Squirrel mitts

It seemed somehow appropriate to spend my travelling time in Austria working on these lovely mittens from Elliphantom Knits.

In my typical style, I've had the pattern (and even the yarn!) for more than a year, but my weekend away finally prompted me to cast on, and I'm now well on the way to finishing the first mitten.

I also took the opportunity to try a new technique for the stranded knitting - holding the two different colours in different hands! Since I've never managed to take to 'picking' rather than 'throwing' my yarn, it was not the easiest of transitions, but I think I'm getting the hang of it now! At first I started each round by deciding which colour featured the most, and would hold that colour in my right (throwing) hand. The other would reside in my left (picking) hand for occasional use. I'm now at the stage where I can more or less cope without doing this.

I love the mittens because they are damn cute, but also because they are forcing me to learn a new technique. I'm finding it difficult to get the fabric to lie flat, it is bunching up in places, but that's normal for me even when I'm not trying to use both hands. It's just something I'll have to live with.

People have been talking a lot recently about how many and what type of projects they have on the go at the same time. I think I'm at FIVE right now. There are two large projects (one so large it can't leave the house, the other still in portable size), one pair of socks (currently awaiting a fitting by the intended recipient. I measured her feet and the socks correspond to the measurements, but I still can't believe her feet are THAT long and thin!), there's a tiny gift project I've nearly finished, and now the mittens.



Last but not at all least, a quick bit of eye candy. Here's part of a recent consignment I scored from Natalie at the Yarn Yard. The pic doesn't really show the colours too well, but they are greys and black with swirls of bright orange. Very Halloweeny!!!