Bohemian Bluestocking

I want to like this pattern. Really. Really I do. For the most part, I like Knitty stuff. But this one is harder to love. There are a couple of things that I can't call quite knitter-ly.

1. The whole thumb thing. A gusset is not that hard to figure out. Come on, people! When I made these, finally, it went right in the purl "ditch."
2. That whole picot edge thing doesn't work. You want the picot eyelet to line up with the purl stitches, which is doesn't. But it does on mine....
3. And the stubby little thumb looks stubby. If there is a gusset, the thumb doesn't look stubby. End of story.

So here is my version of Fetching, looking much more fetching, I think. Though the photo is not great, I admit.

At long last, there are some photos. And a tale of three mittens. Three pairs of mittens. There are the Berkshire Mittens: They have a 3-color twisted cast-on, and up to 3 colors carried across the inside. The thumbs are a standard interior gussett, different patterns on both sides, and they have a flat grafted top. One mitten has the month/year on the cuff, the other the location and a little diamond medallion. 

Tawashi Swag is great. RhondaB is great. Chocolate is great. Caffiene is great. Ravelry is great. This is what I got: 2 citrus slice tawashi, a very kawaii matchbook of fashion-y post-it notes, and some japanese candy-chocolate trees. Yipee!

Tawashi are the very cute little Japanese scrubbies -- knitted with anti-bacterial yarns (there are two sites on Etsy, here and there,  where you can find them. There are lots(!) of pattern books out there, mostly crochet, but a few knitted ones as well. 

The end result is I have gone tawashi-crazy. All orphaned plant-based yarns in the stash are being knit up into tawashi. I have joined Tawashi-Town at Ravelry. I have done a Tawashi Swap (thanks RhondaB in Seattle for the swag!) The finished tawashi have started to pile up (there's a good sized plastic bin full). I talk about it my knitting group. I talk about them at my LYS's.

I knit, eat, sleep Tawashi.

I have started to think about designing them. I'll keep you posted as to ideas.