Bye, bye, heat!

I haven't completely forgotten that I have a blog. Really. We just have a visitor from Finland, namely my mom, and that has cut into my blogging time seriously. The weather took a turn for the better, and we've been spending some time sitting on the deck, knitting. This is what my mom was working on today:
They are called "the minister's socks" (Rovastin sukka), and old pattern she got from her aunt.

And this is me waving good bye to the heat that went east (you're welcome, all you folks on the East cost;)
There's no thumb as of yet, I'll finish those once I have both of the mittens ready:
And here's the inside, in case you were interested:

I thought I'd also take pictures of how I hold the yarn, since that is an issue for many of us doing color work and fair isle. Ms Grumperina brought up Nona's post and the issue of the "dominating" and the background color last week, and here's how I deal with it:

I hold both yarns in my left hand, the background color over my index finger as usual, and the dominating color on top, going over both the index finger and the middle finger. This way they stay organized and are easy to pick up and control. Here's picking up the top color (one hand is holding the camera):


I didn't completely ditch the idea of throwing the dominant color with my right hand, in fact I even tried it. But then, after thinking about it, it's just way too inconvenient and slow. I know that by practicing, I'd get faster, but there's just no way a technique, where you have to move your hand in circles all over the place, all the time, could be faster than, or as fast as a technique with very minute movements. Compared to throwing, my hand movements are tiny, and from now on I'll stick to my way of doing it.