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I finished my fourth mitt last night. I love how these turned out. I love the extra long cuff. I love that the stripe patterns don’t match perfectly. I love the riot of color. Knitting these mitts was the perfect antidote to dreary quarantine life.

I haven’t decided yet whether I will keep these for myself or gift them. I don’t have a lot of knit-appreciative people in my life, but I can picture one of my nieces wearing these.

I have mixed feelings about gifting hand-knits (or really, anything handmade). On one hand, I love giving and receiving handmade items because they are unique and special. On the other hand, not everyone shares that feeling, and I hate to saddle someone with the burden of “what am I going to do with this!?” It’s not like they can return it to the store or exchange it for something else. It’s awkward. I used to gift more freely, but I know some of my hand-knits have ended up on the donation pile. Now, I am a bit more judicious about gifting something I’ve made.

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This is the yarn for my next project. It’s a rayon, linen blend in a lovely grayish blue color, and I think I have around 6 balls — just enough for a cute summer top for me. I bought it last year during the yarn crawl and originally planned to make a Berroco pattern called “Flow,” but I am going to look around on Ravelry a bit before I commit.

I enjoy pattern shopping. It’s always fun to explore the possibilities. There are so many gorgeous patterns, it never ceases to amaze me. I knit Hitofude earlier this year, and seriously, how does one even come up with a design like that?!!

One of the things I love about Ravelry is that it provides a platform for even fledgeling designers to share their talent with the world. And I am very appreciative for that talent. I’m quite adept at modifying patterns, but designing from scratch — not so much. I’ve tried, but it pretty much always ends in disaster. Maybe someday I’ll have the opportunity to take a class on design. I think that would be fun. Until then, I’ll humbly head over to Ravelry and bask in the creativity of others.