Nordic Mittens

How does so much time manage to slip away between blog posts? Lately, every day feels crammed full of Things that Must be Done, and none of them seem to include blogging. (And I even have a second yoga blog, and that one really needs to be updated.)

Anyway, knitting and weaving and teaching yoga and chant and getting some cardio-strength exercise and starting a book club and keeping up with Netflix streaming of Breaking Bad and Damages and staying in touch with people and family, are all happening. My weaving guild study group presents this Tuesday, and our theme is Cornucopia of Excuses. (Each year we decide what COE, or the intials of the Certificate of Excellence, which is the topic for our group, stands for.) This year, none of the four of us has made much progress; we've all been weaving what we want to make. Lots of excuses, not much weaving progress toward completing the certificate.

Next year, my goal is to focus more -maybe pick one one type of weaving, such as summer-and-winter, and stick with exploring that. Also, turned twill, and investigation into how to weave a Randall Darwall-inspired shawl. (Okay, now that's already more than one focus.)

But I did knit mittens! I love mittens: practical, warm, colorful. These are stranded colorwork based on a free DROPs pattern (will post the link tomorrow), adapted for worsted-weight yarn. The red yarn is Zealana Heron - thick, a little fuzzy, extremely soft, warm (though not as warm as the PR on the possum-fur content suggests; still, we're helping to save the kiwi when we purchase this brand.) The white is Cascade 220. Knit Magic Loop style on size 4 Addi Natura needles.

And one other project: working up a pair of fngerless mitts for little girls to wear in springtime as the project for a class that I teach on circular knitting Magic Loop-style. The color is a beautiful sage-minty green in Cascade 220 sport, and one version has a handdyed silk ribbon threaded through the wrist section. Pictures soon of some of the versions so far, with surface design of embroidered flowers and leaves still in the stage of thinking-about.