The Worlds Top Knitwear Model was kicking around the house on Friday, and I asked her if she’d try on the cowl that I finished a little while ago, since it didn’t have an official picture yet. It’s the Ghazal Cowl, and it started like this:

and I spun it into this:

and then I knit it into this.

That’s about how long it took, too. It was a fast knit, and worked end to end with a provisional cast on, and a graft, so perfect for handspun. I used just about every inch of the stuff.

Then (because she still looked game, you gotta strike while the iron is hot with youth, they can turn on you in a minute) and I asked her if she wanted to model some mittens. Oh, yeah, remember the other day when I thought I was coming down with a bad case of washcloths? Turns out it was mittens. You couldn’t have surprised me more. I sat down with some cotton and straight needles, and then had a bunch of walking to do, and subbed out work on dpns so that it would be smaller (I can walk knitting on straights, but I live in the city. Dpns reduce the risk that I’ll be imprisoned at the end of the day for whatever charge is related to accidentally impaling someone. Assault? Negligence? Reckless endangerment? Fourteen inch straights seem like the fastest way to find out.) By the end of the day, this pretty pair fell off my needles.

Yarn: Very lovely Red Barn Yarn worsted weight in what I think is “Amethyst Two” Pattern: mostly Waiting for Winter. (I may have fudged a few details. Like Gauge. Or increases. That sort of thing.)

It is not easy to get a person to put on wool and mohair mittens in this kind of heat, I tell you, so I was pleased as punch when she was willing to give the next pair a go.

That second pair really caught me by surprise – one minute I was thinking about another washcloth and the next thing I knew, that was there. That picture was taken on Friday, so that pair is all done now, and it’s been 48 hours since I cast on a pair of mittens. (I did get a pattern out, but I just looked at it.) You might want to back up from your screen. This mitten thing might be contagious.

(Pattern: Waiting for Winter again, but modified for my gauge, yarn –  my handspun from 2008. Never let anyone tell you that stashes aren’t smart.)

I’m hoping to get a post up this week, but Joe and I are leaving on an adventure, and I can’t predict if I’ll have any service.  After the car camping with Jen and the girls last week, I’m up for a little “real” camping.  We’re leaving today and driving North to Algonquin Park, and there we’ll put in with a canoe, a bear barrel,  a map and compass, and paddle our way into the backcountry. Just us, my knitting, and the wilds of Canada.

I’ll say hi to a moose for you.