Thursday, December 15, 2005

Mittens, mine, all mine



I know that everyone is obsessing with completing their knitted gifts for Christmas or other winter holidays. However, after completing 2/3 of my Christmas gifts, I decided to take a break and make myself some mittens. It is COLD here in the upper midwest, and for some reason my current mittens simply did not "meet my needs." If you read my earlier entries, you saw the mittens in progress.

I knew the mittens would be slightly roomy when they were on the needles. That was ok, I figured, I would simply felt them a little. After all, it is cold AND windy here in the northern heartland. (I know Stephanie "the yarn harlot" brags about the chilly winter Toronto weather. But, here in Wisconsin, we know what REAL cold is!!! Longitudinally speaking, Toronto is actually south of a good portion of Wisconsin, including the area I call home.)

Back to the mittens. you can see that I felted them a bit. However, not so much as to take away the stitch definition of the pattern. The angora I used for the light blue was of a lighter weight than the Cascade 220. It worked out just fine! And, since it is still snowing today, I can use them to go out and fire up the snowblower!! They are still a bit damp, but I can tell you that the fuzzy angora feels SOOOOOO good on my hands, even when wet!


I just started the ribbing for another pair of mittens (which will be a belated Christmas present since I was busy warming my own hands) made from Lucy Neatby's Paradoxical mitten pattern. I am using Baby Ull, which won't felt, of course. These mittens are for a warmer climate! I'll post a photo as soon as I get into the patterned section.

My 14 year old still doesn't want mittens made by mom, she prefers Land's End waterproof mittens. How did I raise such a yarn heathen daughter???

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

They are lovely! (Someday, your daughter will say "what was I thinking??) :)

Maureen said...

I have a yarn heathen step daughter.... Oh the pain of it all :)
Thanks for you thoughts on the afterthought heel too. Can't wait to see your start of the Lucy Neatby mittens.I have had that pattern on my list.

betta said...

OOOOh! They're beautiful! I'm still very afraid of stranded knitting, and I find this kind of patterns incredible!!! You're SO talented, Gail! :)

And you daughter will grow to appreciate your mittens, I'm sure! :)
(Jan won't wear the beautiful socks I knit for him, and he's already outgrowing them!)