A bit of this and that

I decided yesterday to crochet some fingerless mitts for DP. I was knitting him some out of the Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport in Mineshaft, and no matter what gauge I used, he didn't like the fabric. I used this pattern, which I can't recommend enough. The only change I made was to use foundation sc for the foundation chain stitches. I love how they turned out, and I may use this as the go-to mitts pattern:



I whipped up a batch of soft pretzels for supper yesterday - so delicious.

We're going to have Easter at our house this year. My niece's birthday is April 15 and my sister doesn't want to have two different celebrations, so we're going to have a birthday cake for Easter dessert and everyone over to our house. I called my mom to tell her it was on, and she said, "What should I bring?" I asked her what she wanted to have - turkey or ham - and she said ham. So I said, "then bring a ham." :) She thought it was hilarious, AND she'll bring the ham. Sweet.

I finally got Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn - I bought it and two other books with an AMEX gift card and have been waiting for them to come since December 31. I've been looking forward to this book because of the multitude of handpainted yarns in my stash; I'd like to use their colors to an advantage. I was a bit surprised that there were no entrelac socks in the book because entrelac is a sure-fire way to avoid pooling. The patterns are divided into nearly solids, muted multis and wild multis, with patterns geared towards each type. Some are extremely crazy and labor intensive, like Spread Spectrum (ravelry link), a sideways intarsia. Some use standard techniques in a different way, like the Chevvy socks (ravelry link), which used short rows at the beginning of the sock to set up a deep chevron. I'm planning to make my next pair of socks a pattern from this book, and right now Color Collision is at the front of the running. I want to start out in the shallow end of the pool.

Overall, I'm glad I got the book, but I'm also glad that I basically got it for free, thanks to the gift card.