Felted Mittens

So what did your groundhog say? We've had mostly cloudy weather today, but the clouds may be breaking up a little. Maybe it depends on what time the groundhog looks outside.

Wow, this post is actually about yarn and knitting! Can you believe it? I finally finished some felted mittens I'd started some time ago.I used some KnitPicks "Wool of the Andes," holding two strands together and knit them in kind of a combination of two patterns. (And although it doesn't look that way in the picture, they really are both pretty close to the same size.)

I was in a hurry, of course, to get them felted and forgot to take a picture before throwing them in the washer. I used warm water and a little dishwashing soap, and ran them one time through the heavy duty wash cycle. It agitates faster and longer than the regular cycle on our machine.

It took them two or three days to get completely dry. They're really thick (which makes them a little stiff), and seem like they'll be really warm. You can find lots of patterns for felted mittens on Ravelry if you think you want to give some a try. :)

Newfoundland Mittens

After trolling around on Ravelry one day looking at patterns, I came across these Newfoundland Mittens. I thought they were SO cute! I'm still working on both of the scarves I started, but being awfully bad about starting something new before finishing the project I'm working on, I went ahead and cast on.

I had some leftover yarns in my stash, and used a natural white wool for the body and some hand dyed wool yarn for the rest. This was the first time I'd used a colorwork pattern. I always thought colorwork would be really complicated, but this pattern has been pretty easy for the most part. I had a little trouble now and then figuring out where to start each row for some reason, but it wasn't too hard to get back on track.

I think they're going to be really warm, too, because of the double strands. The first one is done, and the second just needs the thumb and the ends woven in. Surely I can stick with them long enough to do that! :)