Abandoned

13 days since my last post?? I would imagine y'all are wondering if I had abondoned blog, knitters and knitting, but I assure you this is not the case. The hectic pace of the season is certainly keeping me from my computer and, well, I haven't really felt that I have had much blog worthy news to tell. (I have been, in the evenings, playing far too much Webkinz, however. Mea culpa!) The MIL mitts are done, sans thumbs. (I apparently have an aversion to thumbs. Rachel's mittens are still wanting one. Perhaps tonight?) I have put a sparse few items in the shop, as well as filling a few requests (Wild Side is huge! Can't keep that one in stock!)
My real thrill lately has been the mitts I am working on for my mom. At the start of my knitting career which was shortly followed by the start of my family camping adventured in Maine, I happily discovered a lovely little shop in Bridgton, ME and a locally produced yarn they carried, Bunny Blend from Acker's Acres farm. (I later bought my Lilah from this breeder.) This yarn is AMAZING (40% of her own angora, and 60% local, lovely, soft wool) and I made a habit of purchasing 2 skeins each time we visited. It has been marinating in the stash and from it I picked out some lovely soft pink to design fingerless mitts for my mom, at her request. I am thrilled with how they are turning out, and who wouldn't love knitting with this stuff??

I found this cable motif in Cables Untangled by Melissa Leapman. It looks like little stacked hearts, so what better motif for my mommy? I also felt it was substantial enough to hold its own with the fuzziness of the angora. When they are done, I'll be sure to share the recipe. I am LOVING everything about them, and am so jealous each time I slip them on my hands -- you know, to make sure the sizing is right. Thank goodness I still have 5 skeins in the stash! It has been a nice bit of cabling experience for me. In truth, I have only knit the simplest of cables, so it took me a bit to envision where I was in the chart and had to rip back and start over once as I had mis-crossed too many spots. On the re-knit, however, I found a mis-crossed cable 2 rows back and was able to successfully drop and re-knit. I love it when I can do that! THAT is when I know I've got a technique down. I had also gone into this thinking to cop-out on the thumb and just go with an add-on afterthought type thumb, but went for the gusset since the fit is just so much nicer. I mean, it is ANGORA people. It must be given its due.

She just better not felt them.
(The wonderful Julie nominated me for the Nice Matters Award. I'm so not worthy, but will do my best to do justice to the honor tomorrow. Thank you Julie! all I can say is, "No, you are!!" lol)