My favorite Smothers Brothers song has always been Hiawatha. Who went to hunt a bun-nee rab-bit to make a pair of MITtens from bun-nee-rabbitsfur. So he hunted over wood, he hunted over dell, he hunted all about where the bunny rabbits dwell-ell–ell-el-ellllll…. I digress.

The Smothers Brothers have nothing to do with anything, excepting my love for them and my unrelated love for mittens. The pictured are the third pair of these I’ve made (the Chevalier Mittens by Mari Muinonen) and are my current everyday mittens. Cascade 200, one of the heathered greens, 4.0mm needles.

I’m a process knitter. I have about fifteen projects going at any given time, and the purpose of most of them is to learn a new skill. I’ve made sweaters, blankets, and other big things, but those can be slogs through boredom. I like small projects that are challenging, but that I might actually stand a chance of finishing. Hats, sure! But I don’t wear hats often. Socks are great, but I haven’t been totally converted to the handknit sock believers and it’s tough to know that holes will soon be worn what can be ‘spensive sock yarn. Scarves? Love to wear them, want to poke my eyes out after the first third.

Mittens are my perfect project: portable, utilizing both traditional techniques and regional histories, endless options for design elements–lined, thrummed, felted, sore-thumbed, invisible-thumbed, mitered, cuffed–no fiddly fingers to suffer though and best of all, I actually wear them all the time. Long live the mitten!