This week I need to choose the colors for the Fair Isle mittens. Fair Isle color selection is truly an art and I've seen some really awful combos and some that take my breath away. In the past I've taken the easy way out by using all similar colors like the blues and greens in my nautical tam above or tone-on-tone (all shades of the same color) or I've simply recreated the colors used in the original pattern.

I have a good selection of Shetland colors so I could certainly do something in all bright colors or all jewel tones or all pastels. But I have quite a bit of bright red Shetland so I've decided that will be the main color. I'm going to include both pastels, brights, and tweeds for my color combination to further challenge myself.

We'll see how successful I am. Sometimes I wish I could just throw all the colors of yarn up in the air and just use whatever colors fall near my feet.

I hope to finish Liidia's gloves this week. They fit pretty well but they're not for me. They're going (along with some hand-knit socks and mittens) to the Albuquerque Rescue Mission. They have a Clothing Room where they give away items for the homeless and near-homeless and I figure I'm prolific enough to keep them supplied with wool accessories this winter. Plus I can still knit whatever projects I want to knit and not worry about sizing or colors or anything. It is also a good excuse not to do any holiday gift knitting this year! The Colorado HRS shelter's gift shop already has plenty of handknit stuff of mine to sell and all they need now is for me to spin angora for them.



We just started two new Teaching Company classes. After much indecision I finally ordered Pharoahs of Ancient Egypt and Thomas Jefferson: American Visionary. I recommend them both. So far we've learned that men & women wore eye makeup in ancient Egypt for the same reason that football players wear black under their eyes - as protection from the sun's glare. We also learned that no one other than his immediate family members ever heard Jefferson laugh or tell a joke in his life. Interesting, eh?



Peaches apparently got hold of the credit card and ordered this from Amazon. I highly recommend the book to other rabbit people - she turns into a happy tooth-grinding blob of fur or contentedly flops over on her side after her daily massage. If I don't massage her long enough she hops over and keeps nudging my hand to continue. How cute!

Margene told me about Haloscan and I managed to install some new comments in about 2 seconds. Thanks so much! Margene, I believe Lisa made the Anu's Christmas Gloves so maybe she has some words of wisdom. I like the gloves but haven't figured what to do about those really long floats in the pattern.



Siow Chin, I bet your Wensleydale hat will be beautiful. It is such a lustrous and shiny yarn.



Chery, I think I'd do better if people weren't always begging me to knit them things. I do think I enjoy knitting more if I'm just knitting, without a particular recipient in mind. And I completely agree with you about Squawkbox comments.



Sandrine, your Leaf Socks are what inspired me to make my own pair. Everyone go check out her Leaf Socks HERE and HERE.



Jessica, one thing I've noticed about Folk Mittens is the gauge. Lots of the patterns use thick yarn with smaller-than-usual needles (probably for warmth) and I rarely get her gauge. On the other hand, I almost always get Nancy Bush's gauge. Anyway, they're both great books!



Cassie, you're absolutely right about working on projects that are fun rather than obligations. And I love your feather and fan socks!



Beth, I do hope to start knitting only for my enjoyment. I get so sick of easy and/or boring projects.



Valentina, I can't wait to see your Tongue River socks. I have the book but haven't started a pair yet. I'm hoping you will inspire me!



I'll be back on Sunday. I'm off to order a copy of Scarf Style because of Lisa.

Here are the gloves in progress. I'm using Nylamb in green, white, and red. (Yes, I do have Christmas on the brain.) The red you see here is where the thumb will go. I'm almost done with my first finger. These do seem to be taking forever but I remind myself that the second knitted item always goes a LOT faster than the first.

I removed my Squawkbox comments and will answer all those I haven't responded to yet here tomorrow. I am waiting for Blogger support to look at my HTML and tell me where I went wrong. Until the new comments show up, you may contact me at my email address at nanetteblanchard@NOSPAMearthlink.net . Remove the NOSPAM from the email address before sending.

I've been trying all day to post but Blogger wouldn't cooperate. I suspect my problems are related to trying to add Blogger's comments. I'm sick of Squawkbox as I don't always see all the comments that are made.



Tomorrow I'll try again with the comments and I'll also post a progress photo of Liidia's glove so you can see the colors I chose.

Here is the latest kit from Redbird Knits Sock of the Month kit. Isn't the cabled pattern beautiful?









Even better - the yarn that came with the kit is this terrific Wensleydale Longwool spun in Yorkshire, England. I love the color but it is less elastic than other wools. Since I'm such a tight knitter, I prefer a more elastic yarn for cables. I may instead use the Wensleydale for plain socks and substitute some of my Regia for the cabled socks.

I've been guilty all year of knitting things I really don't want to knit. I knit gifts or to make things someone else requests or to fill up my sock drawer or to help out a charity. But I rarely knit exactly what I want so I'm devoting the rest of 2004 to knitting only what I want. I'm only knitting projects that I find interesting and I don't care if I have a purpose for the project once I'm done. So far I've finished almost 70 projects (33 pairs of socks so far this year) for the year so I can now officially slack off the production line.



I'm currently working on Liidia's Gloves from Folk Knitting in Estonia but they aren't speed knitting. The cuff alone on the first glove took me almost 3 days of knitting. I also plan to start the Fair Isle mittens from Folk Mittens once I choose some colors from my Shetland stash.



Two new projects isn't enough though. I chose the mint green Nylamb yarn below to do the wonderful Leaf Socks from Socks, Socks, Socks. Do I have someone to give these items to when I finish? No. Do I need more handknit mittens or gloves or socks? Far from it. I don't care. I just want to knit these items and that's what it is all about.