Busy Bee, that's me

I guess it's only appropriate, as my name does mean "bee", that I've been buzzing around knitting crazy the past few days. I'm so glad to have finished the cabled skull cap, but I had some of the Simply Soft Eco left and it was too good to pass up. So, I cast on another (88 sts on sz 7 bamboo needles) and came up with this one (Eco for the grey and regular Simply Soft for the black):

(another good photo by my little one)

Then, I started a sweater for my eldest daughter. I'm making it up as I go, so we'll have to see how that turns out. The white was purchased months ago with the intent to make shrugs for the girls to wear on cool summer mornings, with their dresses for church. Silly me...nope, never made it to the needles. So, now I'm looking toward Christmas and toward using some yarn from my stash so I grabbed a skein and cast on. Seeing as it is almost Winter now I thought I'd add some colors to the white to make it more versatile for all seasons. It has a picot detail at the bottom, garter stitch "side seams", stipes of dark and light shades of the same color, and it will be a cardigan of some sort to be thrown on over any t-shirt. So far so good:

Last, but not least, I finished the first gift mitten. The yarn is a blend of wool and soy. Strange sounding to me, but it is remarkably soft and great to work with. The outside of the Patons SWS (soy wool stripes) isn't very soft, but once it is pulled off it unwinds a bit and is much nicer. I hope the person receiving these will think so, too. The yarn is self-striping (subtle in the middle of the mitten). I purchased two skeins (on clearance, I think) without checking how much I'd need. I was worried I would run out, but when I pulled out my reliable two-needle pattern (Many Mittens by Mary Lamb Becker) it showed that I may be able to make the pair with just one skein. Bonus! Maybe I'll get a pair, too. I've modified the pattern just slightly, to make the cuff a half inch longer for any size. I found that if I use the printed measurements the cuff isn't long enough to stay inside a coat sleeve,which in winter here is important. Who wants to play in the snow if you constantly have to adjust the mittens? I love to play in the snow!