Six Degrees of Babies

In my post about the original Baby’s Joy Cap, I complained about not having any family or friends in the age group to have babies to knit for (all those baby patterns just look *so* cute, are quick to knit and don’t use huge amounts of yarn). Well, as it turns out, finding babies is like playing the game, “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon”. I may not have a first degree of contact with any baby mommies, but I’m finding I have a number of second, third and fourth degree contacts as my friends turn out to be aunts, great-aunts and grand-mothers, most of whom are looking for original baby gifts like hand-knit items. My little French-knit cap with the bow on top turned out to be a big hit. So, I just finished a second one, this time for an aunt instead of a great-aunt. I have enough Baby’s Joy sayelle in my stash to do one more of these caps before having to switch to a different yarn

Demonic Hands Mitts

Well, I am finally able to download pictures again (don't ask how I managed to break the USB bus on the new camera – I'm still embarrassed by that), so I'm once more back to posting to my blog.

These mittens are intended to form a set with my Demonic Thoughts Tuque and Demon Lengths Scarf [TBD] projects. The mittens are also inspired by the TV show Supernatural, and their name refers to Dean's actions during his sojourn in Hell.

The mitten pattern I used is one that I was given back in the 1970's when I was first learning to knit (Patons No. 303, Beehive Publications). I doubt it's still in publication. I've knitted so many pairs of these mittens over the years that I've lost count.

This time I improvised the cuff. Instead of using a single strand of worsted-weight yarn as called for, I added a strand of Bernat Boa Cardinal eyelash yarn to the strand of Red Heart Classic Cherry Red and used the doubled strands to knit the cuffs. Once the cuff was complete, I switched back to a single strand of the Red Heart and finished the rest of the mitten as per the pattern instructions.

The cuffs are a bit loose, as I realised upon completing the first mitt and trying it on. I should have used smaller needles to do the cuff ribbing since I used a double strand of worsted and boa there. I'll know how to do it right the next time.

And yes, I'll be doing more mittens. Having lived in Northern Quebec, where temperatures tend to be much colder than here in the south (comparitively speaking, southern Ontario is the "Deep South" of Canada -- indeed, Toronto lies south of Washington, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire and much of New York and Michigan), I discovered that hand-knit mittens, paired with the tiny, super-stretchy gloves, are the best thing for driving when a car's steering wheel is a solid block of ice. I have tried leather gloves, fur-lined gloves, and even ski-wear gloves and mittens, but nothing keeps the finges warmer on a cold steering wheel than mittens over the little stretchy gloves.