Kitten Mittens

Kitten Mittens
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

Three little kittens,
                   they lost their mittens,
    And they began to cry,

Oh, mother dear, we sadly fear
    That we have lost our mittens.

What! Lost your mittens,
                   you naughty kittens!

    Then you shall have no pie.
    Mee-ow, mee-ow, mee-ow, mee-ow.
    You shall have no pie.

                               Wikipedia

I had a wonderful time this year preparing handmade gifts for family. These cute little things were knit with my nephew and niece in mind (four and two, respectively). Three mismatched mittens means that you never have to worry about finding an exact pair. And if one goes missing (as it likely will). Then.. Oh, well!

I had fun with them. Each was cast on using DPNs, but then I moved all the knitting over to a long circular needle and worked on all three at the same time. It's a bit fiddly keeping all the yarn balls straight, but after a while it becomes obvious how to flip your work back and forth so that after each row, everything is back in line again. The benefit is that you're always working the same row and it's easier to keep track of where you are in the pattern. And, when you're done, you're really done!

They are knit from the pattern I created for my daughter, working from Interweave Knits' article "Progressive Gloves" (no longer available online). I'm really glad I was able to download it and the related article on gussets for gloves and mittens back when a large number of these types of articles were available from Interweave's site. I had just begun to knit and went on a downloading rampage on all of their technique-based articles. It's a real shame they finally had to come down off the internet, because many of those articles were extremely useful. I love having them now, and know that if I had started just a year later I would have missed out on a huge amount of really useful information! Now I just feel lucky to have a nice library of PDF files carefully backed up so I won't ever loose them!

Almost the end of the story...

Egyptian Mittens
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

The mittens are done! All that remains is to wrap them, and take them to the gym and gift them.

I am really looking forward to giving these away. But until then, I've been enjoying showing them to anyone that would look! This is the first project I have done that I have planned every step of the way, starting with the fleece and working through to the knit object.

The pattern is Egyptian Mittens by Tuulia Salmela. It is not in English, but Google Translate does a decent job with it. Luckily, I didn't really need to bother with the translation since the pattern is charted. Follow the chart, and everything is okay.

I added my own twist on things in general.

I used a crochet provisional cast-on. I had planned on knitting a long cuff back up inside the mitts when I was done, but they fit well enough that I decided a short turn was better. The provisional cast on gave me the freedom to decide on the fly how long to make that turned cuff.

I rotated the pattern on the cuff so that the two mittens matched, rather than the wrist pattern on one showing on the back of the second.

I stopped the thumb early. I did knit the thumb as written, but it came out freakishly long and pointy. That's well enough, but I don't like all that fabric flopping around in the way.

I changed the motif in the pattern. I dumped the star, and turned the other motif 90-degrees. This eliminated most of the very-long floats. I dropped a couple of white stitches in a few places to take care of the rest. The motif still looks lovely, but since there are no floats longer than five stitches, I did not have to capture any that might show through on the front of the knitting, and I still don't have any long enough to snare a finger as you put the mitten on.

I didn't plan on blocking them, but figured that could be a good thing. Let me assure you, blocking is an amazing thing. I cut forms out of a cardboard box and covered them with plastic bags to insert in the mittens as they dried after washing. It gave them a really professionally finished appearance.

All of these things combine to make a mitten of which I am quite proud.

Winter Midnight Mitts

CJKopec - Midnight
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

Here's another November leftover! This skein of yarn was spun from a lovely batt of blue fiber made by C. J. Kopec. I separated out the dark, medium and light portions and spun them in sequence and then did a great technique called "Navajo plying" which turns one strand of yarn into chains of three where the color order is preserved. This means my skein of yarn turns slowly from white to dark blue over its entire length.

Here's two of the three batts spun up and wound in preparation for knitting. This project was a SAL/KAL, which meant that everyone bought the same fiber and then knit along with each other on the same project (or rather two projects in this case, so you had a choice). I planned on making Winter Twilight Mitts (You may need a login to follow this link, I'm not certain). Rather than spin contrasting colors from these batts, I went and purchased some black mill-spun yarn (Malabrigo Sock in "Negro") to use as my second color. There's some small risk in this since the weight and twist may not match up perfectly. But I really don't like spinning black, and I wasn't sure the dark blue would contrast enough with the other two blues from this batt to make spinning both colors worth it.

