something good. So...


Now, I have to go complete enough housework that it will be acceptable to sit and watch Project Runway and finish that Mitered Mitten and hopefully use those needles to cast on for the other Convertible Mitten.