Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Across the nation we all have been experiencing Jack Nip at our toes and noses! :o)
Well I've been trying to keep him away from my fingertips
~ Project Details ~
Pattern: I took notice of this pattern on the Lime & Violet post earlier this month. The cute horseshoe cables and the word "free" hooked me! :o)These are the Bella's Mittens by Marielle Henault and I immediately went to Ravelry to scope them out, and I kept seeing them being referred to as the "Twilight Mitts"...and I was perplexed as to why....if I only had read the pattern! LOL
Apparently they were designed after the mitts the lead actress wore in the movie
I am by no means a Twilight fan, and have no desire to read or watch the movie but love the mitts!This pattern was VERY well written. I cannot say that enough! Marielle really did a great job on the line by line instructions never keeping you guessing along with a nice variety of pictures. The total opposite from the last pattern I worked up (haha!)
I was pleasantly pleased with this pattern AND it was free?!?! Bonus!!
Size: I just recently read somewhere that mittens are simply hand socks with thumbs! Haha! So true! :o)
These mitts are a one size fit all type pattern (which I normally don't like), but ironically they fit me perfectly! Nice and snug just the way I like it!
They are also longer than normal mitts with a great extended cuff. These are considered "arm/elbow length mitts". Even though that was one of the features that attracted me to this pattern, I did shorten mine by one repeat.Yarn & Cost: The Cascade 220 wool has been sitting in my stash for a couple of years just waiting to come to life!! :o)
I used 2 balls with the yarn held double for thickness, knitting them 2 at 1 time of course! ;o)
This is the very bright Christmas Red in #8895. It has been hard to snap this bright color without my camera freakin' out on capturing the true color (as you may have already noticed). Above is the correct color of red on the mitts.Time: This was one of those projects I just couldn't put down! :o)
I started them on a Sunday and rushed home each evening after work to knit on them a couple of hours finishing by that Thursday night. I so enjoyed working on them!
Needles: I used my Harmony #8 on the entire mittens on a 47" cord. I truly only needed to be on a 40" cord for the magic looping.
What I learned: This project was not a difficult one, but challenging enough to keep me interested! I enjoyed making the horseshoe cables. I did punk out and used my cable needle ;op But will try and push myself next time to cable without one again so I can sharpen that technique.
I really love only gusset thumbs
and was very happy to see that was written in this pattern. I debated about going one needle down on the thumbs but ripped back keeping with the same needle size as it didn't look good to me.Modifications: There were only a couple of things I modified, and I already mentioned the main one which was to eliminate one of the cable repeats.
I did this by skipping rows 34-38, knitting a regular row before going onto R39 then knitted another regular row by continuing with R40.
Because of my little adjustment I also skipped rows 44-46 which meant that one set of increases for the thumb gusset didn't occur. And I was fine with that just making note of my stitch count on the thumb gusset instructions (picked up a total of 5 sts).
These are totally not blocked yet and plan to dunk them this week (when it warms back up again a bit), since I have already spilled white chocolate coco and apple chi tea on them! ;op
I will also say be sure to knit tight your SSKs and really pay attention to the instructions between rows 75-82 as you have unknit stitches to be moved as the 1st stitch.
Verdict: I highly recommend this pattern!! As I mentioned before it was so well written and for your first pair of mitts (as these were mine) this would be a true thumbs up! They also would make a great pair of fingerless mitts too!
And right now all across the nation we are experiencing a change!
A need to be moving forward together! 
Today we have a new President!!
One huge dream realized!!
A glimmer of brightness in the twilight
Continue to BE the Change you want to see in the world! ~ Ghandi
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I LOVE the mittens!!!!!!!!!
You should have SOME Kinda desire to read/watch Twilight. It is AWESOME!!!!!
Do you think this is something I could do?? No need to get in over my head with the knitting lol. Gotta finish Green Gable first! lol
Glad you got to knit from your stash!!
I have NEVER done cables!!!! We gotta fix that!
They look great! Love em!
And yes, today is going to be a great day!!
And today is a wonderful day! Enjoy it!
I totally love the substantial cables!
and Canada is Obama-crazy today too...lordy!
It is a great day, but I was just laughing with the Knight's assistant about The Today Show's coverage of the exhaust of a couple of Caddys at the Blair House... Come on!
Love the title too! You've always do though! LOL!
I've been making hat and scarf sets for the past week. My crochet mojo is on!
Keep up the good work as always!
Your mittens are beautiful - what great cables (and the color Christmas Red)!
We watched the inaguration at school today and my kds were really into it and excited! It was fun to see them so into it!
I'm not a fan of Twilight either. The whole teenage romance/glorified abusive-relationship-with-an-obsessive-stalker doesn't really appeal to me. And I don't want to see the movie or read the books. But those mittens are very pretty.