January 18, 2012

At longest last

As I agreed with myself yesterday when we had that little talk, I am temporarily closing the mitten factory.  This jag lasted a good long time, and resulted in ten mittens, but only two pairs. 

I couldn't stop putting them together, working them with little stained glass windows...

and without. 

I had everyone in the family picking their favourite combinations, and the other morning, when Sam designed three colour combinations in five minutes and then asked me if this yarn came in any other colours... I was reassured that it wasn't just me that found it fun.  (The white one with lime green, fuchsia and turquoise is hers.)

I posed them all over, I took a million pictures of them - and I wrote up the pattern. I've called these mittens Cloisoneé, after that decorative metalwork art that puts coloured enamel or gems into little compartments, because that's what these have looked like to me from the beginning. 

I think they are very good little mittens. They come in three sizes, and the pattern is written for both versions (with little windows, and without.) They take only about 100m of worsted weight for the main colour, and each section of the cuff (there are five) takes less than 8m for the pair.  (I used Cascade 220, but any worsted that makes a fabric you like at 21 stitches to 10cm would work.)

The whole fancy looking cuff is done with one colour at a time, and there's a photo tutorial for how to do the knit below stitch that get's you those cool little scallops.

There's more details here on Ravelry, and you can buy the pattern if you like.  I hope you love them as much as I do, but please be warned.  They're a little addictive, and it is very hard to make pairs.

PS.  I'm about to say something that accidentally got some people in England very excited  last time I did it, so this time I'm heading it off at the pass.  I'm about to mention London, and the London I'm talking about is in Ontario, Canada.  Not England. 

This weekend I'll be in London ONTARIO to teach and speak.  While the classes are full, there's still room in the Friday night talk if you'd like to come.  You can ask after it at Cotton-by-Post if you like. It's a very good talk about knitting and your brain, and also explains some interesting other things you've wondered about.
 

Posted by Stephanie at January 18, 2012 12:54 PM