Woman knits jumpers out of her dead dogs’ fur.

I love dogs, but…no.

If you love dogs (and love them in ways that do not involve collecting and spinning up dog fur), go visit Gnat and her adorable puppies at BarknKnit (all dogs are puppies to me). She’s got a great podcast, too!

That’s all I’ve got for you today. I’d meant to post some pics of my latest adventures in crochet, but some nasty upper respiratory thing has invaded my system for like, the fourth time this winter, and I think it’s nap time.

Pattern: Anemoi Mittens, by Eunny Jang
Yarn: Dalegarn Baby Ull, #0010 and #5545, 1 skein each
Needles: Addi Turbos, US 0 (2mm) and US 1 (2.5mm)

Woohoo!! The larger pair is now done. Three mittens (smallest size) used up one full skein of each color, so I had to dip into extra skeins to finish the final mitten.

Additional Pattern Commentary
In finishing the second pair, I remembered a few more things about the pattern that I didn’t mention last time:

Errata
In the chart for the right hand palm, there is an error in row 57, the last row of the repeated section. The first stitch to the left of the border on the right side of the chart is marked as Main Color, but it should be marked Contrast Color. This should be clear when you examine the left side of the chart and the overall pattern.

Modifications
I made the cuff longer for both pairs of mittens—24 and 25 rows of corrugated rib instead of 18, respectively. I like the longer cuff because it seals against the cold better (plus I have long arms and so my wrists are forever peeking out from under my sleeves), but this isn’t so much extra length that it upsets the proportion of the mitten.

Finishing
I think it’s absolutely necessary to block the mittens the way Eunny recommends in the pattern—palm side up, with the thumbs folded in and pinned to the palm. I am generally a big believer in blocking, but there are a couple of reasons why it’s an especially good idea for the Anemoi Mittens:

1. The purl stitches are meant to run along the side edges of the mittens, but they are knit with the front and the back. This means that the mittens will be slightly twisted when they first come off the needles but a proper blocking will restore the intended shape.
2. The thumb gore is actually attached to the palm, not the side. If you look at the palm charts, you’ll see that the border continues down next to the thumb gore. Folding the thumb in when blocking preserves this border and also forms the mitten so it more closely follows the shape of your hand. After all, your thumb is usually bent in slightly, not sticking straight out to the side.

More pictures and commentary after the jump.

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It’s a little bit incongruous, working on the other Anemoi Mittens while surfing for summer tops. But my life is a bit incongruous right now, as I’m dividing my time between Pittsburgh (brrrr), Milwaukee (brrrrrrr!), and Houston, Texas.

And starting this summer, I will be living in Texas full-time, so I might as well look into this business of knitting for warm weather.

Given that the Auburn Camp Shirt was selected for Knitting Daily’s spring gallery, I strongly suspect that I’m not the only one who’s rather smitten with this top.

I love the little details, the subtle texture of the fabric, the turned-up cuffs (though I’d probably sew down that tab to keep myself from going crazy). It has a nice fitted shape that can still be layered over a camisole. This seems like it would be eminently wearable for most of the year in Texas.

The Yosemite top in the latest Knitty also looks like a keeper. I love cabled ribs and shawl collars!

If I were to knit this, I’d probably add an inch or so of regular ribbing at the bottom and at the sleeves to give it a more finished-looking edge, and I’d probably make turn the sleeves into regular cap sleeves instead of knitting them straight down from the armhole.

Are any of you from warm-to-raging-hot areas? If so, what do you knit?