What happens when you carry your yarn differently...

I have been knitting a lot of mittens lately, all based on this striped pattern (my own creation founded on a basic mitten recipe). 

The previous two pairs:

Fingering weight yarn in natural sheepy colors for Sam's mom.

Tonal silk/merino blend, two yarns, close in color which led to more subtle striping, for me.

A bit brighter color way, with a lot more contrast for Mr. Wildknits. 

As you can see in the above photo I am cutting it close with yarn. I am no longer able to get the blue (Caribbean Waves) as Brown Sheep has changed their dying process to be 'greener'. Surprisingly the green (Limeade) is still available. So I weighed the yarn and then the mostly completed mitten and decided I will have just enough to finish the pair with the yarn on hand. I have less of the blue so I switched out the color of the cuff on the second pair which led to changing which color I considered the "main color" (MC). This in turn resulted in the decision to carry that color in my left hand and a radically different appearance for the second mitten, with the green dominating over the blue in the pattern.

A closer look at the stripes, how you carry your yarns will affect the appearance of you finished item in color work. 

I am fortunate that Mr. Wildknits is willing to wear bright colors. Makes using up stash yarns a lot easier. Though this particular pair is destined to become chopper liners, so only the cuffs will be visible.

The advantage of striped mittens is that the two colors, carried in this fashion, lead to a double-thick mitten. Which translates to a warmer hand overall.

I had a great weekend with the ladies at the Knitajourney Retreat and was reminded to tend to my neglected blog by a few of them. So, Julie and Lisa, here you go!

I had thought I might take the past weekend off of running due to the retreat, but wasn't positive about it heading into Friday and actually made tentative plans to run - at least in my head.  A lingering achilles tendon issue, stemming from a calf issue, probably due to running on cambered roads made it easier to opt not to run. I had work done on the calf on Thursday and the achilles has gotten steadily better with the additional rest. I don't have any immediate race plans so it makes sense to get this issue sorted out now vs battling it all season.

Last weekend I ran and skied at Jay Cooke State Park. Sam and I headed out the Carlton Trail from the headquarters towards the Munger Trail. We didn't make it all of the way due to hitting knee deep, unpacked snow. We did persist through these conditions for about half a mile before calling it quits and turning around. In the process I learned that I run like an elf.

Photos from last weekend:

Oops - apparently we missed this flag when sweeping after the Minnesota Voyageur Trail Ultra.

Club moss, lichen and frosty rocks along the Carlton Trail. 

Sam on the less-packed part of the trail (it got worse after this). This is where the elf comment was made. 

Checking out someone's front door and lunch remnants.

The header photo on the blog is also from a cliff along the Carlton Trail. If you look closely you can see an individual snowflake on the right side of the photo. I continue to be impressed with the shots I get with my little Canon Powershot SD790 IS.