All thumbs!

The first mitten I did, as I said, was way too small. I also had followed EZ's instructions for making an afterthought thumb by snipping a stitch at the thumb joint and exposing 13 stitches to place on needles. Then, picking up two more stitches on each side, knitted round and round on the 15 stitches to make a thumb. I didn't like the way it turned out. It pulled to the side and was uncomfortable. Some of that was probably the fact that the whole mitten was too small, but after doing a Ravelry search of the pattern, found that a lot of people were using a gusset created by Kathryn Ivy to place the thumb in the seam on the side of the mitten. I am using that technique now and am pleased with how it looks so far.

Began a shawl last night, also. I saw the book in Yorkshire Yarns, one of my favorite LYS's. It is Wrapped in Comfort: Knitted Lace Shawls by Alison Jeppson Hyde. The shawls caught my eye because they are very different from what you usually see in shawl patterns. They are shaped to drape in a lovely way around your shoulders in a similar fashion of EZ's Pi R Squared shawl. But these are rounded. Each shawl is absolutely beautiful. I finally bought the book for myself and enough yarn to make a shawl. I began it last night. It is the "Michelle's Shawl". Every shawl in the book has a story behind it of who Alison designed for. There is even a beautiful shawl that was inspired by 9/11.

I am using Pagewood Farm fingering weight hand-dyed sock yarn for this shawl. It is truly a beautiful color and lovely to knit. More on that next time.