The Mittens are Done: No More Grubby Hands!

So, if you recall, I was working on a pair of fingerless mittens to keep the crap, crud and general -stuff- off of my hands while using the wheelchair?

They're done!

I finished them up at Knit Night last night. I was one of the last people out, trying to actually get them done, and the ends woven in!  I really do find I'm more productive with my knitting at knit-night.

. . . maybe it's because there's no internet. . . :D

Anyway, when I pulled them back out for a picture today, I had missed an end.  That was a two-second fix, though.

I really like the pattern. The cable on the back keeps things interesting.  They're called Flying Geese Mittens, by Mel Clark (who is very awesome and really sweet about answering questions on Ravelry, by the way!).  They're from a book called Knitting Everyday Finery, which I picked up off of Amazon and am totally loving.  The book is in print and easily findable on Amazon (and I've seen a few stores stocking it too). 

The mittens knit up very quick, (when I'm not ignoring them in favour of other projects!).  Only comment is that the small isn't that small.  If you have smaller hands, like me, you might want to take out a few more stitches around.  For my purposes right now, a touch loose is perfect, because that way they can also go over coat cuffs and such and keep them protected.  It's an easy fix, though, and several people have put how to make them a touch smaller in their pattern notes on Ravelry.

I've also signed up for another sock test knit, so there'll be more on that soon!

Knit Night and grubby hands

So. . . remember how I mentioned I was going to work on my Birthday Socks at knit night?

Didn't happen.

Why not?

Because wheelchair plus hot ash-fault is asking for hands stained with black goop, which is exactly what happened. My hands were covered in what looked like soot.  It happens every summer, and I wasn't going to work on a relatively pale gift with goop on my hands that didn't come off easily.

(I didn't get pictures of my sooty hands, I didn't want to get that stuff on the camera!)

So, instead, I worked on these.

I'd already finished one mitten a bit ago (hence the not-so-great picture), and I started working on the second. I decided to make them as a solution to this exact problem (stuff on my hands and sleeves when using a manual wheelchair), and I'm going to be very glad when they're done.

I got about half-way through the cable pattern before I was concerned that I might not have enough yarn with me to finish the pattern that night  . . . and I'd forgotten my back of scrap yarn at home (I needed stitch markers to do the gusset increases).

So I came home early from knit night, but all is good anyway, since I came home to sushi for dinner. :D