2014 Begins!

Happy New Year to all! It was a bit of an unusual holiday season for my family, but, that is most likely normal for us given the last few years history. I was busy creating some last minute gifts that caught my eye and interest .... cowls, and mittens, and some other small toys. I did not think to take pictures of them in my haste to gift them, but I was very happy with the results and will most likely make more of these.

The mittens, however, I did continue to make. My ddil expressed a very strong wish for some shark mittens that she saw on Pinterest. I ho-ed and hummed about the pattern as it was done in tunisian crochet. I am certain I could master this craft as well, but then I would just end up investing in more tools (the hooks for this) so I put making them off for a few months. As Christmas drew near, I became determined to convert the pattern into one I could knit, as I read others who had done so on Ravelry. And so my adventure began. I do wish I had taken a picture of the adult sized shark mittens. They were well worth the effort! I found I had yarn left over, and so I set about down sizing the size to make some for children. And these I do have pictures of! I did not make note of the size of needle or number of stitches, since I was more or less just working on instinct. I did however make them flat, leave about 6 - 8 stitches on a holder for the thumb which was worked after the body of the mitten. It was not all that difficult to figure out how to reproduce them.

While looking for plain mitten patterns to guide me on my quest, I saw some very sweet kitten mittens. These stayed in my mind so once I was content with making 3 pair of shark mittens, I set out to see what the kitten mittens would be like. Again,  I just used the picture of the finished mittens for inspiration and did not actually follow the pattern at all (even though it was a free pattern). So 3 pair of kitten mittens then appeared. Again, I knit these flat and then seamed them at the end, except for the baby mittens which I knit in the round as there was no thumb to deal with. The thumb on the larger mittens is supposed to be the cats tail .....  I think I was inspired to make mittens as it has been so cold the last few months here!

Some of the last minute toys I made were some kittens with pink dresses and a bow by their ear (you know the ones I mean!) I then dove into making some mittens, but with peach instead of pink. I am quite happy with these as well.

My mitten making is on the back burner again and I felt obligated to make some little mice as I had previously purchased a set of patterns called Christmas Mice. Of course it was a little late to make them for Christmas, so I made 2 dressed in street clothes rather than Christmas wear! They are very sweet.

Now, onto a mystery KAL that I joined, and then to cast on a sweater for myself using some of the wonderful yarn I got at Romni Wools late last year!

Happy New Year to all! May this year bring you endless joy, smiles, love and contentment.