How did it get to be Wednesday already?

Still working on the dishcloths and fantasizing about projects that I could make using some of the stitch patterns and trying to connect the patterns with yarns I have in my stash. Generally I like working with cotton, especially Cotton Classic, but this Sugar 'n Cream is not all that much fun. Kind of stiff even on just plain knit. I hope it softens up when it's washed.

Alison was wondering about adding thumbs to mittens. I just walked through this process with one of my students. She was using a very old, bedraggled pattern that she copied from someone's book. It was a little difficult to follow, mostly because it was so beat up. But by following the directions exactly we managed to add a thumb and it looked pretty good. Once we had worked it I pretty much got the concept. Unfortunately the student didn't so we had to go through the same step by step thing the following week. The second thumb wasn't as successful as the first one, there were larger holes where the stitches were picked up. So we just used the tail to patch them. I see that other folks do the same. The trick about picking up some extra stitches in the "corners" is also a good idea. I'll try that the next time.

Last night I went to Joanne's for my weekly knit chat session. Anita was there with her newly knitted sweater. I helped her get started assembling it. I think it went well. It's always good to work with someone who "gets it" and is willing to redo something until it's right. Joanne brought out one of the books she got in Sweden about twenty years ago to show me some of the hats. Not being able to read Swedish made it a little hard to understand the directions but the charts for the "fairisle" were easy to follow. I'm going to borrow the book after the first of the year and try out some of the patterns. More hats!

Speaking of hats, check out Staceyjoy's newest designs. Tres cool!