Birch mitten

I made this second Birch mitten more like the original in the picture. I love the woven single strand of white all up the cuff to mimick the trunks of birch trees. Next time I'm going to continue the weaving to the end of the cuff. I am eager to block these and embroider the bark with black yarn.

Sandwich ideas

I picked up 'Wichcraft at the library this week. It is full of beautiful and delicious sandwich ideas. I think we need a soup and sandwich night during the week. If I make large batches of soup we can freeze half and have a meal in the freezer.

Beeswax candles

I took that medium-sized metal pitcher for frothing milk that used to sit on the espresso machine and I filled it with chunks of beeswax and set it in a simmering pan of water. While the wax melted I cut some wicks and stuck them in the bottom of some votives, a small pot and a cookie cutter on a piece of foil. I poured the wax in and steadied the wicks with toothpicks. Fifteen minutes, 6 candles! I need to read about candle-making. Any suggestions?

Happy Valentines Day

I'm mixing up some Valentines gifts here in the kitchen today - brewing some hair rinse and sewing some herbal sachets from leftover muslin. I may even serve hot chocolate this afternoon with heart-shaped marshmallows. I just saw the recipe on Martha's site requiring only a marshmallow and a cookie cutter!

Devon socks

I have finished one Devon sock from Cookie A's Sock Innovation. I'm using Socrates which is an alpaca sock yarn. I'm looking for a great sock yarn - sproingy, wool with a little nylon, nice solids or semi-solids, a lot of yardage. I am thinking again of dyeing some of my own using those fancy food coloring gels.

Dragon mittens

Here's my first dragon mitten - a request. It's a pattern by Barbara Gregory here on Ravelry. My sock/mitten stragegy is to knit one and then switch to another project and knit one of those and then switch back. So far it's working.

True Brit Knits

Belinda over at True Brit Knits recently put her pattern for these Charleston cushions up for sale. The green and pink version in the back there has me hooked. The originals are knit in sock yarn, but I am thinking of using a heavier weight and using some chenille for the pink bits.

Totoro mittens

I made the Totoro mittens in good old Cascade 220 for a quick worsted weight mitten needed for a snow trip. After reading Anna Zilboorg's introduction to Magnificent Mittens I became addicted to the idea of lining mittens in angora.
"Since you're putting so much labor and love into them anyway, and they'll be so beautiful, you might as well use the best lining material. This is either angora or alpaca or even kid mohair...All these are worked up loosely, so the lining doesn't take forever to do...With time the lining felts into the mitten a bit making them virtually waterproof and windproof."
Something happens inside your head when you puick up a wool mitten and then slip your hand inside and feel angora on the inside. I do not know the scientific term but it feels like ahhhhh.

Mitten binge

Here is the latest in my mitten binge. I read about the hand dyed Riihivilla yarns and mitten kits a few weeks ago on Knitters Review. These remind me of pressed wild flowers. I think I'm ready to create a Berkeley mitten. I'm going to throw all these very different mitten traditions into the runcible bin with some Berkeley history books and postcards and see what bubbles to the surface!

It's been so long I forgot how to log on

I am beginning a new year today and am resolved to get back on the blog horse and ride again. For my mid-morning snack I prepared my new favorite treat from Mad Hungry. I keep bagels in the freezer and I bake a batch of bacon and keep it in the frig, so when I need a bagel breakfast sandwich I just warm up the pieces in the oven and scramble an egg! It is magnificence!

I've been knitting these Valentine wash cloth/dish cloths. I use Natalja's pattern over at Sonnentaler. For a nice dish cloth size I double her numbers - casting on 10 (instead of 5), increasing to 18 (instead of 9). Her instructions are so nice you could adjust them to knit any size heart!

I'm also making some Kiki Mariko socks with my leftovers...

And mittens - I've been thinking of these Birch Mittens in last year's Piecework (Jan/Feb 2010) by Jette Uzane and adapted by Barbara Plakans. I changed the leaf a little to resemble the originals. I am going to embroider the black lines of the Birch bark after I steam them. I enjoyed this quote in the article:

"I soon lost interest in following the strict geometrical patterns of traditional Latvian etnographic designs and wanted to make something more complicated and original. When knitting those traditional designs I was only moving my fingers. I couldn't knit myself into them."

They are wonderful to make, as are all the traditional Latvian mitten patterns that can be found in Lizbeth Upitis' Latvian Mittens. Why not go on a mitten binge, or like Jette Uzane, create a mitten cycle?