Knotty Mouse

I recently finished this cowl/hood thing - I don’t even know what to call it. Basically its a garter stitch rectangle made with my handspun (Maple Skies.. the same stuff I used for the mitts in a previous post) with button holes on one end and buttons on the other. I added tassles and some crocheted embroidery with some white acrylic I found inside my button box… and I really love it. I love the fact that its open in the back since I wear my hair up in a bun most of the time.. its so hard to wear a hat with my hair up. I can also button both sides and wear it as a cowl if my neck gets cold.

I can’t take credit for the idea.. I’ve seen it somewhere before on Ravelry though I can’t seem to find who made the original. I am definitely making more of these.. they’re so comfortable and warm!

I actually started another project last night while watching House (my newest tv show obsession) since its getting cold already here in GA. I’m working on another slouchy hat (this time its the Slouchy Copy Cat Hat) in purple Mmmmmalabrigo yarn from my stash. I’m hoping to be able to buy another skein or two of Malabrigo for my birthday — which is coming up in 9 days. SAFF is next weekend but I won’t be attending.. its too far of a drive and I’ve already got plans with Munchkin to do fun Halloween stuff (costume contest, corn maze, and pumpkin carving) - I also really don’t have any money to spend at an event. I’m hoping to at least be able to go out for Indian food for my birthday… that would be a nice treat.

The weather here in Georgia has been gorgeous for the last week- in the mid 70’s and overcast- thanks to the tropical storms. While I feel like I’ve done nothing but open and close windows (not an easy task in an old house) because of the wind & rain - I’m loving the cool breeze and lots of curling up on the couch with a cup of hot tea and some knitting. Fall weather puts me in a crafty mood and I’m doing a lot of knitting & spinning lately (plus some other stuff) in preparation of re-opening my Etsy shop. While I will still be doing the knitting & spinning supplies, I’ve also wanted to introduce a line of hand knits made with my own handspun into the shop.. which required the creation of some patterns of my own.

These mitts are the product of my hit or miss pattern making skills - which apparently involve a whole lot of ripping, swearing, use of a calculator, more swearing, and prayer - and I’m pretty happy with them. They have right & left thumb gusset increases which I think helps to make a better fitting hand area.. something I’ve really had issue with in some of the patterns I’ve knitted for myself and ended up ripping out or giving away. I think its partially because I have larger hands and very slender wrists that many of the popular armwarmer/mitt patterns out there end up making me look like I had giant man hands even though they were perfectly gorgeous on 1500 other knitters.

The hands in the photo belong to my mother-in-law who agreed to play hand model for me the other day. I had to pry these mitts off of her hands because she first tried to run away with them and then tried to con them out of me as a Christmas present. The yarn is my own Two Paws Handspun in Spunky Eclectic “Leaf Peep” colorway & South African Fine wool. I like to re-name my yarns when I spin them because I find that the colorway that was given as roving changes into something else after spinning… but I haven’t come up with a name for this yarn yet. The mitts themselves will be going into my shop when I open in September.. unless MIL comes and steals them back!