I finished my 3rd (and probably final) pair of mittens for NaKniMitMo last week. I had originally planned on doing the Postwar Mittens from Twist Collective as my next pair but I was a little colorwork-ed out, you know?

So I went stash diving and found 3 skeins of Cascade 220 just hanging around. I bought those skeins ages ago with the intention of knitting something using all 3 colors but I never knew what it would be.

Enter the Furrow Mittens – another wonderful design by Kirsten at Through The Loops.

Beautiful and warm and functional. Fast to knit and entertaining, too. Everything a mitten should be.

I finished another pair of mittens for NaKniMitMo. These are the Selbuvotter mittens I promised Dale last year when I made a pair for me. Yeah, it took a while. But I’m pretty sure he thinks they were worth waiting for.

The pattern is NHM #12. I had Dale go through the whole Selbuvotter book and these were the ones he chose.

The yarn is Mission Falls 1824 Wool. It was nice to work with – soft and smooshy – but it bled a bit when I blocked the mittens. There are a few spots where the white looks a bit blue but I’m probably the only one who really notices it. Still, it was a disappointment and I didn’t expect this yarn to do that.

I changed the thumb a bit and knit this star design from a different chart in the book. I just thought it would look better and I’m glad I did it.

They go great with his Civil War uniform and he wore them to the annual meeting on Saturday. He said he showed them off a bit and everyone was impressed. I couldn’t be more pleased!

Thanks so much for all your nice comments on my recent knitted stuff. I’m glad you all enjoyed seeing my family modeling stuff but there have been repercussions. You see, Dale’s head has swelled beyond belief after reading all your comments, Hannah is still annoyed that I posted ugly (i.e. cold) photos of her last week, and I’m wishing I had invited photographer extraordinaire Cheryl down to take those photos of me. Ahem. It does feel good to finally be caught up on posting all my recently finished knitted things, though. And that means now I can go on to show you the stuff that’s currently coming off the needles.

January is officially Knit More Mittens month for me. I joined NaKniMitMo and it has really given me the incentive to get cracking on the various mittens I’ve been wanting to knit. First up are these Bird in Hand Mittens. I’ve had these in my queue since Kate released the pattern. I’ve seen my friends knit these and loved them and I’m so glad I finally knit a pair of my own.

The yarn is Botanical Shades 2 Ply Sportweight in the shades of spruce and khaki. I bought it at Rhinebeck last October and got the stamp of approval from Margene and Marcy so you know it’s got to be good. Despite what I said last week about mohair, I don’t mind mohair blends, and this yarn is a nice blend of wool and mohair. It’s got a bit of a fuzz but I actually think some fuzz is a good thing in a mitten.

I love the braided cuff although it did confuse me at first. It’s really not difficult but, like any new technique, I had to slow down and read the directions carefully. Once I’d done it correctly it was easy to repeat and I think it makes for some really special detailing.

Speaking of detailing, I decided to make my mittens truly unique – I knit the bird in red. I was hoping it would look like a cardinal but it looks more like a red chicken to me. Oh well. I guess when I want to see a cardinal I’ll just look at this photo I took the other day for my Project 365 set on Flickr.

Now that’s a cardinal.