The mittens from last week are finished and photographed, yay! I still need to edit the photos and get down to business on pattern layout, but that's for another day. Next up on the WIP-cracking docket: a gigantic Bolting knit from about 900 yards of a handspun Loop bump - my first and hopefully not last. I didn't even let myself walk into the Loop booth at Rhinebeck this year because I wanted to get this beast off the needles. It's finally down to just the bindoff and I can't wait to see what it looks like in all its fully stretched-out glory.

Did everyone catch Tin Can Knits' 12 days of free patterns leading up to Christmas? I think the Lowlands pattern is my favorite of the bunch, and one of a couple that I actually snagged. Per usual, I treated the pattern as more of a loose suggestion. I used it to knit a large leftover ball of One Lupine's Rangeley - a nice, hand dyed woolly-wool - into a beanie with some extra slouch. (Side note: if you're ever in Bangor, check out One Lupine - it's a gem.) I love the way this pattern worked with a variegated yarn, and I'd love to try it out with handspun.

Specs:
Pattern: Lowlands
Yarn: 150 yds Rangeley from One Lupine
Mods: Lots. Used a US 6 for the garter brim, and knit only until it fit snugly around my head (fewer rows than called for). Used a US 8 to pick up more stitches than called for (88?), and knit till it was a nice slouchy length. Improvised spiral decreases at 8 points.

The time has come for some WIP management. First up, this pair of nearly-completed colorwork mittens that I began knitting over a year ago. I must have run out of steam sometime in late winter or early spring. Actually, this isn't an abandoned project that I feel all that much need to beat myself up about - I would have been in my first trimester with Max, dealing with a very cooped-up two-year-old, and working to complete two sample sweaters for designs that came out this fall. Nevertheless, time to get moving on these - maybe in time to republish the design this winter (the original pattern,
Rheinfells Mittens, was published in Interweave Knits, and the rights have since reverted to me). Onward!

A long-overdue rebrand is nigh. Finally.