Last of the Mittens

For those of you following my blog, you might remember that I signed up for NaKniMitMo10 (a mitten knit-a-long for January 2010).

Well, last night I finished the third and final pair of mittens.  The pattern was Swedish Fish by SpillyJane.  I used Colinette Jitterbug sock yarn for the background colour, and Estelle Cadenza sock yarn for the red fish.

The pattern called for a 72 st cast on, with an increase to 82 sts after the ribbing.  I was dubious about knitting 82 sts for mittens for my small hand. But, the pattern called for 2mm needles versus the usual 2.5mm, so I figured that they might fit.

WRONG.

I knit about 2ins on the first mitten, decided it was going to waaaay too big, and frogged it back.

I redid the charts to remove one column of fish from the front and one from the back. Then I added a few stitches left and right on both sides to balance the mitten out for a 62 st cast on.  After ribbing 10 rows, I increased to 72 sts.  Perfect!

Mods:  I knit one extra row of fish for the length of the mitten.  I also changed the decreases on the fingertips in keeping with the pattern decreases over ten rounds.

This was a pretty easy knit compared to the complex charts for the Mogit Selbut Mittens I knit earlier this month.  Still, it was enjoyable and a good project for TV watching.

Sarassa Pond Fish Mittens (front)

Sarassa Pond Fish Mittens (back)

I'm glad the kint-a-long has drawn to a close.  It is quite exhausting knitting with a deadline....and where's the fun in that?

Now for something completely different -

A new vest!  I had to have a mindless knitting project in between all those stranded and fair isle projects.  So I cast on another vest.  I present to you Blackforest Hilja:

Blackforest Hilja

Blackforest is the yarn I dyed at Shelridge Farms in November.  It is worsted weight soft touch ultra.  A really lovely soft yarn, and a delight to knit with.

In between the mittens and the vest, I went on a fabulous road trip with the girls to Shall We Knit in New Hamburg.  There I attended a workshop to learn the amazing double-knitting technique.  Double-knitting is a form of knitting in which two fabrics are knit simultaneously with two yarns on one pair of needles. The fabrics may be inseparable, as in interlock knitted fabrics, or they can simply be two unconnected fabrics.  In other words, double-knitting is used for knitted items that can be reversible (e.g.  scarf, hat, potholder, etc.).  And the totally neat thing is that whatever you knit on the right-side is mirrored on the wrong-side.  The colours are just opposite!

So guess what my next project is going to be???  [hehehe]