finished .. sort of

I went ahead and finished the frill -- after all, it's just crochet & easy to take out if I change my mind. I think I like it but we'll see.

No photos because I still need to get buttons and because it went and got cold again here. I'm on to the next thing, anyways. Mittens for Akkol is running a quick campaign due to the unexpected availability of a shipping container. I need to send my things out next Monday and am trying to knit up a stack of mittens before then. The group leader was at the orphanage in December and said there were kids playing outside with bare hands when it was -20 F. That's far colder than my deep freezer which is blowing my children's minds.

As always when I'm turning out lots of mittens, I'm using Robin Hansen's wonderful books, Fox & Geese & Fences and Flying Geese & Partridge Feet. They are both out of print as far as I know, but a lot of the patterns have been reissued in Favorite Mittens. There are lots of other mitten books, many of which are functional and fun to make, but these are fast & sturdy and utterly reliable.

I'm using Classic Elite's discontinued wool/mohair blend Tapestry for the mittens. It's a heavy worsted so all my mittens are coming out a little bigger than the patterns suggest. That's no problem since I'm not knitting for a specific person as long as I remember to use the next measurement up when the pattern says "knit for x inches." Otherwise I get a stubby little mitten!

Off to the doctor's to get my clean bill of health (I hope) -- almost done with ribbing, must pick a pattern before I go!