Second Mitten Finished

Second Mitten Finished (New Avatars)
Originally uploaded by >>>WonderMike<<<

You see here, the second mitten in my first color work adventure. Oh, sure, I've done super simple, improvised things like tea cozies and prep for Stitches classes, but this is the real deal (stranding, two colors/two hands, picking up in pattern, etc.). This design is called the Halland Mitten and is a charted pattern from the awesome book, "Folk Mittens" by Marcia Lewandowski.

The yarn used is A Verb for Keeping Warm's Yakkety Yak which is 80/20 Yak/Merino. The subtle variations with the natural dyes really make the colors vibrate... in a good way. And, man, how warm and soft they are after finishing. I was sad to let them go, since they were knitted as a shop sample, but it was great to get such positive feedback from Kristine and everyone else that saw them at Stitches.

In terms of construction, I did find three things confusing about the pattern:

1. The final decreases at the very top are inaccurate because they have two decreases in a row which is not possible given the final stitches you need to work them.

2. The placement of the left hand thumb does not make sense if you start the mitten in the middle of the chart (as it states). I knit the second mitten EXACTLY like the first but I inserted the waste yarn on the left side of the chart (as pictured in the book).

3. Picking up the 6 sts (3 top and 3 bottom) for the peasant thumb was a bit awkward, especially since you are picking up stitches going in the opposite direction of the knitting for the “top” half of the thumb.

Perhaps someone more experienced will know what to do but I just winged it.

The only thing I’m seriously not happy about is the way the mitten distorts near the right hand thumb (you can see this in my pic with my hand inside). I believe it has a lot to do with how I’m stranding the yarns. But, this is my first true colorwork. :-)