The recent snowfall inspired me to knit something to keep my fingers warm. I tried my hand at making mittens and what a fun project it turned out to be! These are the Very Cabley Mittens from kelpknits.com. To make them, I used one skein of Lamb’s Pride worsted. Not only are they very cabley, they are very quick (I knit mine in 3 days) and they are very pretty.

I enjoyed this project so much that I joined the knit-along for the National Knit Mittens Month (there’s a Ravelry Group for this) and will attempt to knit another pair by February first. My track record for finishing knit-along projects has been poor, so keep your fingers crossed for me (I’d do the same, but that would make knitting more challenging than it should be…).

True to form, I’ve already encountered a hurdle in knitting another pair of mittens. I can’t decide what knittens I want to knit first. There are 3,537 mitten patterns listed on Ravelry. Right now, I have several pairs on my personal list that I’m considering (and I’m going to stop looking at Ravelry’s pattern catalog so my list doesn’t grow even longer!). Here’s what I’ve got so far:

• Bird In Hand Mittens
• Bella’s Mittens
• Tyrolean Mittens
• Any Selbuvotter Mitten (How’s that for narrowing down my selection?)
• Thrummed Mittens
• Newfoundland Mittens
• Give a Hoot
• Ladybug Mittens
• Mittens to Order–using my own charted design

Yeah, that list is crazy…and it’s only the tip of the iceberg. I’ve decided that I will only make mittens for which I already have the yarn. I’ve also decided that I’m going to write the name of each design down on a slip of paper, put it into a hat and will get started swatching whichever one I pull from the hat. Clever huh? I should run more of my life this way, since I’m notoriously bad at making up my mind when faced with a lot of choices.

P.S. My apologies for the awful title. If you want good taste from me, you’ll have to wait until I’ve consumed another cup of coffee or three.

P.P.S. Please forgive the overabundance of parentheses above. Again, the need for coffee…

P.P.P.S. Best wishes for the new year!!!

We had a storybook Christmas. It really couldn’t have been more perfect. Just a few days beforehand, it started snowing and it kept snowing and snowing and snowing. We hadn’t had this much snow since….oh 1996. The whole family spent lots of time outside playing in the stuff.

1. Frosty, 2. Kids in the Igloo, 3. Shoveling, 4. Sam’s Baby Blues, 5. Claire, 6. Claire

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.

I tried to coax the kids into making a snowman, but they were more interested in shoveling the sidewalks…and the street. Eventually, we had a large enough snow mound to create an igloo.

What fun! Some worrywart neighbors expressed concern for letting kids play in a structure that might collapse on them, but we weren’t worried. First of all, we were always supervising them when they were playing outside, so if something happened, we’d be right there to take care of things. Secondly, Robert and I built snow forts like that throughout our childhood. My brother also used to go winter camping at 7000 feet and built similar structures to sleep in.

Know-it-alls really get my dander up.

Christmas Day was very relaxed. We opened gifts, played board games and ate an exquisite meal. I made beef bourgignon–and oh my gawd, the sauce on that dish is to die for! We sopped every bit of it up with homemade bread. Yum!!!!

As is traditional for my family, I baked Potica. It was gobbled up in no time flat. In years past, I’ve had trouble getting the sweet bread to cook thoroughly in the center without burning the outer portions. I baked it at a lower temperature this time and it was a big improvement! Wrapping the whole thing in foil for the first portion of its baking time is also something I’ve been meaning to try.

My brother and his fiancee also came to visit us for a couple of days. We don’t get to see each other all that often since they live far away in Montana. We had a splendid time playing Yahtzee (I won-woo hoo), building puzzles, eating, drinking…and clowning around in my handknits.

Will loved the hat I knit for him. It’s supposed to look like the cunning hat worn by Jayne in Firefly. I had a hard time knitting badly. It should look worse than it does, haha!

Snow and ice kept the kids (including Robert) home a lot more than expected this week. I stayed busy trying to feed and entertain them all. I sent them all out to play in the snow as often as possible, but they had to come in sometime to warm up. When they did, I set them to work.

The kids made a paper chain, which we used to decorate the banister.

Claire made a snowman from a gym sock.

We decorated the tree.

…and baked and decorated and ate cookies.

I hid away in a quiet corner and finished knitting her frog hat.

I can hardly wait to see this on Claire’s head. I made a few changes to the project as I went along, which you can find detailed on my Ravely project page.

I also finished knitting a present for my brother, but since his computer skills are slightly more sophisticated than Claire’s, I can’t post a picture here until after Christmas. I don’t want to spoil the surprise.

The glue gun and I also made friends, despite the blister it put on my thumb (darn thing gets hot).

I saw a similar wreath in an old Better Homes and Gardens magazine. Had I been a better craftsperson, I would have sewn all the buttons onto the fabric and framed it a little more carefully (the packing tape I used to stretch the fabric over the cardboard backing was an especially classy touch), but no matter–I’m pleased with it right now.