YouTube SaturdayThe Let It Snow Edition(I just had to)(I think my reason is good enough)(Even if my reason is that it is my blog and I'll do what I want!)

Corny, isn't it? It really takes me back!

More snowmen.  I just love snowmen.  Even on my teapots.

This one is brand spankin' new.  Yep. Adding to the collection.

This one is a limited edition, one-of-a-kind.  Hand-painted by an artist who is a well kept secret in the pottery world, but I know her personally and have this only snowman teapot of its kind.  No, I won't paint you one, no matter how much you beg.  (Cash might get you one, maybe.)

This snowman wonders if there is something else to chat up in those photos.

 

Well, would you take a look at that!

• Pattern:  Snowbird Mittens by Elli Stubenrauch in Vogue Knitting, Fall 2008.
• Yarn:  Koigu KPPPM in colors 906 and Koigu KPM in color 2170.
• Needles:  size 0, the first mitten on dpns, the second on (gasp!) two circulars.
• Cast On:  first mitten, September 2, 2008
• Bound Off:  first mitten, January 15, 2010 (seventeen months)
• Cast On:  second mitten, January 18, 2010
• Bound Off:  second mitten January 22, 2010 (four days.  What the!?)

And my thoughts on the whole thing:

I love the yarns.  I wanted the feeling of a snowy evening and I think I got it.  Being the last to finish you might not believe it, but I think I was the inspiration for at least a couple of knitters with my colors.  I did get requests for the colors I was using after I started knitting them.  They all look so great.

The first mitten kinda sucked.  I couldn't make some of it work no matter now many times I frogged and re-knit.  I sometimes think that once knit a certain way the yarn is going to go back to that same condition no matter how many times you try to bend it to your will.  I haven't done a lot of two color knitting, especially on tiny needles, and I had trouble with my tension and my floats over the needle breaks.  It was frustrating and I must have taken any excuse to just put the mitten down and move on to other projects.  There is a lot I don't like about that mitten.

I decided to knit the second needle on two circulars to eliminate at least two of the needle spaces and I anchored my floats near the needle breaks.  While it helped a ton, I still found the sides of the mitten to be a bit wonky.  They aren't terrible, but not what I would love to see.  Any tips would be taken into careful consideration. 

There was enough improvement in the second mitten that I briefly considered re-knitting the first altogether.  For a second.  Then I quick! blocked them before I could do something I may or may not have regretted later.  (Look at that!  Overcoming my perfectionism, thinking all the while:  Perfectionism is the enemy of the good, perfectionism is the enemy.......  Yeah, don't get used to it.)

I love the backs as much as the fronts.  Actually, maybe more, they look so great.

There it is.  Suh-MACK!  Another former UFO from my smackdown project.  Not sure which one will be next, but I do know that I cast on for something tonight.  Not exactly making forward progress on the smackdown with that action, but maybe I'll finish the year with less yarn than I started it with, or at least break even.  That would count toward a smackdown of another sort.

2010.  Eleven.  You totally didn't watch or listen to the Ray Conniff video, did you.  It isn't too late, the video is still there......

Comments

[Laurie]

Love those. Understand the floats. I think just keep doing it. Some suggest (Kelly R) those Hiya Hiya 9" circs in teeny sizes. I haven't tried it yet.

[Kim]

VERY nice!! I love the teapots...and the mittens are great!

[margene]

The limited edition teapot is so darling! Yay! Way to smackdown another long time ufo. Blocking is your best friend when it comes to color work. The mittens are adorable.

[Geri]

Love the teapots and the mittens! Wishing for a snowy evening? Well sort of. It's going to pour here in Ct. tonight not sure how I feel about it as my hubby is in a cast after ankle replacement. Snow would really make him house bound.

[Suzanne]

I love the mittens! The teapots are so cute.

[Linda M]

I've loved those mittens since you first blogged them. congrats on the finishing! My tip for even stranding on dpns is to knit the project inside out so that the bulk of the project sits in front of the working needles instead of the back, and the stranding goes around the outside. It solves all my problems about keeping even tension where the needles cross. You are still knitting, not purling, but the knitted face of the fabric falls to the inside of the tube not the outside. Can you visualize this?

[CyndiG]

I love the snowman teapots and I love the mittens! Maybe I should make some mittens. Do they really keep your hands warm?