mitten progress!

I finished knitting the outer Fiddlehead Mittens last weekend, and I could not be more delighted with how they turned out!

(M was behind me in that picture, encouraging me to make silly faces for the camera!)

End-weaving took awhile, with all those colors, but I was pretty charmed with how my pile of ends looked in the end.

The next step was to knit mitten linings…and I almost didn’t want to, because look how gorgeous those floats are on the inside of the mitten!

I’ve had some pea-green Ultra Alpaca light in my stash for AGES, and decided to use it for the mitten lining. It doesn’t match any of the colors in the outer mitten, but I think it coordinates nicely:

On Thursday, one of my classes had a work period, and since it’s early the semester, I didn’t have any grading/feedbacking to do while they worked, so I knit the thumb section of the mitten lining:

I did a bit more knitting in my office yesterday…

…and by this morning, I had finished the lining for mitten number one!

I’m hopeful that by next weekend, I can have a finished set of lined Fiddlehead Mittens!

The state of the world and particularly of my country is still weighing very heavily on me, and knitting is one of the things I can do to soothe myself. I don’t intend to soothe myself into inaction – very much the opposite, I hope to be able to keep myself level enough to be able to actively resist what is happening. Speaking of the combination of knitting and resistance, if you have not yet see Bristol Ivy’s amazing Peace de Resistance mitten pattern, go check it out. She’s contributing the proceeds to a rolling list of social justice organizations, and has already raised an impressive amount of money. I’m so proud of what our community of socially-minded knitters can accomplish together. I’d like to knit a pair for myself, and just need to find the right stash yarn for the job. I’ve got some hot pink Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock that I haven’t found any other use for, but I’m not sure what I’d combine it with for good contrast. Time to go stash diving.