Chris’s Special Mittens

Chris had a good idea for a mitten design, and proceeded to turn the whole notion of “mitten” on its head (literally!). We discussed the design at length and Chris decided on these important points: it is to be knit from the fingers down (so that the knit “arrows” point out to the fingertips), it should have a more subtle pattern than traditional Norwegian knits while still being two colors, the right hand has a separate index finger, and the index and thumb on the right hand are tipless. These last features makes this the perfect mittens for operating a camera in cold weather.

I tested a few different cast-on methods, taken mostly from toe-up sock patterns. I decided on using the figure-8 cast on method, but as you can see it created little corners that needed aggressive tacking down later. I also tried using a 45-degree angle (like traditional Norwegian mittens) and I did not like it at all! I went with the more rounded tip as in the Anemoi mittens (and I used Eunny’s blank chart, too, as you can see).

Before I ripped out the first attempt, Wobbly and I had a little fun. Well… I had a little fun.

She’s doing her best wicked witch of the west impersonation. Careful — you don’t want to get her wet.

This was just an in-progress pic… I was getting an annoying ladder at the junction between the needles, so I gradually rotated it around to try to disguise it. Also, I discovered that the two-handed method of carrying the yarn was best for me (one color in each hand). At first I tried to hold them both in my left hand, which I figured would work because the yarns are used at the same rate, but the result was a very loose and inconsistent gauge.

It’s coming along swimmingly. I didn’t take progress pictures through the second mitten. It went rather quickly and without much trouble. The main trouble was the thumbs, which I will discuss further down…

Yay! Chris’s report: they are very warm and comfortable (I was afraid they were too tight, but he says not.) Warm, except the fingertips! He wants me to knit little tip-caps. I will, of course… later.

It’s hard to see here, but by far the most difficult part was the thumbs. I couldn’t just pick up the stitches around the thumb and knit up, because you could see very well that the directions didn’t match. I knit the thumbs tip down and then attempted to graft them on. How on earth do you Kitchner with two colors!? I couln’t find anything about it on the internet (Internets, you have failed me!). So I tried to do one color first, then the other. It worked passably well, but the join is by no means invisible.