Mom and I were going to visit Dollywood on Christmas day, and I wanted to make us custom Dollywood hats, as it was going to be in the 30s and 40s. So, while out and about one day, the week before, I asked to stop at a nearby Joann store in Pigeon Forge to get yarn for the hats. It was the smallest Joann I’d been in, and I couldn’t find what I’d wanted for the hats, but was able to change my plans and pick up something else, which I later loved (I can’t even recall the original idea now!).

While there, I also noticed the Fishermen’s Wool, in its signature two natural colors. I’d been curious about it for most of a year, since first squeezing it and reading about it at my own Joann in early/mid 2018 (only started knitting that February!). Seeing it in the store again, I thought “I could make mom Selbu mittens!” So, I picked them up, and then searched patterns. I knew Skeindeer already, and decided on her pattern, after giving up on my figuring out and charting my own, due to time constraints, and some light uncertainty, especially about the thumbs. The rest of the story is in the pictures. Suffice it to say, they came out great, despite incredible discrepancies in color dominance, and mom loved them. Fisherman’s wool turns out to be so much more fluffy and soft than I’d expected. Now I love it.