Mittens and Friends
I would like to say, how proud I am to know Bets and Bri and Benne and Jayne and Joan and Grace and SK and Barbara and Cate and all the gang at the Elann chat site. A more talented group of ladies I have never met. They are a constant inspiration to me. They produce the most beautiful and creative knitting, with ease and grace. While I am plodding along on one mitten or one sock, they are cruising the knitting highway with style. They are funny and gracious and welcoming.
Bets your winning bag is wonderful. My daughter who was at one point a music major is smitten in a big way. What a brain, you not her :-) Libby's winning elegant hat, SK, many beautiful lace shawls and Bri's perfect cable sweaters. Jayne I love your new sweater.
Afraid I have only done three pairs of mittens so far. I kept ripping them out, because I didn't care for how the thumb gusset looked. I am still not thrilled with the holes and the covering up that follows. It looks lumpy and crude. Like first day at Knitting Camp :-) I ended up with a combo of Elizabeth Zimmerman's 36 stitch mitten and Ann Budd's mitten directions. I have switched to a sort of afterthought thumb. There are still holes to cover up, but they don't seem as bad as when I did the gusset version. I have been plying the yarn and duplicate stitching over the holes. It could be that I am out of practice working with anything thicker then sock yarn.(any excuse will do) I hope they will keep some kids hands warm and be pleasant to wear.
I am loving that Elann Bag Wool. I wish I had bought something besides tan and brown. I have no idea what I was thinking at the time. Digging around in the stash, I found two bags of each. That is a lot of bag wool. The Elann HW Chunky is great to work with also. But the Brown Sheep Bulky is hard on my hands. It is the mohair. Makes me itchy.
Comments on my Brother post. I will remind everyone that my brother and my cousins tied me to a tree and set fire to the grass. They were playing Cowboys and Indians. If my Aunt had not arrived home early, I would be a very different Suzann today. And then they had to cheek to say that I showed them where the matches were kept. Excuse me. :-)
Red pair is the Brown Sheep bulky, Blue pair Elann HW chunky, Green pair, Reynolds Chunky with HW Chunky trim.
My first attempt at colorworks. 
Which led to this, maybe chunky yarn isn't the best choice for colorworks.
Cruising with style? Ha, girlie, you have not seen the UFOs I dump at the rest stops!
B
Well, aren't you kind and generous! Feeling all warm and fuzzy just reading this.
Mmmm...cruising...more like lurching, I'd say. :)
I like your mitts -- here's a trick I've used for avoiding holes in mitt gussetts or sock gussetts, etc.
I pick up an extra stitch in the place where the hole might want to occur, and then next round knit 2 together. That often works well.
Could it be that you are just a tiny bit hard on your knitting? You should see what I try to hide!
As Jayne says, you are very kind! The Elann group is so inspiring, with new projects and creative ideas - like SK's new shawl pattern! - plus of course a tad too much enabling the yarn buying thing. You're pretty inspiring and talented yourself, ya know!
Hey, girlfriend, if you see a car pulled over at the side of the knitting highway with a crazed woman and WIPS coming out of the windows and blue lights in her rearview mirror, that will be me.
It's a lot easier to hide the holes with big yarn. Now that sock yarn, more unforgiving. Your socks rock!
They are an inspirational crew aren't they? Your mittens look warm and cozy - I rather like "fat" wool for mitts - seems to hold the heat better :).
(OT - but I had trouble with my old blog link recently if you'd like the new link, it should be attached to this post or if you're on the Elann list, you can send me an email.)
Merry Christmas, Suzann! Like bets said, you should see the Frog Pile. It's a sad, sad thing.
let's plod along together in 2007, shall we all?
PS..gussets are the bane of my existence too.