Sunday, December 14, 2003

Paradoxical Mittens

Karine from Norway sent me the most beautiful yarns in a trade. She generously sent me five skeins of Gjestal Vestlandsgarn in five different beautiful autumn colors along with three skeins of Tiur in pretty coordinating colors also. Thanks Karine! I am definitely going to make myself a Dale of Norway hat with some of this beautiful yarn.

I didn't get any work done on the multi-directional scarf. Instead I started Kristi's mittens from Folk Knitting in Estonia in Elann's Peruvian fingering weight alpaca/wool/cashmere blend. Janet emailed me and asked what I thought of the yarn. It is an interesting yarn although I'm not sure I'd buy more. It splits a bit (I'm using size 0 dpns) and has a bit of fuzziness. It is nice and soft though and highly durable. I made the weirdest mistake in the cuff of the first mitten and tried various methods to fix it before finally ripping the whole thing out. You really can't tell the yarn had been abused like that from looking at the mitten. I keep comparing the Elann Peruvian cashmere to Stahl's Baby Merino. I bought a ton of the Baby Merino yarn from Elann a few years ago and it is about as soft but much more elastic.



Here is a photo of the completed Paradoxical Mittens. The yarn is J&S jumper weight purchased at Four Seasons Knitting and the pattern is from Lucy Neatby. I enjoyed every second of these although I'm not sure I'd do her method of closing the top again - kitchener should work just as well and is easier.

Oh and Geane - I did manage to use your word "fid" in the Scrabble marathon this weekend.