Soooooo soft...

Tuesday, during Mice Will Play Day, I managed to scoot over to Stitch DC in Georgetown to see if - just maybe - they had yarn that - just maybe - could be used for Laura Rintala's Winter Twilight Mitts. I like the stained-glassyness of this pattern, but wasn't sure about using a varegated-type yarn. I was looking for a good, solid deep purple. Preferably in something really soft, that would be both warm and gentle on my paws.


As you can see, I found something! It's a soft something. Very soft. Merino and cashmere blend soft. Sooooooooooo soft.

As of this morning, I'd managed to figure out that I needed to resize the pattern a bit (as always) since my yarn is just a scooch larger than called for, and since my hands are small, and since I knit really, really loosely.


Finally figured out why I knit so loosely, by the way. I don't put any tension whatsoever on my yarn. At all. I started to get "normal person" stitches in one or two places on my Fairy Tale #3 socks - where a long string of beads was hanging straight down. So, I'm considering finding small fishing weights (pretty easy, since my dad's a professional fisherman, really, at this point) to put on my yarn. We'll see if the magic "gauge" becomes easier then. Not these mitts, though, since I NEEDED THEM THIS MORNING OMG IT WAS COLD OUTSIDE AT 5 a.m.!! I totally shoudl've worn my Star of the County Down Tam, it was cold enough!

Also, THESE. I don't use this kind of stitch marker - long dangly things on my needles drive me nuts - but man, if I did? I'd totally have bought all three sets of these things (that were available this morning at 7:45 a.m. yes I'm working long hours right now). I wonder, though, if they'd be heavy enough for the "tension" thing? They'd be cuter than fishing weights... hmmmm....