Ten on Tuesday: 10 Mittens/Mitts You Want To Knit.

Only ten?! Well, I’ll try …

Nb: links are non-Ravelry where possible, but if they are, I’ve denoted it with an (R). I’ve also included if the pattern is free or to buy.

1. Fallberry Mitts by Anne Hanson from Winter 2011 Knitty. I love the cable-like stitch pattern, and they have a proper (shaped) thumb [FREE]
2. Knitting is in my DNA by Celia Jones. NERD ALERT! I love how the DNA pattern twists around back of the hand. [$5]
3. Hippocampus (R) by torirot designs. Seahorses, on mittens. What’s not to like?! [FREE]
4. Cabled Snowman Mittens (R) by Jean Gifford. Complely adorable cable pattern. [FREE]
5. Bubbles (R) by Sara Peterson. Colourwork full mittens with afterthought thumbs. [$5.50]
6. FrankenMitts (R) by Severina. Colourwork flip-top mittens. [FREE]
7. Chevalier Mittens by Mari Muinonen / tikru. Incredibly intricate cabled/travelling stitch mittens [FREE]
8. Pirate Mittens (R) by Adrian Bizilia Colourwork skulls! I’d love to do a matching set of mittens and socks from this pattern! [FREE]
9. Green Autumn (Druid Mittens) by Jared Flood from Vogue Knitting, Fall 2008. [$5 via the Vogue Knitting online shop]
10. Knucks by Pamela Grossman from Knitty Summer 2006. A great basic pattern with lots of room for customising! [FREE]

And if you’ve read this far you get the reward of a picture of the yarn I bought today.

Hardly breaking the bank but I’m hoping this will be pressed into immediate service as a design I’ve been working on.

Ten on Tuesday

10 Things For Which You Are Thankful.

Although we don’t have Thanksgiving of any kind here on the sceptred isle, I thought I could join in with this week’s Ten on Tuesday.

1. The British Weather. We may moan about it a lot, but very rarely are two consecutive days the same. And my brother, now residing in north Kentucky, misses the rain!
2. The internet. Without it, I wouldn’t have discovered you (yes you!), and some nice people as well Thank you Al Gore! (joke, obv.)
3. The NHS (this is not the place for political wank, so don’t start)
4. A roof over my head and plentiful food to eat
5. A fairly decent (and fairly safe) local public transportation system
6. Not living in an active war zone (my heart aches for those who do, especially those places not deemed “sexy” enough for news coverage which are usually in Africa).
7. What good health I do have (sight, hearing, mostly good manual dexterity) which allows be to participate in my hobbies
8. My mum’s almost endless patience
9. Basset’s Licorice Allsorts.
10. Grumpy Cat

Ten on Tuesday

Been a while since I’ve done one of these. Let’s give it a whirl!
10 Things On Your Mind Right Now.

1. My susceptibility to viruses and infections. I’m tired and fed-up with being ill all the time.
2. Giftmas knitting/crafting/baking – will I get everything done in time? Probable outcome; unlikely!
3. Related to 2; will I manage to finish my mum’s cardigan for NaKniSweMo?
4. Will I ever see my brother again now he’s emigrated?
5. I’d wanted to go into Manchester before Christmas/new year but it doesn’t seem likely. I’m upset about that, but not as upset as I’d thought I’d be.
6. I’m trying to learn to be accepting of situations which I have no control over.
7. Will I ever have a consistently clean and tidy habitat or am I destined to be ruled by clutter? (this is also related to no. 1)
8. Wishing I could be more selfish and do more things for myself instead of others.
9. I wasn’t warming to series 2 of Homeland until the most recent episode. It just got very good again.
10. I’m missing being able to watch/listen to my favourite things; horror, suspense, sci-fi, and fantasy fiction and science/history documentaries because some aspects of all of these things trigger panic in me now.

And to thank you for reading this far, here’s some progress on the SKA Mystery Socks;

Sock 1, Clue 1 complete. Sock 2 started

And Cria;

Ripped out and re-knitting the short rows at the back due to missing yet another instruction. Sigh

And the WoollyWormhead hat;

IT’S A BRIM!

Ten on Tuesday: 10 Things in your (purse) handbag

All tucked up! Note the mis-matched shoulder strap borrowed from another bag! And the loose thread on the flap indicating that I’ve already snapped a decorative button off!

And in no particular order…

1. Hand sanitiser
2. Packet of tissues
3. Diary
4. TicTacs
5. Plastic bag (for shopping, restaurant food-storage, or emergency rain hat)
6. Bag-for-life made from recycled plastic bottles
7. Keys (note the tag with my name on and the fabric frog!)
8. My essentials pouch containing lip gloss/mascara, perfume, moisturiser, hairbrush and PILLS!
9. Walking stick.
10. Purse (wallet) on a chain.

ToT: 10 Things to Do Instead of Watching TV

I don’t watch a vast amount of TV these days (health permitting – more ill = more TV to break the boredom) so I’d like to think this list should be easy!

1. Knit, crochet, sew, bead, … I could have listed these separately, but where’s the challenge in that?
2. Listen to an audiobook (which you can, of course do at the same time as crafting)
3. Garden. Even if it’s a dry plastic pot perched on a windy balcony with one barely-clinging-to-life geranium in it, it’s still gardening!
4. Bird watching.  Again, you can bird watch from practically anywhere and sometimes you get to see falcons nesting in city centres or geese flying over suburbia.
5. Star-gazing.  Although this is best undertaken in Autumn or Spring (longer nights, but not so cold you get frost-bite) and with minimal light pollution, even without optimal conditions you can still pick out the brightest stars and even a planet or two.  My favourite are meteor storms!
6. Listen to the radio.  My personal choices are BBC Radio 5live (primarily a news and sports station), Radio 4 (spoken word for drama, documentaries and comedy) and 6Music (erm … music, really!)
7. Play Facebook games.  What?  Don’t look at me like that.  I’ve always been a gamer.
8. Watch stuff online.  Well, it’s not really TV, is it?
9. If you are able, go for a walk. In the winter this can constitute making out onto the back step and in again for me, but I do like a nice wander/meander.
10. Fire-gazing.  You don’t need a fire, or even a candle, but sometimes your brain just needs to park up for a bit while you gaze of into the middle distance.  To be honest, I’ve found myself doing this while I’m allegedly watching TV, so that’s why I suggested it!

Woah, that was tougher than I thought!  Sorry for the lack of photos this week but I finished this list at 00:20 on Tuesday.  Oops!