Target Wave

Isn't this a great pattern? These Target Wave mittens are from Knitting Nature, one of my favorite books for knitting inspiration. I'll admit I haven't knit very many Norah Gaughan designs, but I love the organic quality of her creations.


The gray is Malabrigo Worsted in Frost Gray, and the cream is some wool I had in my stash...Lana Gatto, I think. The pattern calls for knitting these mittens flat, but you know me, I hate to seam. I adjusted for the seam stitches and knitted the cuffs in the round, knit back and forth for the thumb hole, and joined again for the fingertips.


For the thumbs, I picked up stitches all around the thumb hole, adding a couple of extras where it looked like there might be gaps. Those I dispatched with a k2tog on the first round of knitting and then continued to the thumb tips.


The finished mittens were a little wobbly looking, what with all the curves and color changes, but I cut out a hand shape from an old Amazon box and steamed those babies smooth. I love them!

New Year, Old Project

The tomten is all over but the buttons, baby! Above you see it blocking a little, to get the waviness out of the button band. I'm going to be adding tabbed button rings in the near future, and then Mary will be able to brave the elements - ha! - of our frigid La Jolla winter.



In anticipation of the FO-ness of the tomten, I shopped for buttons on Friday at Jane's Fabrique, and got some cute buttons for as-yet-unplanned projects in the half-price bin - score another sale for me. "Saving money by spending more!" is becoming my new motto. I'm not using any of these for the tomten, so you'll have to wait to see what I chose.



In other knitterly news, I am getting ready to frog the one repetition I completed on my Woodland Shawl because I didn't like the gauge - gotta go down at least one needle size, I think. And I started on a new Anais sweater by Norah Gaughan (photo above); I cast on last night, watched the season opener of Law & Order, and was done with the ribbing by the time the jury returned a verdict. I'm knitting it in the round and adding a little length, and hopefully Fiona will have a beautiful new sweater in a few days!