moody house mittens

We try to go apple picking every year. Sometimes, if we go on a weekend, Stuart comes along, and sometimes I just take the kids. This year has been terrible for farmers everywhere, of course, and the orchards in Wisconsin are no exception. My favorite orchard, Door Creek Orchard, has only about 30% of normal crop yields this year, so pick-your-own varieties are limited and the store is only open on weekends. Sunday was one of those postcard-perfect days, so we drove out there. Instead of picking apples, we just bought some already picked in the store, then went outside for a picnic and a little walk. 

Here is a sample of what we brought home. They are lovely, if not plentiful:

I brought along a pair of newly-finished mittens so Stuart could take some photos in that beautiful orchard.

Does it look like I'm being attacked by a giant weeping willow tree?

Clearly, it's not mitten weather yet. I didn't realize how strange mittens look with bare arms until I looked at the pictures at home.

I wish I was better at this whole photography/knit modeling thing. Not that I enjoy modeling my stuff, but I don't have anyone else to do it. Anyway, the mittens are a gift for a lovely, lovely photographer who took some beautiful pictures of our family early in the summer. She refused to let us pay her for her work, so I wanted to make something for her as thanks. I think these will do fine.

Pattern: Moody House Mittens, by Elinor Brown of Exercise Before Knitting; my only gripe with the pattern was that there were some mistakes in the charts, namely decreases that did not belong! I figured it out easily enough, though. 

Yarn: Ella Rae classic wool, in two shades of heathery green

Sticks: size 4 DPNs for an approximate gauge (I didn't really check, just dove right in and hoped for the best) of 6spi. 

Mods: The pattern calls for a tighter gauge, but I didn't think the mittens would fit unless I upped the needle size. I was right.

New skill learned: the Latvian braid at the start of the cuff. The yarn gets all twisted up, which is kind of annoying, but it looks really cool.