mitten fashion shoot

It's full-on winter here.  Windchills of -20C (-4F) and blowing snow.  Yup.  Happened pretty fast, actually.  We've all got a virus, complete with sniffles and coughing and general sore grouchiness, so we weren't outside this weekend.  We skipped our dance class and mostly played in the basement.

Every year I try to produce at least one pair of fancy mitts in colors that my twins want to wear. To clarify, every kid has to have at least 2 pair of mitts, so one set can dry out, if necessary, or when it is really cold, so we can double up the mitts.  Until this year, we had some wool handknit sock/mitts which we just rotated onto feet and hands as necessary, but the boys are beginning to get why we have thumbs in mittens, so that won't last much longer!

This year I was running a bit late.  I finished my second pair yesterday and we had our photo session.  Both boys got their cameras out to shoot photos, and we were off to the races!
 
Note in the first photo--we were checking out the inside of one of the mitts, as it's just as colorful and "beautiful" as the outside.  (that multicolor yarn is Mountain Colors Twizzle and it meets the requirements of the twin who wanted blue, purple, red, yellow, green...etc.)  Contrast colors are the leftovers of blue yarn I used for  the Wrap-Around Cardigan design and some lovely plain old natural yarn from Catherine Friend's farm.

OK, contestant #2 for the photo shoot was just not in the mood.  Very sniffley and grouchy, and dressed in his "train conductor" uniform.  (The sweater shirt has a small train emblem on it and he felt the cannonball style hat was part of the uniform, of course.)  Anyhow, his mitts were also the first finished, so he has been wearing them for a few weeks at preschool recess and cannot figure why we were putting them on in the basement.  (I know, that crazy knitting mommy) 

These mitts are special for different reasons.  I dyed the green wool myself from beast roving, which is a wool/mohair blend that is reclaimed from the machines that produce Brown Sheep yarn in Nebraska.  All the yarn for these mittens was produced on spindles, plied on spindles, and then knit up--while chasing twins.  So, all this past summer, when I was standing around in the yard while we played at the sandbox, I was spindling.  I made mitts to order.  Green, to match this kid's coat, with a gray natural colored Shetland stripe from our friend Margaret's (& Linda, but he doesn't remember Linda's) sheep.  I threw in a white stripe of some random handspun I had, which he does not seem to mind, but having Margaret's Shetland wool in the mitts was deemed very important to this kid.

It takes me forever to make anything these days but making kids' mitts (size 4, in case you want to do a pair or two for us!?) is very quick.  We have these two pair, and a couple pair our Didi made with matching winter hats (Didi = my mom) and we're very nearly set for real winter.  We've got something like 10 or 11 handknit sweaters that currently fit us, so between my needles and my mom's, I think we've got that covered.  Yes, it gets cold here.  I cope with my obsessive worries about being warm enough for winter...by knitting more. 

Sadly, it is now too cold for me to knit in the parking lot before preschool pick up, though!
Enjoy the photo shoot!  As soon as we stop sniffling, (come spring?!) we might want to smile again, too.