So I knit three and a half thumbs

 I finished my Latvian mittens this week and immediately found that the thumbs were two different sizes, with one being smaller in circumference than the other.  So I pulled out the smaller one, picked up stitches again, and started reknitting the thumb.  After knitting for a while, I eventually realised that the new thumb still didn't match the bigger thumb.  As I mentioned before, I am not very good at counting nor at arithmetic.  So it took me some time and pencil/paper figuring to work out that the bigger thumb wasn't right either and had too many stitches because I hadn't decreased correctly.  However, I liked how it felt, so I ripped out the second thumb again to start over a third time, purposefully decreasing incorrectly to match the big thumb.  Eventually I ended up with two matching mittens which are now blocking on the glove blockers I bought in Shetland last year. The mitten on the right is facing thumb upwards in the photo, thumbs should be invisibly pattern matched but mine isn't quite. I like how bright and colourful this traditional pattern is.  But if I knit any more Latvian mittens, I will try to find patterns that do NOT have four colours in a row because that was really slow and difficult for me to knit.

I forgot to blog last week that I also finished re-knitting my pink hat in New Zealand wool, the one that came out way too small.  I added another full repeat of the flower motif, and also stretched out the crown decreases by knitting a plain row between each decrease row.  It covers my ears now but is still fairly snug, hopefully it will loosen up with wear.

I've been working more this week on renovating the antique sewing table.  I replaced the missing veneer around the lower edge of the table - my patches are slightly thicker so not invisible but it still looks better with the gaps filled.  I did a dry fit of my partition pieces in the top tray, and it looks like I am missing one lid, and about eight partitions.  I've cut a couple of replacement partitions but I think I will leave one side open to create a longer tray, for tools and scissors, instead of partitioning it all up. I strengthened the hanging basket with some glued on cloth, as it was weakened by some splits in the wood.  So really the next big job is to start recovering all the partition pieces with the new paper, which rather intimidates me so I've been putting it off.

The McKinley dollshouse is slowly coming on, I've been working on the tower finishes this week.

When I got back from my last trip, DH presented me with the finished sumo diorama that he has made for me.  Earlier this year I had found some sumo figures as 3D files online, and had them professionally 3D printed.  DH has painted them all for me and even modelled a partial fighting ring for them to stand in.  He's done such a great job, they look so realistic considering they are only about an inch high.

We've started emptying the caravan out for the winter.  We are fair weather campers and the weather is getting too cold and wet for us now.  So we've brought a few loads back from the storage yard, and given the van a good wash and a winter exterior treatment. We had three nice weeks away in it this year which works out to a fair bit per night when you tot up all the annual expenses, but it is really nice to have your own 'home away from home' in the countryside instead of being stuck in a hotel room. We've explored several parts of the country that we probably wouldn't have visited otherwise, and done more walking than I ever do at home.