Flags, Mitts and a Pot Holder...

     So, September is half over with already and the beginning of fall is next week.  It's crazy to me how fast this summer went.  I'm actually looking forward to fall/winter this year.  So in light of the cooler weather I made some fingerless mitts.  This was an impulse project, I have to say.  There are many projects on my mental list of things I want to do, this one sort of spoke to me.  Back in July of 2011, I went out to Jamesville to check out The Yarn Cupboard, which is a yarn shop.  I went out there specifically to buy Spud and Chloe.  This was back when I did research before getting new brands of yarn.  Spud and Chloe is designed by Susan B. Anderson.  She has a blog and designs many many patterns, one of which I had knit up.  I really enjoyed the pattern so I decided to try the yarn.  That's a really long lead into how I have this yarn sitting in my stash.  I've made two projects out of it so far and still had some yarn left over.  I was board at work one day so I was perusing through patterns.  When I find something I like, I usually do a mental check if I have yarn that will work for it.  In this case, I thought immediately of the Spud and Chloe, so this pattern went into my queue with yarn allocated.  We are between tournaments in Nerd Wars right now.  Usually I do small projects and sort of regroup mentally in the between time.  Now that I've been playing for a year I tend to feel a bit lost when there isn't a tournament going.  Its become a mental habit for me to find a way to meet a challenge and come up with a tie in for each project.  I cant believe I'm saying this but, without a direction, I find it hard to come up with projects by myself.  I needed a project to take with me to work.  I had made two dishcloths and a pot holder.  I wanted something different, so I printed off the pattern and grabbed the yarn and needles on my way out the door.  So Cozy Thermal Mitts were "born". 

This is a nice simple, well written pattern.  This picture does not do the mitts justice.  I just took pics a little while ago, the sun is setting, so I didn't have enough natural light.  The color is a bit darker in real life.  Here is a more accurate color picture, but its hard to see the detail in this one.

That's Jack in the window (our youngest), he was helping me.  This pair of mitts is for me, huzzah.  I made another pair out of this yarn that I really liked, but they were to match a hat.  Since I already have three hats of my own I decided to sell (hopefully) the hat and matching mitts, so I chose a different pattern for my mitts.  I really like these.  The thumbs are nice and long, so are both cuffs on the body, I think these will be sufficiently warm even in the cooler weather.  I have full mittens and gloves for when it gets really cool.  These will be good for driving since my fingers are free. 

     So I mentioned I made two dishcloths in the last two weeks.  One of my co-workers is from Russia originally.  He asked me to make a dishcloth in the colors of the Russian flag.  Luckily for me the Russian flag is three equal stripes of color, so it was pretty easy to "design".  If people like it, I can write up a full pattern.  It not very difficult to figure out, if you've been knitting for a bit.  I liked the Russian one so much I decided to do a few more.  So, since both myself and my husband come from German ancestry (several generations back), I decided to make a German flag dishcloth.  Here they are all finished.

Russian Flag.  I did this one with three rows of seed stitch at the top and bottom and four seed stitches at the sides. 

For the German Flag I did the same three rows of seed stitch top and bottom and only three seed stitches at the sides.  I like this one better.  I made both these right around September 11th, which really makes me want to figure out how to do an American flag.  The width of the stripes shouldn't be too difficult, figuring out how to do the stars in the corner I think will be tricky.  I would want it to be accurate too, so I'd have to get 13 stripes and then 50 stars.... hhhmmmmm... more to come on that most likely.

     When I got the yarn out for these two dishcloths I noticed that my little scrap pile was getting big again, so I made another scrappy pot holder.

I find that crocheting pot holders is a terrific way to use up cotton scraps.  This pattern is done "in-the-round" so it winds up double thick.  I love these!  Pattern:  Double Thick Potholder.

     So far, this is all I've gotten done.  I would really like to finish up the three tea towel toppers I did and get the ends woven in on the Star Trek Pot Holder.  Those wont take long.  I have a few more tea towels ready to be topped, so I may make a few more and then finish them all together.  What I really need to do is re-stock my cotton stash.  I have plenty of real Peaches and Cream, which I use for myself.  What I need is "sellable" cotton.  See previous blog post for more details on my OCD cotton differentiation...

   Well that's it for now, there isn't much going on in my real life except for working lots of overtime lately.  Happy Crafting!
-Q