Sometimes I just need to pick a small project I can finish quickly. Instant gratification is not the only goal or component, however. It needs to be something useful, interesting to knit, and a good use of stash.

Fetching from the Summer 06 Knitty fits on all three accounts.

I do need to make some small Christmas presents; of my friends who don’t knit, I doubt they’ll realize the time differential between knitting a scarf and knitting these pretties. (Plus, I wouldn’t mind a pair myself!)

I have plenty of single skeins of very nice sumptuous yarns to use. The mitten shown was made with Handpaintedyarn.com’s bulky merino in a dark blue, kettle-dyed, slightly variegated colorway. I have at least one more skein of this yarn in a different colorway that I’ve had forever — one skein is really too small for a scarf, and I didn’t know what else to do with it. I also have some leftover Malabrigo that I could pair with some of this so make a second pair in blues.

The cables are easy but give some interest, as does the 4×1 ribbing. I learned a new technique with the picot bind off (which I like much better in person than in all the photos I’ve seen). I also learned how to do the thumb with the waste yarn. I’ve realized I like projects I can mentally break into pieces, and this fits that as well — the cabled cuff, the ribbed body, the last bit of cabled crossovers, the picot bindoff, the thumb.

This is also a project I can easily modify — different cables etc — for future versions.

I also like Dashing, and Mrs Beeton; I’m already figuring which stash yarns I’m going to use.