It snowed last night!!!!

So we had to get up and test out my 1 new mitten that I've made and take some pics.... sorry I haven't been around much. I'm going to try to be more consistent this year. :)

Here's my new mitten which many of you have seen over at irisheyesknitters.blogspot.com

The littler green one is a practice mitten prior to starting the big one. I lined the big one with Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran in teal. Basically you pick up purl stitches around the inside of the cuff and knit another mitten but in a bigger gauge. They were so fabulous!! The cuffs are long (almost to my elbow in a regular jacket) and just fit over the puff of the cuff of my down coat. The designer says they're made like that to keep snow out of your cuffs! Brilliant!

Neither has been washed or blocked yet.

So, since I only had one bigg-y mitten and I didn't want to wear one leather glove and one mitten, I grabbed the green practice mitten and wore it too! Now for you my Dear Discerning Readers who might have noticed that I have TWO left mittens, I'll have you know, I just twiseted the practice mitten on my right hand to make it fit.

I couldn't just flip it over because these are what the designer calls "invisible thumb" mittens. You'll notice that the pattern on the thumb to the right exactly matches the pattern on the palm of the glove (How cool is that??!!) so, the thumbs are woven in via the three needle bind off two stitches in from the side of the hand. Hence no stick-y out-y thumb to just flip over.

In case you're wondering, the idea for these mittens came from this book by Anna Zilboorg.

So, I shoved on my beeeeautiful mittens and out we went into the snow...

It was a magnificent winter wonderland.... the DH said we had to shake some of the trees whose branches were almost to the ground with the wieght of the snow so that they didn't break off and hurt or kill the tree. Perfect opportunity to test the snow-in-the-cuff-blocking-ability of my new mitten. Immediately the sad little practice mitten had snow down my sleeve but the big one? Never! And soooo warm and soft inside with the cashmerino!! Yum!

This is right outside our house.... so beautiful!!

DH wanted to take some more pictures of the amazing world we live in today so we hopped into his big truck and off we went... to the Botanic Gardens.

It was breath taking. I'm a big sucker for crabapples covered in snow, so I turned into the Quickshot Queen.

Then I decided I wanted to go see the Japanese Garden which HAD to be stunning in the snow. On the way over there there was yet another magical snow scape which was fronted by a big hill covered in pristine snow. I'm sorry Botantic Garden people. I couldn't help myself. See the pretty snow scape behind me??

I hope they can forgive me. By the way, my tush got immediately soaked through and my derriere is still frozen 2 hours hours later. I guess I should have thought aobut that before I let myself fall unhindered into the magnificent snow!

HAPPY SNOW DAY!!!