So I almost finished these mittens at the beginning of September but, after doing one thumb, I chickened out because of how ridiculous they looked and had to bring them along on a visit to Keren for moral support. I almost believed the pep talk that the mitten czar gave me, but I still didn't work up the courage to finish the second one until yesterday, one day before I needed to wrap and give them away.
I think these mittens are a really strong argument for why I need to use a pattern-- even if it's one I've made up. I just started knitting with these and I think it clearly shows. Especially in how weird the thumbs look. And how totally asymmetrical they are. And how the cuffs aren't really cuffs at all. Oh well. When they're on, they don't look that bad. But compare to source of these mittens' color pattern: the sweater I knit last year for my nephew (straight from a published pattern). Relatively symmetrical. Cuffs that function as cuffs. And no weird thumbs.
I will add, though, that this diamond color pattern is so, so much easier to knit in wool (the mittens, made out of Shepherd Colour 4 Me) than in cotton/acrylic (the sweater, Plymouth Wildflower DK). The stretchiness of the wool really does make a difference.
4 comments:
so, who were the mitten for? does he/she know that you are embarrassed by them?
i'm impressed you even consider knitting sans pattern. the only thing i will knit without a pattern are blankets, because really, they are just squares. how can i screw that up?
I'll admit that the thumbs look like they're vectoring in different directions when lying flat, but....no one cares what their super cute, hand-made intarsia mittens look like when lying flat. (I see no other possible imperfections.)
Also, PRETTY.
This post is Hannah's sly way of posting a picture of her nephew so we can all oggle at how cute he is. She's right that the mittens are not as cute as Thomas, but still pretty darn good. The one thing that's a little weird is that thumbs don't appear to be the same length. I will one day soon post an instructional on how I make mittens, which does not involve a pattern. Okay Okay, it involves a pattern, but not one that requires me to know what k1p1 stands for. I think pictures might be illustrative, so I might need to make a pair to show the steps.
My nephew is even cuter now.
I swear that the thumbs are the same length when you hold them up to each other (and are the same number of rows when you count them), but KZ is right that they do look off. My best guess is that it's due to the different direction vector issue.
The mittens were for a friend who's literally been asking for mittens for the last year. So she couldn't really complain one way or the other, but she seems to like them. She's not a knitter, so she doesn't notice stuff like this.
KZ: I am waiting for your instructional mitten post;
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