Wondeful, Wearable, Warm...Mittens.

Today was a blustery, miserable yet sunny day. I near froze my hands off doing chores this morning as the wind went right through my wool mittens. Hmm.. didn't I finish a pair of stranded mittens recently? Is it true what they say, that this type of knitting makes for a warmer fabric? Well time to test the theory. Lo and behold, it was ideal. Better yet was the 3 stitch waffle mittens over top of the 2 color stranded mitten. Bliss!

This pattern, which I have now misplaced- Oh wait , here it is : Manly Mitts by Elizabeth Morrison from Knitty.com summer 2005. It is very similar pattern to Spruce mittens found in Favorite Mittens by Robin Hansen. The thumb is different in that this pair is a salt & pepper pattern and there is a ribbed cuff.
This pair was knit with Patons Classic Wool on 3.25mm needles; much tighter than a normal worsted weight knit.The brown/tan colored wool was carried under and therefore became the dominant color. I enjoyed knitting these while watching a few episodes of Larkrise To Candleford. I seem to have a " thing" for period dramas recently...

I have cast on for Houndstooth mittens using some Bartlett wool and it is pretty thick. Meanwhile, I had started an afghan for middle son and I have almost finished the first strip. It is a sampler style in 2 colors.After that is done, I see a few more pairs of mittens to be as my future project list has formed a queue!

On a totally different topic, here is a photo, albeit a dark one from the barn before the repairing and cleaning were underway in the sheep pen. The rooster(speckled gray thing) is an Euskal Oila, a rare breed. Sitting next to him is an Euskal Oila hen, of which I have two. Further along is Ollie, the barn cat who has made his home in our barn for just over a year now. I believe it to be a good sign when animals want to stay in your barn- except for predators that is.The chickens are snug in their coop next door.

The chickens are messy and I prfeer to keep them in the coop over the winter as the sheep are very particula about the cleanliness of their hay and water. Which also means lots of carting of frozen buckets of water...Global warming huh?...When it gets this cold I often ask myself- does it really need to be so cold?? What is the purpose of this kind of cold...And then I stare at the wonderful mittens and smile.