It took me ages to find the right colour combination of yarns to make my new mittens. I loved the colours given for the mittens in the Rowan knitting and crochet magazine no 48 but wanted mine to match my purple coat and my cream, grey and ginger checked jacket (the jacket is the tricky one). So I spent an indulgently long time in front of the wonderful shelves of Rowan colours in John Lewis picking up this colour and that. The lovely assistants put down their knitting and joined in my oohs and aahs. Don't you just love it when shop assistants get as enthusiastic about what you are making as you are yourself? I spent quite a long time choosing, and for such small project! This is what I bought.
As I laid out my hoard to photograph with the pattern and jacket I realised - I had forgotten the ginger! Speedily rectified by a quick trip to my local wool shop ; another wonderful place, more a community of knitters really and housed in the garage of someones home, (the shop deserves a blogpost all of its own) I rushed to cast on.
Unfortunately I was so intent on getting the intarsia right (definitely not one of my best skills) I forgot the shaping for the thumb. I could have undone the mitten halfway down but I looked long and hard at the first flower. It clearly looked more like a squashed satsuma than a rose so I unravelled right back to the beginning.
rather a sorry sight...
At the second attempt my knitting improved (somewhat)
But I still relied on blocking to get the rose design properly even.
I'm very pleased with my extra long pins with heart shaped heads (little things...) they are ideal for this work. I'm less pleased with how the yarn fluffed up despite rinsing ever so carefully in very dilute eucalan (thank you Sarah for telling me about this stuff). I sorted it out with one of those defuzzing combs but I don't expect this to happen with pure wool.
If you don't count the unravelling they took me about a week of evenings to knit.
As I laid out my hoard to photograph with the pattern and jacket I realised - I had forgotten the ginger! Speedily rectified by a quick trip to my local wool shop ; another wonderful place, more a community of knitters really and housed in the garage of someones home, (the shop deserves a blogpost all of its own) I rushed to cast on.
Unfortunately I was so intent on getting the intarsia right (definitely not one of my best skills) I forgot the shaping for the thumb. I could have undone the mitten halfway down but I looked long and hard at the first flower. It clearly looked more like a squashed satsuma than a rose so I unravelled right back to the beginning.
rather a sorry sight...
At the second attempt my knitting improved (somewhat)
But I still relied on blocking to get the rose design properly even.
I'm very pleased with my extra long pins with heart shaped heads (little things...) they are ideal for this work. I'm less pleased with how the yarn fluffed up despite rinsing ever so carefully in very dilute eucalan (thank you Sarah for telling me about this stuff). I sorted it out with one of those defuzzing combs but I don't expect this to happen with pure wool.
If you don't count the unravelling they took me about a week of evenings to knit.
I love wearing them.
14 comments:
Oh, those are beautiful! You picked such wonderful colours. Are they knit flat and then seamed together? Or you have super patience for intarisa in the round!
I am gobsmacked; they are lovely
Gorgeous! Colourwork never comes right until you've blocked it. What lovely hands you have too.
Beautiful yarns equals beautiful mittens, they are lovely and must have involved quite a bit of work......... I think you would have no trouble knitting socks.
florrie x
So pretty and they look very warm too.
N x
These are gorgeous. I wouldn't dream of doing this pattern unless I just one colour. Would love to be able to knit more than stripes.
They are lovely, I haven't done any colour work for years now, must get back to it (and then I never did anything more ambitious than two colours!). I love gloves that stand out from the crowd, and these certainly do :-) x
Those look gorgeous. I hate intarsia, well I hate knitting it, never did finish a little sweater I started 2 years ago, but I love the look of it. Wish I had the patience to do it.
The gloves are lovely. I am sure they are really nice and warm. You asked me about how to do North American Smocking. It is all about creating a textured looked. There are several designs. If you email me I will send you some patterns to follow.
annchristy2@gmail.com
Absolutely beautiful - you must now have the most elegant hands in England.x
Thank you everyone for the lovely encouraging comments and Florrie, I have bought my first ball of sock yarn.
C x
They are simply gorgeous! I wish my knitting skills were so advanced--it's just plain mittens for me!
And thank you so much for your lovely book comment. I adored The Help as well. I'd love to have your email address (if you don't mind) as blogger won't let me respond to your comments. So frustrating!
K x
Beautiful mittens.
wow, those mittens are beautiful.
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