#6 & #7: Rolf fingerless mitts and lizard ridge dishcloth

It's been quiet here lately - after I posted my last post I got really ill and was actually unable to knit for a while! This week I have managed to finish some projects, though, and get up to par with the ones I have on the needles.

The fingerles glove has recently had its renaissance in my life. I was a big fan of fingerless gloves some five-ish years ago, and wore them a lot. I slowly stopped wearing them altogether. Then last autumn I knitted a pair of Merletto Mitts for the bi-annual NydeligFin (my sewing group) gift exchange and I was kind of reminded that they exist. Now spring is coming to Trondheim, and my eyes have yet again opened to the fingerless glove! Not only are they practical to wear as the weather gets warmer, they are also great stashbusting projects and very quick, satisfying knits.

I also got lots of inspiration from my newly purchased Mittens & mitts book (Vantar för alla årstider).

The first pair I have knit is the Rolf mitts.




They are a quick knit in a heavy worsted weight yarn and fun with the thick cables.
The yarn I chose is Cozy from Pickles. It's a type of yarn that has become very popular in Norway lately, kind of a fuzzier version of Malabrigo worsted. It's an alpaca/nylon/merino blend, one ply. It's light and extremely soft. I had knitted a pullover out of this yarn and I had almost two skeins left, so I decided to knit these mitts.




Unfortunately I did not manage to use it all up. Oh, well... headband next, I suppose.




I have also recently become very taken with the colour of these mittens - a dusty beige, so stay tuned for more projects in this colour! The mitts have been all knit up for over a week, now, but only today did I weave in the ends. I don't like doing boring stuff...

I promptly cast on for another pair of fingerless gloves - but I will post them in this week's WIP Wednesday, unless I manage to finish them before then!

The next project is a quite different one, and an ongoing project of sorts: Dishcloths. Our kitchen needs them sorely, but I have never been a cotton kind of lady, so I just have never had any in my stash. This week, however, I managed to destash over a kilogram of yarn, and got lots of white cotton in return. Of course, So because of the destash (which was quite big - over a kilogram!!) I justified buying some more cotton - because I can't have only white dishcloths, right? So in the end I managed to shrink my stash by about 300 grams.

While in the yarn shop, I thought I would get some colours I can't wear myself, so I was drawn to this extremely turquoise yarn.

Extremely turquoise.




Wow. By itself, it didn't look so bright, but once paired with the white it is just TURQUOISE. Good thing it will be used to wipe the stove top and other surfaces, and not be worn by me.

And now I have lots of cotton, so I have to knit many cloths. I have scoured ravelry for fun patterns to try, so that is what I will do. A great way to try fun stitch patterns! The one above is the Lizard Ridge pattern, and it's free on ravelry.

Anyway, that's all for today - and this coming week  I will do the WIP Wednesday, for sure. I have many things going on, and even more ideas. Happy Sunday!