Mitten issues and vacation yarn

So much for thinking I would get this posted right away. Oh well, so here we go with the stash enhancement I did while in Duluth and Grand Marais.

The first yarn is from the Yarn Harbor. I found a great squishy wool to use for a pair of Norwegian mittens for my nephews fiancee. The colors are a great chocolate brown, white, and strong aqua blue. I'll post pictures of the progress as I go along. Although they won't be started until after Thanksgiving. The pattern is called LoveBirds, to celebrate my nephew's recent engagement.

The next yarn is Lorna's Lace sock yarn which I found at Grand Marais at the Little Red House. That is my favorite yarn store I have found on my travels. It is truly located in a regular house that has been turned into a yarn shop. The house is vintage, the main room is the former parlor, the dining room is filled with yarns of all kinds. The house still has its kitchen, (now a store room) bathroom and bedrooms. Almost makes me wish I could live in it!

I really can't wait until I finish working on things for a craft fair I'm doing the week before Thanksgiving. I'm doing generic hats, scarves, and mittens. But it means I'm not working with my really "nice" yarns. I'm using my cost effective yarns and while they are nice, they are not AS nice as some of my other things. But looking at my good stash of sock yarns has my brain cooking with how much can I do in the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas!

I'm planning on making a pair of basic socks for my sister. A cable hat for my brother in law. Both Kyle and his Anna will get mittens. Not sure yet for Kristin, my niece, as she lives in Florida. Makes knitting more of an issue for her. But Christmas will be here sooner than I'm sure my needles will be ready for.

And on another front, I photoed some of my WIPS.

I made a pair of mittens for my youngest daughter. The colors are perfect, a strong red, green and black that reminds me of a watermelon. I finished the first mitten in record time, then the second mitten sat there, I started it again, and can you see see the problem?

Do you see the size difference? I know I changed from bamboo needles to metal needles, but swear the needle size was the same. However, as you can see the second mitten (still waiting for its thumb) is clearly SMALLER. sigh....so this means I still have 2 mittens to make. One in the larger size and one in the smaller size before I will have a matching set of mittens. Thankfully I have plenty of yarn to make the additional pairs, but it wasn't what I had planned. but I do love the colors, and I especially like the ruffled cuff with the tight ribbing to keep cold and snow out of the hands.....

And something I'm really proud of, my first pair of Norwegian mittens and only my second stranded knitting project.

Again, you see a theme in my knitting of mittens, this too is waiting for its thumb!

Yesterday I heard from the Twist Collective, I wrote a little thing called a Yarn Hop Day in Minneapolis and sent it in to them and they are going to post it on their blog in the next month or so. I think it is fun and I'm excited about it.

I'm trying to post here every few days, but with working full time and getting my mom and girls to all their various activities after work makes things a bit challening. And then since my plate clearly wasn't full enough, I also took a part time job at our church in the nursery. Just a few hours each week, but I figure the extra money sure won't hurt and after being responsible and using most of the new "extra" money for bills etc, I will be using a smaller portion of it for yarn! How can I not?

Stay tuned....