Sometime Sunday night I realized that this past weekend was the first since, oh I don’t know, SEPTEMBER that I didn’t have any obligations. I worked maybe a total of an hour and the rest of the time was blissfully my own.

There was some food shopping (which I abhor) but the rest of the time I knit!

Front of Right Mitten

I started my Bird In Hand Mittens Friday night, first casting on with 4s. Then 3s. And finally settling in with 2s. The first two needles sizes gave me a HUGE picot edge and I decided that there was no way I could down below 2s. In fact, I told myself if I needed to go back up for the colorwork that would be okay. Surprisingly, the 2s are working perfectly!

Front of Right Mitten Closeup

I ended up going with the last picture in the last entry – the blue that is probably closest to the brown in heathery-ness. I actually tried a couple of rows with the top blue, but I wasn’t loving it and when I consulted with Georgie, he picked the bottom blue. So far so good!

Back of Right Mitten

I’ve tried to remain very conscious of my floats and spreading the stitches out as I go along and I’m very pleased with my results. I think my stitches look incredibly even and my floats are all at a similar tension and MAN these gloves are thick! It’s almost like they’re felted! They are going to be SUPER warm. They fit just fine on my hand – not too tight, not too loose and I’m loving watching the colorwork unfold. I managed to knit a couple rows past the thumb gusset. I think my plan is to finish the first mitten, then knit the second mitten, then GO BACK and do the thumbs. This way whatever I do on the first will be fresh in my mind on the second.

Back of Right Mitten Closeup

Also, I don’t miss the braid at all! I think the cuff looks lovely with Alice’s mods.

I did NOT neglect Oblique! (Although I was sorely tempted!) I’m in the midst of raglan decreases and I hope to have the back finished very shortly – maybe even tonight! As is my usual way, I’ll be casting on both fronts as soon as I’m done the back.

Two wonderful projects! What could be better than that? Thanks for your input on the mittens – I hope my choice doesn’t disappoint.

So I’m thisclose to being done with work! In fact, last night I finished the biggest project left and now all I have to do is wait for prints and cards to come in and send them back out. There may be a few straggler holiday cards to design, but for all intents and purposes, I’m DONE! Whew! This was the busiest I’ve ever been and for the most part everything went very well. My clients are happy which means I’m happy. God knows what I’m going to do next year when the babe is here, but I’m not going to worry about it now!

In the meantime, now that my head isn’t filled with work lists, all I can think about is knitting. Not the fact that my house is a disaster and my husband keeps asking me when that whole nesting thing is going to kick in. Not the fact that my first born will arrive in like THREE MONTHS! Not even that my birthday is only a few weeks away. Nope. None of that. Only knitting.

Yesterday I had to drive G into the city and while I was there I thought I’d stop at Knitty City since they had a pattern I was DESPERATE to own (read: couldn’t wait to order it through the mail I had to have it RIGHT NOW even though I won’t be knitting it anytime soon.) While I was there I couldn’t help but look around and since they have a great selection of Cascade, I thought I’d check it out to see if I could find some other colors for the Bird In Hand mittens. When I first decided that I wanted to knit the mittens I thought I’d make them in a similar color combination to the felted bag I made oh so long ago that I LOVED. Basically I wanted a blue/green and the brown.

Now I’ve got choices.

Here are the three blue-greens I’m thinking of. The ball in the center is the one I used for the bag. I think it’s too green for what I envisioned. The yarn on the top is still a heather (they’re all Cascade 220 Heathers), but it doesn’t have much color change in it – it’s a very lovely blue. The photograph isn’t doing it justice and I think I like this one the best, but I’m not sure it goes the best with the brown. The yarn on the bottom is the third blue – much more heathery, but it’s darker, so it will be more muted against the brown, but the heathery-ness probably matches up the best with the brown. Want to see them again?

Tough decision, no? What do you think? In the meantime, I want to cast on this second. I’m going to do the modification I saw over at kathrynivy.com. Alice’s modifications to the cuff are spectacular as far as I’m concerned and yes I’m wimping out on the braid. First off, I’m not really a braid kind of girl – second of all, I don’t have the mental capacity to learn a new trick this week – I just want to knit. Third, I think the braid’s not going to show up so well in the brown. So there. No braid. Thank you Alice!

Now the big questions – which needle do I start with? The last time I tried stranded knitting I had to go up something like three or four needle sizes and the mittens were STILL too small. I’m tempted to start out with 4s and see how I do. Although I should probably start with 3s. Off to knit! Have a great weekend!