Sundance

I’ve just released Sundance, a fun venture into colorwork. The Sundance mitts are designed to keep help keep your hands and arms warm in those sub zero office temperatures that we all know and love. These cute mitts are knit up in Knitted Wit’s Victory DK in Wild Orchard and Naked.

Use coupon code: stupidgroundhog for $1 off of Sundance in my Ravelry pattern shop. Don’t wait because it expires on Midnight 2/15!

Wintertime is my favorite time to knit colorwork patterns. The longer nights and shorter days of winter seem to beg for brighter colors and patterns. The Sundance mitts are inspired by classic Norwegian mittens and sweaters with a touch of modern design.

Sundance is written in one size, but can easily be altered by going up or down a needle size or two, or by using a lighter or heavier weight yarn. Make sure to knit a swatch to check your gauge and to ensure you will like the fabric if you are altering the size of the mitts. My test knitter Julia, aka Sapphirechild on Ravelry, used Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool and altered her gauge to make them a bit smaller.

Progress

I'm making progress for my goal of using 10 skeins of yarn before MDSW and have finished one Hearts in Owlantis sock.

I know a lot of knitters who are cold sheeping and not purchasing any yarn until they have knitted down some of their stash.  While I am trying to stick to the goal of 10 skeins, I'm not restricting myself from purchasing more yarn if I see something that I fall in love with.  Like this skein from Knitted Wit that fell into my Etsy cart:

It's pretty close to a Tardis blue and is even prettier in person - it has a lot more depth of color and is quite stunning.  What can I say?  I had to have it!

If you are cold sheeping and trying to get your stash down to a reasonable amount of yarn, a good way to do it is to go through your patterns and prioritize them.  Look and see which patterns you really want to knit and then pick the yarn to go with the pattern (if you bought the yarn specifically for the pattern already, then you are one step ahead of the game!).  Put both the yarn and pattern in a project or zip lock bag so that it's ready to go when you decide to cast on.  Give yourself a reward every time you finish a project that included stashing down.  It can be something small and simple like a special candy bar or a nice glass of wine.

If you don't have a pattern in mind for some of the yarn you have, check out Ravelry's search feature.  Enter the type of yarn you have, then check out the suggested patterns for it and completed projects.  There are some great ideas to be had there!  If you have some left over fingering weight yarns, Stash Bash and Camberwell are both great projects to use up those left overs: