Knit Wits.

Okay.  Taking a break from catching up on two months (!) of blog reading.  I've missed you, people!  And I'm only just getting started on all the fabulous thoughts you've had, projects you've started, photos you've taken, and trials you've endured.  It doesn't help that as I get older, I find it increasingly harder to sit still for long periods of time so it's taking a while. Lol. I'm finding myself becoming more and more like that dog in Up;  I start out focused and th..."Squirrel!"

Turns out, I am becoming more dependent on keeping my hands busy just to keep my wits.  I was without anything on the needles since my last knitting projects with the big floor pillow and works-in-progress list I finished conquered months ago and  and I needed something else quick.  I ransacked my stash and came up with a chunky skien of wool that I picked up at a farmer's market in Edmonton about three years ago. It hadn't been dyed or processed and the woman who sold it to me raised the sheep and spun the yarn herself.  Definitely time to do something with it.  I'd always wanted to experiment with mixing feltables and non-feltables so I grabbed some neutral-coloured natural fibres like silk, soy (felts like crazy), bamboo (shrinks a little), cotton and linen from the leftover pile.

I randomly worked in little blocks of these throughout the wool background.  I had an idea that it might be a clutch with little bubbles of clear stitches popping out from the felt.  After several washings in hot, soapy water, it looks like this.

I'm sticking to clutch as its final identity and I'll let you know how it turns out after I've lined and finished it.

Then I knit the ugliest mittens this side of Thanksgiving.  I'm calling them Turkey Mittens.  Orange, brown, greeny-purple, and yellow.

Yep.  Uh-glee.  I think I'm going to flip them inside out and use them to line a larger pair of grey mittens so that I can bask and delight in their ugliness while keeping them from triggering sense memories of stuffing and gravy amongst the masses. :-)

But since my hands were free again, I cast on a scarf, again using stash. (I've done pretty good at using my on-hand supplies and not spending on new lately... yay!)  This pattern was written as one colour but I decided that was boring (read:  I had two colours in my stash and not enough of either to go with just one).  The good news is that the two-tone seems to be working really well so I'm happy.

Because I'm back to keeping the hands occupied, I have managed to clear some things off the PVR, which admittedly was getting kinda stuffed with shows and old movies that I always intended to watch and then never found the right time or mood for...  However, like my "one new recipe a week" rule, I've tried to make a habit out of actually watching the things I tape.  And boy! I've seen some gems but begun to lament the general lack of Cary Grant-ness in everyday life...  Such are the consequences of knitting.