Bella's Mittens

Who went to see New Moon last night? What did you think?

I thought it was great! And the midnight showing had a really fun atmosphere with a bajillion teenage girlies in their pajamas. I think I'm well and truly in the minority routing for team Jacob. And Taylor Lautner... whoo he looked good. But as my stepson correctly pointed out, WAAAAAY too young for me LOL! We're thinking that Dwayne Johnson might make a more age appropriate substitute though (for me that is, not Bella. Pah!). Erm, er, sorry Joe... you know I only have eyes for you ;o)


Anyhoo, my dear friend that invited me is a major Twihard fan and so I thought it would be fun to make her a pair of the Bella's mittens that have been circling round blogland and ravelry.

There's a couple of free patterns out there and I chose Phenomenom by Carine Ancel (Ravelry link) because I really like the cross stitch type effect she's created on the palms. The yarn I used was Dream in Color Groovy, colourway Black Pearl. I needed 2 skeins. My first time using Dream in Color and I was really happy with it - nice and soft and held the stitch definition well. I especially liked the subtle change in tone from black to charcoal grey in this particuar colourway.


And if you are looking for some last minute Christmas knitting these could be just the ticket - each mitten took me about 2-3 evenings to complete.


They were well received by my dear Twihard friend yesterday evening. Which makes this knitter a very happy girl indeed :)

February baby sweater

One of the cutest baby gifts I feel that I made was the EZ baby sweater out of sock yarn, for my cousin's daughter. I decided my little lady lady also needed one.


This is a great project if you are looking for a fast, easy and interesting cardigan for a baby girl. I took mine on a business trip to the east coast last week and was pretty much complete by the time I returned home. Besides, anything that makes good use out of my ever-increasing stash of sock yarns is a good thing.

There seems to be a lot of discussion on baby knits - whether it's worth the effort. Right now I think so, but soon I'll have firsthand experience at how fast the wee one grows. (Who am I kidding - I'll be knitting regardless of how fast they grow... and at this stage, maybe the amount of time it takes to knit is in relation to the amount of time they'll be wearing it!) I'm telling myself that this particular cardigan might last a bit longer because it is lace, and there's some manipulating that can be done during blocking to stretch a little as baby grows. That's all theory at this point. I'll be able to let you know in a matter of months! Maybe February baby for a February baby sweater? (More likely early March, the Feb part is wishful thinking).


My modifications to the original pattern are shown in the post on the first version I made. Essentially all I did differently was cast on more for the neck, and then knit a few extra rows on the yoke. Everything else is per the guidelines in the book.

I still favour my first version most (it's that delicious sundara yarn). But this one in Colinette Jitterbug sock yarn (colourway Lobster Pinch) is still cute, vibrant and fun with those contrasting purple flower buttons. Although Joe is being a little more practical than I and is advising that I might want to avoid buttons for future baby knits -- that little ones love to chew.

I still have a little yarn left from the one skein of sock yarn - potentially enough for some Saartjes booties. The little lady will need matching accessories after all ;o)