I finished the blue mittens for Sandy's Warm Hands Knit-along and to take a break from the twisted stitch swatches, I started knitting a pair of mittens with some variegated Manos.

This Manos is gorgeous and knits up quickly. It was fun to take pictures of - such pretty colors and a surprisingly nice match with my new, favorite corduroy coat.

The swatches for the twisted-stitch cardigan are finished blocking. When I get a few minutes I'll put together a page with some notes about each one.

I've also started a swatch with the AS Hebridean three-ply. This is an amazingly beautiful yarn. On the VY web site, they describe hanging the yarn out in the fresh air of the Scottish Isles to dry once it's been wound into skeins. I can believe it - there is something magical about the yarn and I'm dreaming of all of the gorgeous colors that they have available. Blue, cream, orange?

And...if you're interested in trying out the pattern that I'm using for these swatches, I've created a chart. I haven't gotten it together enough yet to provide a key, but if you're familiar with Alice Starmore charts (e.g. in the book Fisherman's Knits), you can probably figure this one out. I plan on putting together a key and some directions, but for those who are interested here is the chart.

The chart looks more complicated than it actually is. The pattern is very symmetrical and logical. After I printed it out, I used colored pencils to highlight the rows that I need to think about.

- The odd rows are the right side rows, even are the "wrong" side rows.

- The marked knit and purl stitches are twisted on both sides of the knitting (some patterns only have you twist the knit stitch on the front side, but I think this leads to uneven looking twisted ribs).

- In the yellow section of the chart, in general, the work on the front involves crossing twisted knit stitches over regular purl stitches.

- On the wrong side rows in the yellow section, the work tends to involve crossing a pair of twisted purl stitches in one direction or the other.

- On the wrong side rows where there are twisted purls being crossed, simply pay attention to which direction the top stitch is supposed to face. It will cross the same way across all of the pairs on that row.

- I've been binding off my swatches around line 36 or 37. It's around line 33 where the twisted stitch section of the swatch starts to repeat. (here's a picture of the swatch done in Cascade 220)