Fingers and Toes

The problem with gift knitting is that you can't show pictures. I hope this picture doesn't give away the surprise. I finished a gift for my gracious host in Elko. She's moving into her own house, so these are both a thank you and a housewarming. I hope she likes them. They'll be in the mail this week.

I had a chance to try out the Knitpicks Options needles on this project. I like them. At first, they were a little bit scratchy, but that wore off with use. They are much pointier than Addis, which was great for cabling (I usually cable without a cable needle). The cord is pretty flexible, which is good, because I move my needles a lot. Which leads me to one of my three complaints: the needles kept coming untwisted from the cord. It didn't bother me too much. I'm patient about those kinds of things. The other two complaints are minor. The needles clink somewhat loudly when dangling (I use two circular needles for small-diameter knitting), and I'd like a shorter cord option.

I am now going to work on the thrummed mittens. These are on a deadline, too. I'm excited to try this technique, though I'm going to try and adapt a thrummed mitten pattern to be thrummed hunter's mittens. I'm making these so a friend can operate his video camera in very cold weather--Alaska weather (it's been colder in Chicago than Fairbanks, but just in case). We'll see how good I am at adapting a pattern while learning a new technique. I'll have the wrist and hand to figure out how the thrums work, so I should understand it all by the time I reach the finger, right? Right?