Again, those that prefer their eyes to remain unsullied by the likes of knitted profanity, please avert your eyes. For the rest of us, forge ahead!

The How Cold Is It mittens by Drunk Girl Knits. I love them! They’re so cozy, especially with the leftover Lotus Mimi since it is mink fiber. I combined that glorious red Mimi with some Colinette Jitterbug in Elephant’s Daydream. I still have to weigh my leftovers to say how much yardage I used exactly on the project page. I had 150 yards left of the Mimi before this project, and I still have about 15 yards left I’d guess. coldasfuck

I made three modification to the pattern. I thought I would be more comfortable with a thumb gusset, so on row 15 of each mitten I made one stitch on the palm where the thumb would be located and put markers on either side. On each following round I mirrored M1R and M1L increases on the outside of this grouping of stitches, alternating red and turquoise for a striped thumb. I kept increasing until I reached 25 stitches between the markers, then I separated them on the next round and held them on waste yarn until the rest of the mitten was finished. When I went back to the thumb, I picked up an additional 3 stitches along the inner gap for a total of 28 stitches. coldasfuck-2

Another modification was to add a little bit of length to the top of the mitten. I probably could have started the thumb gusset a little bit lower on the palm and I wouldn’t have had to add length, but I don’t mind the longer length. For each mitten I knit the chart until I finished row 56, then I knit 8 rows, freeform (putting dots or mini snowflakes wherever I pleased), then I continued the mitten pattern at row 57. My final mod was to reverse the striping pattern on the second mitten so that they would mirror each other.

My mittens didn’t grow much with blocking, but the blocking smoothed out most of the waviness of the Fair Isle work. I love the fit and they’re hella warm, so I’m pleased.

So, Ravellenics… I couldn’t bring myself to start a new greyish sweater with quite a bit of the blue-grey Pensacola sweater left. I think my goals are going to be to focus on finishing and follow-through during these Olympic games. I will definitely finish the Pensacola Sweater, since it has a deadline. I will also finish these socks and make the baby version of these Prufrock socks, since that’s been on my knitting agenda for awhile. After those tasks, I think I’d like to make new fingerless gloves for me, some for Zooey, and some for Matt. I have these in mind for myself and these for Matt. I’ll just wing something small and fingerless for Z. Most mittens for kiddos her age don’t have a thumb. I’d like her hands to have some warmth, but using fingers is very important too. I’m a little sad that I’m not taking on a whole sweater or something equally daunting, but I want to enjoy myself and I think a few small projects in place of a large one, while simultaneously using stash for everything will make me feel accomplished as well. How are your Ravellenic projects going if you’re doing them?

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