Lots of Fall WIPs. . .

I'm working on lots of bits and pieces over the next few weeks.  See this mitten?  A pair of them was supposed to be my mum's xmas gift last year.  Now I'm desperately trying to finish the second one in time to send for her birthday at the end of this month. The pattern is Kristi's Mittens from the book Folk Knitting in Estonia by Nancy Bush.  It's knit in alpaca from John Arbon and ooooh, is it soft! But I'm worried that at the rate I'm going, she'll get one fully blocked and one still damp.

Below is take two from Marie Wallin's gorgeous Filigree book.  I originally embarked on Aster but even though I was able to do the basic crochet stitches, I'm still not experienced enough to "read" my stitches and the sides were turning out a bit wonky.  With such an open pattern, it's not going to be easy to hide mistakes in the seams.  So I turned to my comfort zone and have started Anemone instead.  Only the sleeves are crocheted; the rest is knitted and if I really can't do the crochet bit, I can always knit the sleeves and still have a lovely aubergine jumper.  I have to say that the Rowan Summerlite 4ply that I'm using for this is the nicest cotton I've ever knit with.

I'm all about indigo these days, but I always do struggle with finding the right patterns to show off variegated yarns.  I have three skeins of Blue Moon Indigo hand-dyed yarn from the Border Tart but one is not only from another dyelot, but is a different base altogether (I bought these skeins at two different shows).  And there's a lot more white in the third skein. So I'm having to alternate skeins and am somehow hoping it will all turn out okay.  The pattern is Michelada by Nadya Stallings from Pom Pom Quarterly, Issue 13.  I'm hoping to finish this in a few weeks prior to heading off to an indigo dyeing workshop and knitting retreat (so excited about this!)

Ah, my lovely Bowland.  I can't wait to finish this as I think it'll be really pretty but it's too big a project to be portable and I just can't seem to find a couple of hours spare at home to really sit down and work on this. I'm up to the point where I separate for the sleeves.  I desperately wanted to get this finished in time for Yarndale but that's just not going to happen.  I'm aiming for Christmas now.

Possibly exasperated at myself for having too many projects on the go, I grabbed a needle and thread and had a good look through my fabric stash.  I've had these bits of tweed offshoots that I bought in Edinburgh and this piece looked perfect for the backing of a cushion. But I only had enough for one side.

So out came some scraps and a few days later I had a cheery little wool pillow.  I had a little fun with some pinking shears and scraps for embellishment. It's all hand-sewn and there's nothing remotely refined about it all, but it is completed and it pleases me enormously.