pa thrum-pum-pum pum...

With the cold, cold weather here, I decided to knit some thrummed mittens for myself. I bought the Noro wool because it matches my coat and I was going to use strips of roving from my stash for the thrums. I happened to be shopping at Zeller's one day and spied this Bernat felting wool that matches the Noro pretty well so I bought it to use instead of the roving.

I had never knit thrums before so I bought this Briggs and Little pattern leaflet to learn how.

I couldn't figure out how to do it from these directions at all. It said something about passing the thrum over the stitch but it wasn't working for me. I was about to chuck the whole notion when I did an internet search and found Yarn Harlot's blog about thrums. Turns out it's really easy! You just knit the stitch and the thrum together and then knit them through the back loop on the next round. My advice if you're trying to learn to knit thrums: skip the Briggs and Little pattern. It's very confusing.

Now that I have it all figured out, I'm not sure I'll be able to finish this project. My wrists are sore. Whenever I try to knit some bulky yarn I end up with this problem. The Noro yarn on its own isn't a problem but adding the thrums is just too difficult for my hands. I ran into the same problem last winter when I started knitting warm things. Maybe if I just do a few rows at a time I can eventually finish the mitts. I'm sure that I would appreciate their warmth.

A kid-bit for you:
The morning teacher in my classroom teaches the language arts. They have been learning the letter sounds and listing words that begin with the letter of the day. Last week one of the kids excitedly told me that they were learning f words that day. There was a slight pause and another kid chimed in, "not the bad words though".