That's what all the young people think, right? It's March; I need some new mittens!
Back in December I decided to make some mittens as a Christmas gift for Joe's girlfriend. They went smoothly and reasonably quickly, by knitter standards, and I decided to make some more mittens. Ysolda Teague released a fun fall pattern with a quilt vibe, and I decided to crank out a pair of those for Marie.
Oh my stinking heck, they have been a PROJECT. Fingering weight yarn instead of worsted, garter instead of stockinette -- that wouldn't have been a big deal. But the reason they have a quilt vibe is that you make them with tiny pieces, picking up stitches and decreasing rapidly. One Raveler's project notes observe that the pattern generates 108 yarn ends.
That is a lot of ends, even if a person tries to exercise prudence and forethought and knit them in as she goes.
They're pretty cute, though, I think. This is the first one before I used the rainbow-y yarn to add a bit of ribbing at the cuff, the thumb, and the top of the hand.
I'm almost done, you guys. I have to add the ribbing to the second one and deal with the remaining ends. I just need a little more coal in the tender of my metaphorical Steam Engine of Knitting Mojo.
In between quilt-flavored mitt #1 and #2, I decided to make Joe a pair of mittens too. I thought a worsted weight project would take the edge off, and I had yarn left over from making him a scarf a few years back. I would crank out some speedy mittens to match his scarf, I told myself, and then I would be ready to tackle the fiddly second mitt for Marie. It didn't quite work that way, though.
Joe's scarf was made from a free pattern that describes itself as a houndstooth check. It makes a pleasant cozy fabric, but the structure is a little tricky to read. I drew myself a chart to convert it to a mitten pattern, and I only realized near the end of the second mitten that I made a mistake with the thumb increases. They shoot out to the side like iguanodon thumbs, even though very few humans have iguanodon thumbs and even fewer iguanodons wear mittens. It should be fine, since knitting is stretchy, but it is mildly vexing nonetheless.
Joe's mittens are also almost done. I need to make one more thumb and weave in some ends. I could get both projects completely finished in about two episodes of Great British Bakeoff (maybe three, depending on the situation with the ends), and I will feel much better when they are no longer niggling at me.
Then I can turn my attention to the bulky-weight cardigan I haven't been working on because I kept thinking I should finish the mittens first, but that's a story for another day.
Recent Comments