The mitts are great fun to knit! It helps that I was able to take a class from my LYS on multi-color knitting. We learned about both Fair Isle knitting (stranded) and intarsia (blocks of color). In this case, the Fair Isle techniques were really handy. One great trick when knitting in the round is to turn your work inside out and knit across the back (inside) of the item, rather than the front (outside). This stretches your "floats" (the spare yarn you're not currently knitting) around a larger circumference and keeps them loose so they won't cause your knitting to pucker in odd ways.

Here's the finished mitts! I've added very long cuffs to the top. They are quite squishy and delectably soft, but the best part is that I can roll them up over my fingers so that they are more like full mittens in the cold morning weather. It makes holding onto the steering wheel of the care much more enjoyable. And then as the day warms, I just roll them right back and can operate my phone properly (which requires a bare fingertip to dial).

Finally, we have the last batt spun up. This one I did not separate and I plied with three singles together (not chain). I have around 120 yards, plus another 80 or so left over from the mitts in mini-skeins of white and dark blue. I think I will be knitting a small cowl or necklet of some sort to coordinate with the mitts and my fabulous red jacket I got for Christmas!

Lumpy Bumpy Mitts

Lumpy Bumpy Mitts
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

I've been working my way through my stash and trying to finish off partial balls and bits and pieces. It feels to me like a "Spring Cleaning" in reverse. My "Winter Destash" has yielded a lot of lovely yarns. One of them was a pretty green thick-and-thin yarn by Farmhouse called Lumpy Bumpy (by Charlene).. I used this in a very pretty hat, stranded with Misti Alpaca Chunky, but had half of it left over with no idea how to use it.

It's a gorgeous yarn, and beautifully soft. The green is wonderfully saturated. I still wasn't sure what to do with it, but set out to knit it and see what happened. I thought maybe it would turn into a scarf for my daughter, but as I cast on I had the idea for fingerless mitts. I knit the yarn into a square and seamed the cast-on and cast-off edges together, leaving a gap for the thumb. With the last few yards I added a thumb. I had exactly the right amount of yarn with barely a yard left over!

Lumpy Bumpy Mitts
Hand
Cast on 25 stitches.
Knit 37 rows, slipping the first stitch every row.
Bind off.
Join cast on and cast off edges for about two inches. Leave a two-to-three inch opening for the thumb and join the rest of the seam.

Thumb (optional)
Pick up and knit twenty stitches around the opening, starting from, and ending at, the top (finger end) of the mitt. Turn work to knit back the other direction. You will be working these stitches back-and-forth around the thumb opening. The decreases will fall at the base (wrist side) of the thumb opening.
Knit 8 sts, k2tog, k2tog, knit 8. Turn work.
Knit 7 sts, k2tog, k2tog, knit 7. Turn work.
Knit 6 sts, k2tog, k2tog, knit 6. Turn work.
Knit 5 sts, k2tog, k2tog, k5. Turn.
Knit 4 sts, k2tog, k2tog, k4. Turn.
Knit 3 sts, k2tog, k2tog, k3. Turn.
Bind off stitches with kitchener stitch.

Weave in ends, and complete your second mitt.

Short Row Love

Violeta - thumb mod
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

Some days, you think a project is done, and then when you come back later it just isn't perfect. Does that mean you shouldn't change it? It is, after all, "done".

In the case of my Violeta gloves, it was love, but not perfection. I had never made fingerless gloves before, but the more I wore them, the more the opening around the thumb irritated me. It stretched. It gaped. It felt incomplete.

I still had a small nugget of cashmere yarn left. I wasn't sure what to do with it, but I'm not one to throw away even the smallest amount of yarn if I think I can turn it into something new. I spent some time looking at the thumb-opening, and considering what to do with it. I tried picking up stitches and knitting myself a thumb straight off.. but it stuck out and was awkward. Then it occurred to me.. short rows were the answer!

I picked up stitches around the opening and worked short rows starting at the base of the thumb, including one more stitch each pass. This made a lovely afterthought thumb.

Violeta Afterthought Thumb
Pick up and knit 24 stitches around the thumb hole (or an even number of stitches to match your opening) such that the start of your round is the base of the thumb (wrist side)
Knit one round
Knit two stitches, turn work
Slip first stitch and purl 3, turn work
Slip first stitch and knit 4, turn work
Slip first stitch and purl 5, turn work
Slip first stitch and knit 6, turn work....
... continue in this pattern, working one stitch past the slipped stitch each row.
Work until two unslipped stitches remain at the "top" of the thumb.
Knit all stitches until you reach the start of the round.
Knit three more rounds
Purl one round
Bind off purlwise.

Progressive Mittens

Here are the "recipes" for my two sets of mittens. They were developed using "Progressive Gloves" and "Thumb Gussets" by Pam Allen (IK Winter 2003). They both have the "Wide Gusset", and some extra shaping at the fingertips.

