Inspired, or nagged depending on your point of view, by a crochet mittens group on facebook; I have made a number of pairs of mittens this year. The first ones were, by request, for Rebecca: lined crochet mittens.

 These are "Unicorn" from the crochet mitten drive. Patons Canadians  100% superwash wool. (a goodwill find).

Handspun wool, pattern is a simplicity pattern from the '70s.










Then I got right into the program, although I did start a few and ripped them out this was my final result.

In more detail: Landscape

 Red Heard Comfort,white; and Lions one pound, taupe. These are quite warm due to the back and forth stitching which results in thick ridges between rows.
5mm hook

Same pattern and hook size, brown yarn was a bit thinner. but still a [4].








spike aka winter

These 2 pairs were done just the same except for the wrist. Shows the effect of different yarns!

then I moved on the patterns from books ( library):

I can't even remember the names of these two pairs.









And after all that when a pattern I wanted to see blocked me and asked me to sign in I just said  fergeduboutit and made two pairs without a pattern.

What I have learned is: there are at least 3 ways to make/attach thumbs, the hand can be made wrist up or fingers down, the ribbing can be made separately and attached or as an integral part of the hand, horizontally or vertically. Just making these changes alone, with a single stitch can give many different mitts..

This one is about throwing, or at least the results from throwing.
I have a long standing thing about dark deep blue. We had a "slops" glaze that was perfect, but eventually it ran out and then I was left with poor substitutes and trying to make a similar result. Not always very successfully.
Now I seem to have hit on a method that gives pretty good glaze. The plates are actually much deeper than the photo shows.

I have not yet decided whether to keep these plates or try to sell them at the Xmas sale.












This bowl and the lidded jars will be for sale.

The lower left front sold Saturday.

For the last few years I have been making a "Christmas special" a decoration for my short list of card recipients who deserve more than just a card.
In 2014 I found this design

in a book and made seven of them.  There is also a Christmas tree on the left side. I only took this photo then finished them and sent them off. Not keeping one for myself!

This year I found this sweater pattern online:

Everyone needs an ugly Christmas sweater!

I got caught up in the idea, floating around in some circles, that it might be fun to crochet a pair of socks. One of the blogs I read released a new pattern, they look nice, even possible, but 4£! for a pattern! I could buy socks for that much. Nice ones! I did try a while ago and made some using a free ( probably from a book) pattern and cheap thrift store yarn.

Actually they are pretty weird looking but they make acceptable bed-socks for cold winter nights.
After trying a couple of versions I realized that crocheting socks is a clear sign of not enough to do.
So I switched to mittens. Perhaps I can find a victim to give these to. May need to line them if they are going to be useful in our normal winters. This year so far we are having an el nino winter and it is very pleasant indeed.

Beehive Canadiana 100% superwash wool. a thrift store find.

Three different batches of hand spun wool, all from New Zealand, 35+ years ago .

I have been interested to see that the post I did talking about the virus shawl I crocheted has had more views than any other. I guess the term virus is valid for that pattern. No more of that though, just non infectious crochet.
I made another shawl, entirely my own pattern. Well a couple of ideas from things I saw online and stitches from a "stitch bible" but still no one else worked on the pattern in any way

 It is too late to hang the shawl on the outside dryer, as it is away for the season.

 This is made with about 100  gm of acrylic/mohair blend. Two colours each found at a different thrift store in a different city and year.


The spun yarn was starting to accumulate so I made something with that too. This is 170 gm,  handspun and plied New Zealand wool which I have kept all these years. It was drum carded about 35 years ago, and spun this fall. The wool has lived with me in 6 houses and has crossed the width of North America twice ( after being shipped to me from a sheep farm in New Zealand in the late 1970s).

.It is very warm to wear!

I thought I would try a "test crochet" so signed up with a group on Ravelry, found a project that did not look too bad and gave it a whirl. Well what I have discovered is, if I choose some project I don't like I can just quit and rip it out. But if I am doing it as a test I feel constrained to continue and complete the project. The tester receives a free pattern, makes whatever, takes and posts digital photos and everyone is happy. At least in theory.
I had gauge issues with my projects ( set of 4 items) and had to make 3 gauge test squares moving down from 8mm and [4] yarn,  to 7mm and [3] yarn,  before I actually got the test square down to the size specified. The original called for 9mm and [3] yarn. Then when I actually crocheted the items, they are too small. And the stitch is unnecessarily complex, imho!

First item finished. I want to do other things, a shawl, a blanket, spinning, cookies, pottery. But I need to finish the other 3 pieces. One of which I have done but will have to comlpetely rip out and redo with a larger hook. And maybe a changed number of stitches too.

I think maybe I won't do this again! I do not need the aggravation just for a free pattern when there are so many others online and I can probably do any of these things without a pattern anyway.

Mostly spinning...

the only craft, in my mind, which has background music

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w24wMyy8cBI



Spun, plied and skeined. ready to wash

Most of this wool is still "in the grease" and the water runs very dirty!

Drying

and the first crochet item made recently from handspun, natural colour wool:

winter cowl.