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Monday, May 31, 2010
FO Feature: News Item Mittens
I’ve decided to start a new “series” of posts so that maybe once and a while I’ll actually post something! I’m going to post when I finish a project. “Finished Object” features!
First up is a set of mittens that have been in progress since November. I started these for Johnathan so that he would have warm, soft mittens for the winter, with short mitts so that he can still have the full use of his fingers and flip-tops so that he can have the added warmth when needed (like when he’s unburying his car).
The mittens are based on the News Item Gloves pattern, which is a vintage pattern from the 1940′s. It calls for dk weight yarn, but Johnathan wanted a bulky, squishy yarn, so I picked a yarn and he picked a color. I went up on my needle size to fit the yarn and cast it on circular instead of flat, and imagine my surprise when the pattern as written pretty much worked out! I made the mittens significantly longer than the pattern written, so he’ll have that extra touch of warmth in the freezing winter weather.
The first mitten was originally made with fingers, at Johnathan’s request, and as I finally started the second mitten (five months later!), I thought they would look better with just mitts and no fingers. And they do! The shaping was largely made up, and the flip-over part was also mostly improvised. I really did have to kind of make these up as I went.
I learned a few things with this project: write things down if you’re modifying anything. When I started the second mitten, I realized that I’d done some modifications, including decreasing for the wrist and then increasing again for the thumb and hand. I also had no idea exactly what I did for the flip-top, and since this yarn is a bit on the dark side, it can be hard to count stitches on it. So there was a lot of guesswork at what went through my mind as I was making the first mitten in November/December.
I also learned that it’s probably best not to let five months pass between making a pair of items. My knitting when I made the second was much tighter and, I think, more even than the first time. So the second mitten looks a little bit neater than the first. Blocking and wear will probably help, and it isn’t as if they don’t look the same. The differences are probably only obvious to me, really, and they don’t fit differently.
So, Johnathan has new, handmade mittens. Just in time for summer! Oh well, maybe it’ll go better next time.
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