Progressive Mittens

Materials:
Size 1 (2.25mm) needles
Mountain Colors Hand-Painted Yarns, "Bearfoot" merino/mohair blend (about 30g)

Size
1-2 years (3-4 years)
Stitch count is the same for both mittens. The larger pair is longer, not wider. This is because I found it much easier to get a one-year-old's hand and thumb into a bit looser mitten. The ribbing at the wrist still keeps it snug.

Cast on
Cast on 44 sts and join to work in the round
Optional: Purl one round, Knit one round

Cuff
Knit 15 (20) rounds in K2, P2 rib

Wide Gusset
Knit 2 (4) rounds in stockinette stitch
On the last round of st st, knit 20, pm, knit 4, pm, knit 20
Wide gusset increases two stitches every three rounds
* Increase round: Knit to marker, inc one stitch (lift bar between two stitches and knit into the back), knit to next marker, inc one stitch, knit to end
Knit 2 rounds
** Repeat from * for 14 (15) total rows (14 gusset stitches)
Next round: knit to marker, move stitches between markers to scrap yarn and cast on 4 stitches in the gap, knit to end.

Hand
Knit 14 (25) rows
Decrease pinky side (k2tog, knit to last 2 stitches in round, ssk)
Knit one round
Decrease pinky side
Knit one round
Decrease pinky and thumb (k2tog, knit 16 sts, ssk, k2tog, knit 16 sts, ssk)
Knit one round
Decrease pinky and thumb
Knit one round
Decrease pinky and thumb for three rounds
Bind off with Kitchener stitch
Note: I found the transition from decreases to Kitchener to be somewhat abrupt. To try and smooth this, I treated the first two and last two stitches as one, binding them off together.

Thumb
Put 14 gusset stitches back on working needles and pick-up and knit the 4 cast-on stitches. (18 sts)
Work in the round for 12 (16) rounds.
Decrease with *k2tog, k1* (12 sts)
Decrease *k2tog* (6 sts)
Break yarn and thread through remaining stitches twice. Pull tight.

Weave in all loose ends to finish.

More Mittens

More Mittens
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

Sometimes you need a quick project. I needed a filler in between the Grey Gansey, and my next project (the yarn for it was on order at the time). Since my DD has grown out of her old mittens, I opted to make a new pair.

My first try started with Pagewood Farms Denali hand-dyed yarn in the "Grape Juice" colorway. This yarn called to me in the store with its many shades of purple. Strangely enough, it is one of the few yarns I like much better in the skein than knit up. It doesn't have a particularly nice feel to it, despite the fact that it is merino wool. The yarn doesn't have much bounce, as I've gotten accustomed to using with Socks That Rock. And I get very seriously tired of looking at purple, purple, purple while I'm knitting.

I also ran into a small, but amusing problem. I didn't take good notes when I wrote down the pattern for these mittens the first time. My gusset instructions left me thinking to increase two stitches every round for 14 rounds. This gives you a gusset that is half the size of the entire mitten! I frogged back and tried again, increasing every other round. That seemed almost right and I finished the entire mitten, going back for the thumb and scratched my head. There were still too many thumb stitches. I decreased early on and went with it. Finally, it dawned on me that this particular gusset requires you to increase two stitches every THIRD round. Blast.

Looking at that slightly kludged single mitten, I decided it just wouldn't do. Between the futzing with the pattern, and the color, I really didn't like it. Rather than subject myself to working more with the too-purple yarn, I dug into my bag of Bearfoot mill ends and pulled out two mini-skeins that I thought were the same colorway. Each was 27 grams... surely that would be enough for two mittens. With luck I might even get two mittens out of one of them!

I came very close! These two mittens took 30 grams of Mountain Colors Bearfoot yarn (merino/mohair blend) in the "Pheasant" colorway. Or I hope it's Pheasant. I have no idea with most of my mill ends!

In creating the mitten pattern, I used Interweave Knits' "Progressive Gloves" article. I was lucky enough to download this article back when it was available on the Knitting Daily website. It might still be there, somewhere, but I have the worst time finding things. I have the PDF for both it, and for the in-depth gussets article and they have been extremely useful. I designed my first pair of gloves using these articles, and two pair of mittens. "Progressive Gloves" was originally published in Interweave Knits, Winter 2003, and is very worth finding in your library to read. It gives you the underlying math to calculate your own gloves or mittens out of any gauge of yarn. Add any lace you like to the cuff and back of the hand, and you instantly have a gorgeous glove of your own design!