Scones, Mittens and more

First things first — the scones were delicious.  Sort of crispy on the outside and tender on the inside.  I did add a few too many chocolate chips but YUMM.  The recipe  for Orange Chocolate Chip Scones is from Cooks.com

 So finally some brunch and now I’m really ready to get going on some things (which is good since it’s 2 p.m.!)   I did spend part of the morning sipping coffee and watching holiday movies and knitting on my cowl.  I’m down to the last four or five rows on that.  And I did clean up all my kitchen mess.

First, this is still on my sewing room floor.

 One little pile of ironed fabrics and one large pile of wrinkly washed ones I’ve been procrastinating on.  So armed with my bottle of Best Press, I’m going to set the ironing board up in the living room (I forgot how chilly my sewing room gets when the wind is blowing on that side) and watch some movies and get that fabric ironed.  And then just maybe tomorrow I can start cutting it up.

Once the ironing is done, as my reward, I’m going to start on a new pair of mittens.  I’ve been going through all the lovely stranded mitten patterns on Raverly and found one I want to make that uses a long color changing/shading yarn and a solid color.    I’ve done some stranded knitting before and I’ve made tons of mittens over the years but I’ve never made this particular style of mitten with the pointy tops and the thumbs not coming off the side so it will be a learning experience. I also don’t do a lot of patterns with charts but heck – how difficult can it be? I used to do counted cross stitch and it’s much like following those charts.  And knitting in the round, as the mitten pattern I’m going to use does, means the charts are read from right to left, going from the bottom of the chart to the top.    I get confused on charts that are flat since you alternate which direction you read the chart (i.e. right to left and then left to right).  In the round – always right to left  since that is the direction you are knitting.  

   Want to join me in mitten making?? Here’s the yarn I’m going to use.  The purply one is Poems Sock Yarn , color Pulsar, and the black is Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine. 

The pattern I’m using is a free one on Ravelry.  It’s Rainbow Mitts by DROPS Design.

I think they would be really pretty in just two solid colors too.  I love the flower and other geometric designs and can’t wait to get started….

I must iron fabric first, I must iron fabric first!!!