Pink Stripey Mittens

When we were on vacation at the shore recently, I purchased a ball of “souvenir yarn.” As I’ve mentioned before, I like to get yarn as a souvenir since I know it’s something I’ll both use and enjoy. Then I can think fondly of the place where I got it while I knit it up and when using the finished piece.

While I do have a fairly significant stash, it's mostly random leftovers. I am not very good at “stash-building” by just purchasing random yarn, since I never know how much I’d need for any given project. However, this is not true for socks and mittens! I love finding yarn for mittens since for the pattern I like to use, I don’t need very much at all, about 120 yards will do. The pattern I use is called Pop-Up Paws, but I just make them into plain mittens, since I like to find fun yarns. I’ve made one pair of the actual pop-up mittens, but even though they do have their moments of usefulness, quite honestly they’re not my favorites to wear, I prefer normal mittens. I think it’s a comfort thing, those finger parts are pretty thick between my fingers. They did come out pretty well though, they were my very first project on DPNs.

Anyway, back to the latest additions to my mitten collection (project page here):



The yarn is Crystal Palace Yarns Taos, 100% wool, and it is so nice and soft. I can tell these will be some of my favorites to wear this winter. Plus I just love the colors.



I love how the striping happened...I didn’t worry about trying to make them match, that’s not something that bothers me.

And since I am a huge fan of mittens, here are some of the other yarns I’ve gotten that’s earmarked for mittens.

Nashua Wooly Stripe (in Citrus):



I thought these were kind of fun and funky colors. I got that during a lovely day my husband and I spent wandering around a pretty town, and he patiently waited while I checked out a yarn store.

I also have this Manos del Uruguay in black (yes, this is indeed a boring photo of some black yarn), because after all I need to have some plain handknit mittens to go with my fun scarves I’ve knit, right?



This is one of my favorites, and I am excited to see how these mittens turn out. I got this yarn, Rio de la Plata (in a color I’m calling Raspberries and Cream...I can’t remember the real name), when we went to Cape May, NJ for a nice weekend getaway together. (My husband bought the yarn for me and then took it away and wrapped it as a Christmas gift. It was December, so I only had to wait a couple of weeks before I could pet it again.

Isn't it just yummy looking?



I also have some Noro Sakura (which I have forgotten to take a photo of) that’s really pretty. It has a black core with some really colorful stuff wrapped around it. I can’t wait to see how those mittens turn out! That wasn’t technically “souvenir yarn” but I still love it.

Now for a small request. No idea when I'd get to this, but thought I'd ask now anyway, while I'm thinking about it. I wanted to ask anyone who’s reading here to please offer their opinion and/or ideas, if they care to. I received the below yarn as a Christmas present from my sister-in-law, but I don’t know what to make with it. It's beautiful handspun yarn, but there’s only 70 yards of the stuff (she's not a knitter, which might account for the small yardage. Though she did also give me an enormous hunk of boucle stuff that'll make an awesome scarf). It’s wool, in a sort of gray and white. Oh and I’d say it's probably a worsted/bulky worsted weight. I would like to make something special with it since it was a lovely gift, but I’m just not so sure what 70 yds of it will make me. Any suggestions? Ideas? Thanks in advance! :)