Mmmm...mittens

I just finished one of those crack knits- you know the ones. The ones that you think about all day at work, longing to get home to be able to finish. The ones that call to you from the other room as you are trying to fall asleep, begging you to come back and fix the color pattern mistake that made you finally call it quits at 1:00 am. Oh, how I loved knitting these mittens.



Pattern: Herringbone Mittens, a free pattern from the hugely talented Elliphantom
Needles: Size 4 DPNS for the ribbing, size 6 DPNs for the rest
Yarn: Good old Patons Classic Wool Merino
Modifications: no poms

My mitten love is kind of unexpected, actually. I always see cute mitten patterns, but I never considered making them because I could never really get the point of mittens. I mean, aren't your fingers kind of necessary? I was schooled by my friend Kerry, who lives in a place where it is regularly double digits below zero. Kerry says that when it gets that cold, gloves just don't cut it. As a reward for giving me an excuse to knit mittens, Kerry is getting these for her birthday.

I think the other aspect of these bad boys that contributed to my adoration is the stranding. Man was that FUN! I messed up the pattern on the first mitten 3 times and had to rip back half a glove, but each time I felt secretly happy, because it meant I got to do it again. I'm already jonesing to make another set of mittens for my friend Sara in Chicago...I'm thinking maybe those Bird in Hand ones.

In other news, I got a large, gorgeous umbrella swift this week. I used a 50% coupon at Joann.com, so it was a bit more affordable. I cannot tell you how much I love this thing- it's so much higher quality than I expect from Joann. I'm using it with my new ball winder and am having way too much fun making yarn cakes out of everything in sight.



Which reminds me...don't forget about the ball winder I'm giving away! In my last post, I told you all about how I ended up with an extra ball winder. If you need one, leave a comment in my last post. I will randomly pick someone from the comments and send them my old ball winder FOR FREE! No shipping or anything, people!