During the Winter Olympics, I started and finished Audrey in Unst as my Olympic Knitting project. It was a good choice. The yarn was from Whistler, the pattern was lovely, and there was lots of stockinette knitting to do. But although the sweater was the logical project for me to knit, in my heart I really wanted to knit some mittens.
Mittens were, of course, all wrong for the Olympics. Having to refer to a chart is not great for Olympic watching. They were too small in scale for the challenge, and the yarn was not from Whistler. They did serve well as a carrot, however. Once I finished my sweater, even if the Olympics were still on, I was allowed to knit my mittens. I'm pretty sure my sweater was finished up a little bit faster because of the promise of those mittens.
I had the yarn already. It was leftovers from these two wonderful pairs of socks. I had been planning to pair the leftovers together for quite a while now. In fact, I was anxious to finish up the Glacier Wave socks so I could use the leftovers! I also had a pattern, Heather's Mittens, in mind. However, once I finished the sweater I actually opened up the Heather's Mittens pattern and looked at it. It was not what I wanted. I did not want to knit my mittens at such a tight gauge. I wanted a long cuff. Have you ever built up a pattern in your mind and then realized it's not what you imagined? It's very disappointing, even if it is not the pattern's fault.
So, I started making the cuff I wanted to make while I figured out what I was going to do.
It's corrugated rib, with a braid, 4 rows of one-stitch stripes, and then another braid. (I like braids, too.) By the time I had finished the cuff, I had finally decided what I would do. I used the chart from Heather's Mittens, but only for 3 repeats instead of four. This meant that the middle repeat wrapped around the side of my hand. I also made a gusseted thumb because I like them so much better than the ones that come off the palm of the mitten. Oh, and I kind of just knit from the chart until the mittens were long enough, and then I did some tapering thing at the top and kitchenered it all together. (I did take better notes than what I just said so that the second mitten worked out the same way.)
I think what I'm trying to say is that I knit my own version of a mitten, and I used the chart for Heather's mittens. Kind of. I flipped it around for the second mitten so that way they would be mirror images of each other.
I love these mittens. They're exactly what I wanted. I will happily wait until next winter to wear them.
So pretty! One of my favorite color combinations. The twisted braides running in opposite directions are truly an elegant touch.
Posted by: jodi | March 28, 2010 at 12:50 PM
They are so beautiful! I find that I, too, sometimes use a smaller or more enticing project as a "carrot" :)
Posted by: Mildawg | March 28, 2010 at 12:51 PM
Beautiful!
Posted by: cari | March 28, 2010 at 02:30 PM
They are fabulous! Nice work!
Posted by: stacey | March 28, 2010 at 05:20 PM
Ooooh... beautiful!
Posted by: Allison | March 31, 2010 at 05:00 PM
Really beautiful! I agree that thumb gussets are the way to go on a mitten, at least the way my hands are shaped.
I don't have a very good visual memory, and I've found my brain often puts the details it likes in a pattern memory than what the pattern actually is.
Posted by: Brenda | April 01, 2010 at 03:40 PM
LOVE those mittens! Great color combo, too.
Posted by: Linda | April 06, 2010 at 03:07 PM
Those mittens are all kinds of awesome! I love them!
Posted by: Heather | April 09, 2010 at 06:51 PM
these are fantastic!!
Posted by: carolyn (girlreaction) | May 30, 2010 at 10:11 AM