Thoughts on some Scandinavian Mitts

Laura looked at the first of these mitts when I was trying it on, and said, "That's really nice, mom.  Norwegian?"

I impulsively decided to make a pair of mitts a few months ago while riffing on some Scandinavian patterns, but was about two-thirds of the way through the first one and either got distracted or wasn't completely satisfied, I can't even remember.  But I sat down with them in a bit of a trance, I guess, the other day, and whoosh! they are done.

The yarns are both Regia sock yarns, less than half of a skein of Cotton in black, and 4 grams of 4-fädig in grey left over from my Spey Valley socks, because they were both in my sock-yarn drawer at the same time, and they looked good together.  (I said it was impulsive!)  I can't fully recommend the Cotton as a component of two-color knitting, as it's a bit splitty and I had a hard time with it in places.  It is also slightly larger in gauge than the 4-fädig, so I was concerned that it would be a bit overwhelming, but actually now that I look at the finished pieces, the wobbly bits are entirely mine.  But as an experiment, it all comes off, I think.

I was not entirely pleased with the thumb either time -- would possibly space the gusset increases farther apart, to make it a bit longer (taller, as it were), as it's a bit snug.  I did learn that while carrying floats behind a 2x2 rib (here across the base of the thumb), you need to attach them between two knit stitches, otherwise it pulls the rib out of shape rather unattractively.  I had assumed that as you do on the pattern sections, you don't want to "stack" the floats -- that is, have them twisted in at the same spot on two consecutive rows -- because it tends to pull at that spot and show from the right side.  It actually doesn't show much at all on the second thumb -- only when it's either stretched mercilessly or folded, neither of which it is when worn, so that's all right.

The shape of the mitt is based on Ann Budd's generic mitten in The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns, and the star is adapted from my Dale cardigan with little diamonds and arrows improvised at the compass points. I had originally thought I wanted something quite subtle on the back of the hand, and tried an all-over sort of argyle-ish pattern from Sheila McGregor's book, but it was in fact far too subtle, and I'm thoroughly delighted with the star.

Just in time for our ice-skating party next week!

Comments

[--Deb]

Love the star!

[Lill Engström]

Wonderful!