As many of you know, Lynne is collecting 300 pairs of mittens for children in her community whose hands are cold. Any kind of mittens will do (she needs them by December 10th – so if anyone wants to contribute but doesn’t have time to make some – purchased mittens are also gladly accepted). I thought this would be a great opportunity for another Family Knit-A-Long. Since we were supposed to be making kid-sized mittens, I figured that we could get them finished while Mom was here for Thanksgiving. So I ordered the yarn and waited. And waited. And waited. It got here yesterday.

Great Gran is casting on with the pink yarn I got for Mom. She likes pink.

My Mom is long gone, but I have committed to three pairs of mittens so Great Gran and I didn’t waste any time getting started (as you can see). The yarn is Swish Superwash (KnitPicks) and I am fond of it. It comes in a variety of great, even colors, is soft to the touch, springy and pleasant to knit with. I’ve got one pair of mittens finished and Great Gran is halfway through pair number two.

The Handy Book of Patterns really is very handy.

If Great Gran decides that she doesn’t want to make the third pair this weekend, I will do them on Monday and can still have them in the mail by Wednesday which should get them to Lynne before the 10th. I could do them this weekend in the car on the way to Jacksonville (ACC Championship), but I have decided to make a pair of socks in Georgia Tech colors instead. When I take my knitting into the stadium (for commercials, time outs, halftime etc.), I want to appear Spirited and not Bored. My aunt is also more inclined to forgive knitting during football if it is in white and gold. Also: it turns out that there are yarn stores in Jacksonville!

The yarn is STR (sock weight) in Olivenite, my pattern is on the index card.

This breaks my “one sock, one large project on the needles at a time” rule. But so do the mittens. What can you do? Now I just need to find a bag/purse that a huge ball of Socks That Rock will fit in. I would like something in a wide-wale corduroy.

Please note, all images are brought to you today care of Mr. Pink: colors may be prettier than they appear.