Mitts for Mary

This post is a plug for Laura's current KAL (knit-a-long for you non-knitting folk.) She has a friend who has to wear gloves all the time because her body thinks it is freezing to death if the temperature around her gets below 70 degrees F. Laura thought it would be fun to coerce some knitters into donating a beautiful wardrobe of mitts. Although I didn't need much arm-twisting to participate (charity knitting has always been something I've enjoyed) she's also thrown some bait out there. Those who participate in knitting a pair of mitts for Mary will be entered into a drawing for several great items including (are you ready...) KOIGU yarn!

I've never even owned a skein of Koigu, can you believe it? It's beautiful, but expensive. Now I'll have a chance to win two, and the winner gets to pick their color from Laura's stash. Sweet.

I've started my mitts using the leftover silky wool from Nathan's Harry Potter sweater:

I'm using the free Smocked Gauntlets pattern, and it has been really fun trying out the technique of wrapping my working yarn around groups of stitches to create the pattern - I can see myself working this into a hat somehow. Yellow wouldn't have been my first choice in color, but it's what I had on hand (hee, hee, no pun intended) and it will show off the "smocking" well. Besides, I think the goal of this project is to provide a variety of colors and patterns so Mary will have a collection of mitts to choose from. I can't wait to hear her reaction when she receives such a lovely gift from the knitting community! If you'd like to participate, click on this link for more info. :)