finished object: squirrel mitts

I can finally reveal some of the sneaky knitting that's been happening off to the sides here at yarnbee. Hooray! I got to give a pair of squirrel mittens to my friend Tomoko, for christmas, this weekend. They seemed perfect for her as she is very fond of small cute animals and is always taking nature walks down by the pond where she lives. And they even fit her, a good time was had by all.





Here are some specs for the technically minded out there:

Pattern: Squirrelly Swedish Mittens from Elliphantom Knits
I also incorporated variations to the design that Hello Yarn used on her lovely pair of mittens.

Yarn: various shades of Jamieson and Smith 2-ply jumper weight, a little bit of Rowanspun 4-ply (the lime green), and yarn from a giant cone of fingering-weight that a nice woman in Scotland gave me - unknown origin (the main heathered blue)

Needles: 2.25 mm dpn's

Time frame: About a week or 4 movies without subtitles

Notes: It was really fun to knit this pattern and to choose a stash-based interesting color palette. I loved making the braids and it is surprisingly easy, not speedy but easy, just overlapping (or underlapping?) the yarns around themselves as you purl. I didn't suffer from the dreaded SMS (second mitten syndrome) like I usually do with socks. I loved the fact that the design looks traditional, but upon close inspection is whimsical.

I was able to hang out with Tomoko at the Crafts with Sass and a Purpose craft fair. We had a lot of fun meeting people and watching them discover Tomoko's amazingly tiny and cute creations. Here are some photos from the sale:





Here are a few pictures of the bath salts I was selling.





Now to wrap up that christmas shopping!