actually, three mittens!
last weekend it was COLD here, which being that this is nashville i should have understood that it was a very temporary condition but nevertheless my mind turned to yarn, and for whatever reason, i decided that i HAD. TO. LEARN. TO. KNIT. MITTENS.
and of course because i am stubborn, i HAD to figure out how to knit them backwards--from the fingertips to the cuff--because i don't know how to figure out if i have enough yarn to make something, and if i knit them backwards i can just make the cuff as long as the yarn lasted.
i found only two patterns for this online, but i couldn't use either of them because the first one was for different yarn than i had--and i haven't learned how to convert for that yet--and the other one was for knitting on two circular needles--and i haven't learned how to convert from that to DPN's. so i was pretty much on my own.
i spent two full hours on saturday night figuring out the rate of increase to shape the fingers--i thought i could just do it like i do for making toes on socks, but because hands are not the same shape as feet, it was a little trickier than that. (i still have a little figuring to do on this--the fingers on these mittens are kind of square). once i got something that would work, i knitted around until the hand was long enough to reach the thumb. then i tried something i had read about but had not had the chance to try yet--i knitted in a piece of waste yarn to mark my place, which i understand in sock knitting is called an "afterthought". i had to hold it up to ella's hand to find the right place to put this. from there i kept knitting until the hand was long enough, and then made a K2 P2 ribbing cuff.
next came the scary part--ripping out the waste yarn to make the thumb. i managed this ok--i put the needles in before taking out the yarn--and then as i started knitting in the round i picked up way too many stitches in the corners because i was worried about holes. and nobody told me that knitting tiny tubes with 7" long needles was like knitting with a porcupine (rudi bought me some 5" needles the next day).
all this learning was SO worth it--the final product was an honest-to-goodness, card-carrying mitten! ella loved it--she put it on and right away said, "mama, it fits for me! i need another one!".
the second one went much faster--thankfully i had made notes along the way--all i need to do now is decorate them and put a cord on them.
so--having obviously mastered the many intricacies of mittens ;) i set out to make a pair for myself, having learned three things:
- a new increase--knit front and back--or rather, an increase i had learned before but had been told (WRONGLY) that it was not a "desirable" increase. whatever that means. i have no idea why i fell for that--i should have known better.
- non-handed mittens are better for little kids because they can put them on either hand.
- someone said something about not being sure you could knit a thumb gusset backwards--saying something like that is like hand-delivering an embossed invitation to prove it could be done.
so--here is my new, better-increase-stitched/backward-thumb-gusset-having/fingertip-to-cuff-knitted mitten:
i made lots of notes on this one too--it still needs a little refinement--and this being nashville, and it being 75 degrees and sunny today, i only have until the weekend to get the second one done, owing to our spring-winter-summer-winter-fall-spring-winter weekly weather pattern that i should just learn to know and love.
