While browsing knitting patterns on Ravelry, I found a pair of mittens that caught my eye. I live in Florida, so why am I interested in mittens you ask? I can’t wear much of anything I knit, so why not mittens?

The pattern that I want to make is called Milet and has a double cuff and cute colorwork. I’ve only ever made very simple mittens and I didn’t have a ton of fun knitting them because I dislike DPNs. This is the year I plan to branch out of my comfort zone and figure out how people enjoy making pairs (of socks, mittens, booties, mitts) and any small item knit in the round. I also vow to use new types of yarn.

The Milet pattern calls for Rauma Finull PT2 yarn which is a wool from Norway and I found loads of pretty colors at The Woolly Thistle shop which happens to be located in my favorite place – New Hampshire! They offer lots of pretty wool from overseas which saves us knitters from having to pay for the shipping. (I also ordered the By Hand book which covers NH and VT crafters.) The candy was a treat included by TWT owner! YUM.

I hadn’t ordered anything from them, but had watched some podcasts. Truthfully I had no idea what to use the yarn for. Until I saw the mittens which specifically used Rauma yarn. Wool is best for knitting mittens and hats which need to keep body parts warm. I can’t wait to cast on!

It also happens that TWT (the Woolly Thistle) is having a knit-along (KAL) for mittens beginning February 13th. If you are a Ravelry member, see their forum KAL section here. Seems mitten knitting was meant to be!

Mittens to Consider

The hardest part of doing a mitten KAL is finding mittens to knit – because there are WAY TOO MANY to choose from. Also, I am looking for something I hope I will be able to actually knit. I’m not great at using DPN’s, and have only made one SIMPLE pair of mittens and mitts from the same pattern.

More mittens (and mitts) I have saved in my favorites section include:

• Midterm Mittens (fingering)
• Nightfrost (Free download)
• Ortus (fingering)
• Sagostad (Rauma Finull)
• Arthur Mitts (fingerless mittens)

Tuku Sock Yarn

I also ordered sock yarn from The Woolly Thistle which is part wool from Finland. Tuku wool gets great reviews, and since I hope to knit at least one pair of socks this year, why not make them wool socks? Wool not only keeps you warm, it helps keep you dry by taking water / sweat away from the skin. A lot of people don’t like the feel of real wool and believe it will be scratchy, but really, nothing beats real wool.

I love the fact that I can use wool that came from sheep living far away in Scandinavia. I have Danish blood. Maybe I can use Danish wool one day. It’s just kinda fun to have these options.

I got a nice thank-you for your order e-mail from The Woolly Thistle shop owner, and once the order was shipped, I got it within two days! The yarn is beautiful and I hope it will inspire me to branch out and try new things. Thy offer a lot more yarn I would love to try, including money saving spools, popular Jamieson & Smith, and tons more.