cold weather, and cold weather knitting

First of all, I'd like to congratulate Miss Tightly Wound (or, as I will henceforth refer to her, Mrs. TD elect) on her recent engagement and homeownership. I will take a teeny tiny bit of credit for helping pick out the ring (in fairness, he did most of the work, but I'm homeless, jobless, and single, so give me a break).

The good thing about a mid-winter move back north is that now I can actually WEAR my handknits. AND due to the aforementioned joblessness (but really, anyone need a moderately skilled, just out of grad school social worker?), I've been knitting up a storm. The other good thing about the move north is actually being able to go into a yarn store and touch things, not to mention talk to real, live knitters. Nothing makes me smile more then going into Kathy's Kreations in Ligonier and having Kathy Zimmerman tell me how lovely my Clapotis is.

Here's the not-so-short list of my recent cold weather inspired knits.

Pattern: Shifting Sands Scarf
Yarn: 2 skeins Malabrigo Merino Worsted in Continental Blue
mods: cast on 42 instead of 52 stitches

This was my first project with Malabrigo, and I'm totally smitten. Also - I followed the instructions linked from the pattern site to teach myself to cable without a cable needle. I think I've already forgotten how, but at least I know I'm capable of it now!

Pattern: Koolhaas
Yarn: Malabrigo Merino Worsted in Continental Blue

Despite the apparent difference in color, my Koolhaas was made with the same yarn as my Shifting Sands (there is no natural light in western PA these days, my friends, and my camera sucks...I'll try to do better, I swear).

I am especially sorry to not have a better picture of my lovely Druid mittens. Not only that, but I've completely forgotten what this yarn is. This pattern is, without doubt, slightly beyond my skill level. My mittens have several mistakes in them that I didn't notice immediately. Luckily, the mistakes are relatively unnoticeable to non-knitters. Better pictures will be forthcoming when I take some.

I have a few more things on the needles (they're repeats of my sisters projects...every time I see her and she's wearing one of her knits I think to myself, "I want that"). Upcoming: cozy cabled mittens and roman earflap hat.