Wooly

I accidentally deleted a post. It had my mitten-making pictures. Did you catch those MITTENS? You did? Oh good! Now we can talk about them! I can hardly hold up under the excitement of designing my own mittens.

First, the show and tell: This is my third pair of Chevalier Mittens this winter. (by Mari, a lovely Finnish crafter). I don't normally enjoy repeating a project, but the finished result here is just so very beautiful.

giving you the finger with a wooly mitten

I made brown pair for my mother-in-law for Christmas and Will was totally admiring and covetous (Will doesn't exactly share my passion for wool craft, although he's a patient listener when I'm on Ravelry and always compliments the finished project. He's a good soul.) So I made him a pair for St. Patrick's day; appropriately green and appropriately cabled. 

He LOVES these mittens, which shows he's cool and has good taste.

So then, with two weeks till my parents birthdays, I cast on for two more pairs: cherry red chevalier mittens for my mother, and a daring original design project for Dad.

not quite sure what that red mark is;  random bits of thread always show up in my photos

I wanted something more "manly" than cables; something geometric, something subtle, something Nordic or Baltic. But I couldn't find a pattern that was right (or free, one of my knitting disciplines). So I took a hint from Elizabeth Zimmerman (the magnificent), got the squared paper, and one thing led to another....

coziness

During this flurry of knitting, quite a bit of David Copperfield (audiobook) was revisited, a few favourite tunes added to the list, like these lovely lads (Mumford and Sons) and these fun people (oh my, how I love their names!) and the often replayed Barton Hollow (Thank you Angela. Really now, how would I ever learn about anything cool, without you?). I also checked back to Elizabeth Zimmerman's pithy (but obscure) directions in Knitter's Almanac. Elizabeth Zimmerman EMPOWERS.

Knitting Talk:
I learned a lot with this project. I'm not crazy over the ribbed cuff for one thing. It's a bit plump and loose and dumb. Next time I'll try a smoother, fitted cuff, maybe with an idiot cord border. Also, I used an even number of stitches in the front pattern, which is less pleasing to the eye and harder to design than the traditional odd-number built around a single middle stitch. Am I getting technical? Try it, you'll see what I mean.



Also, the palm pattern falls apart at the thumb increases....(not the thumb, just the pattern) ...which expalins the traditional ladder border around the thumb, I guess.

red Chevalier mitten, very useful for mug-holding

Anyway, there's my record of wooly goodness for you and for posterity. MP.