One down, eight to go: a Make Nine 2019 finish

It’s been an off week for me here at C&Q.

We’re off to New Zealand and Australia on Saturday and I’ve been completely distracted by getting ready for the trip, packing lists, mental lists, trying to remember what I have to finish or do before we leave and forgetting to write stuff down. Basically, I’m in a spin of overwhelm in my personal life and the week has been slipping by and now I’m almost at the pre-trip panicking stage…

But you know what? It’ll all be fine. Or at least, I hope it will if I keep telling myself that.

One of the things that has been reassuring me that everything will be fine is that old “when something in your life is out of control, there’s usually one thing that’s doing okay”. I’m paraphrasing outrageously right now because I’m tired but while everything else has been going crazy my knitting has been keeping me sane. Isn’t that usually the way?

And happily, this has resulted in my first finish for 2019 - and a Make Nine 2019 finish at that! These are the Brave at Heart mittens by Dianna Walla of Paper Tiger (you can find her as Cake & Vikings on Instagram). We were going as a family to the WB Studios Tour at Leavesden outside London this past weekend so I had set that as my deadline and I literally cast off in the lobby at the studio just before we went on our tour!

The pattern is exceptionally well written and the charts were easy to follow. I’m particularly obsessed with the details on the thumbs. The patterning is exquisite and thoughtfully flows from hand to thumb seamlessly. I didn’t swatch and have small hands so the 2.25mm needle size ended up being okay for me, but I have to admit they’re a little snug. If I were going to knit any of the others in the collection or these ones again I’d probably size up to a 2.5mm. I haven’t blocked them yet though (I’m waiting on some mitten blockers I ordered) so they may stretch a little bit when I do that.

Oh but the YARN! Let me tell you about this yumminess that is the Scylfing 4-ply by Triskelion Yarns! This is a beautiful blend of 75% British Bluefaced Leicester and 25% Gotland wool and it is divine. Toothy but soft, with a buttery halo. It was perfect for colourwork and I have a TON of it leftover. Major props to Anna at Wild & Woolly in Hackney from whom I bough the yarn and who suggested that if I was going to have leftovers that I pick something I’d be really pleased to knit something else with and she was totally right.

It’s been really chilly in London this week so I’ve been really happy to keep my hands toasty warm while I’ve been out and about. And bonus: I’m really thrilled to get some photos of the yarn with a Butterbeer at the studio! More on our visit in another post…