Sunday, February 1, 2009

NaKniMitMo

Last month I participated in the 'National Knit Mittens Month' Knit-along on Ravelry. I followed along with the message board for the group. I enjoyed the ongoing discussion and all of the fabulous and inspiring mittens that everyone was knitting.

I knit two pairs of mittens for the KAL...


Herringbone Mittens
pattern by Elli Stubenrauch

This is a free pattern that I've wanted to knit since it was released by Ms.Elliphantom on her blog a couple years ago. I love the overall pattern... it's really made up of just two different rows. There's a great rhythm once you get moving. What I really love the most about these mittens are the thumbs. I just love the structure and the way the yarn striped up. I knit these using Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride worsted which was a delight to knit up and resulted in a velvety, sturdy, warm fabric.

What I'd change if I knit these again are the cuffs. I used size 4 needles on the 1x1 ribbing and size 6 for the body of the mitten. The cuffs are very loose and unruly. They just sort of buckle and don't do their job. They don't have the structure to stand up to the sturdy double-thick pattern of the colorwork.

I probably could go down a few more needle sizes for the cuffs, but if I were to knit these again I think I'd do something different like a double-thick seamed cuff or something. The cuffs really have kept me from wearing these very much which is a dissappointment. Maybe I'll try to retro-fit them somehow.

All in all I LOVED this pattern. I've attempted stranded mittens many times before with NO success! These were the first ones that fit me well and were fun to knit.

Bella's Mittens
pattern by Amanda
(ravelry details)

During the first weeks of January, I read the Twilight book series hot and fast. I saw the movie. I gushed like a schoolgirl with my knitting friends about all things Twilight. It was a lot of silly fun! My friend Amanda is the one who initially got our group hooked on the Twilight series. She is the one who wrote up this pattern for the mittens Bella wears in Twilight the movie. What better way to round out our obsession than to knit these mittens!?

I used size 9 needles and Knit Picks Cadena in the Mist colorway. I also did two less cable repeats up the arm. They're super warm and cozy. Plus, they've already outlived the novelty of the Twilight series for me!

NaKniMitMo was a lot of fun. I enjoyed combing over what seems like hundreds of mitten patterns to knit. I don't knit a lot of mittens on a regular basis so this was a good opportunity to devote some time to all things mitten. I've already picked out a couple patterns to knit next year.

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