Out Of Hand

I may have gone a little crazy with the mitten knitting.

Let me start out by saying I don’t particularly like to wear mittens. But they sure are fun and fast to knit . . . well, the first one anyway. My track record with mittens is less than stellar. In the past, I’ve never really been very interested in knitting the second mitten. In fact, I have no fewer than 5 single mittens languishing in my WIP pile.

Among them are some Turkish mittens from Magnificent Mittens:

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Lopi Mittens from Folk Mittens (notice the glaring error):

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And, Mittens From Halland, also from Folk Mittens.

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But this December I’ve attacked mittens with a renewed vengence.

The first pair I finished were the Manly Mitts with the thumb from the Herringbone Mittens With Poms. Well, they’re not 100% finished since I haven’t blocked them yet, but the knitting part is finished:

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The chart I used for the top decreases is in this post.

Emboldened by the simple fact that I actually knit two matching mittens, I immediately cast on a new pair.

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These are Kelly’s Very Cabley Mittens.

I used the recommended yarn, Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride Worsted (in the Pistachio colorway), and followed the pattern almost exactly as written. The only change I made was to mark the thumb on the 6th rnd of the pattern repeat instead of the 2nd rnd. That necessitated placing the waste yarn in a slightly different spot. I worked the thumb round as: k1, k6 sts with the waste yarn, etc. (instead of k7, k6 with the waste yarn, etc., as set out in the original pattern).

And, look, I liked the Very Cabley Mittens so much that I made another pair!

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For this pair, I worked the thumb on Rnd 2 but I worked one less repeat of the cable pattern on the cuff. And, obviously, I also have to put in the second thumb. But before I did that, I knit a pair of instant gratification mittens:

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These are the Bulky Mittens from Knitting Pure and Simple.
I knit both of these in less than 2 hours from a single skein of Berroco Hip Hop that’s been languishing in my stash for years. I wore them on Thursday when I went to see Debbie Stoller.

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and they kept my hands toasty warm even though it was cold as hell out.

And then I couldn’t stop myself from starting a pair of Sander’s Mittens from Folk Knitting In Estonia:

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I’ll have more to say about these later this week. But first I have to clean up this mess o’ mittens.

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43 Responses to “Out Of Hand”

  1. Anna on 16 Dec 2007 at 8:14 pm

    It must be something in the air! I’m on a mitten kick too! Have you seen the Chevalier mitts? Fun!

  2. Teresa C on 16 Dec 2007 at 8:16 pm

    Whoa! You are turning into a mitten knittin’ mama!

  3. Marcia on 16 Dec 2007 at 8:49 pm

    If only I could finish the hats and scarves I’m doing for Christmas…I’m dying to do some fancy mittens! Good to see you Saturday, by the way!

  4. Jody on 16 Dec 2007 at 9:18 pm

    I love them all - especailly the turkish mittens!

  5. Norma on 16 Dec 2007 at 9:20 pm

    Holy CRAP. You are such a fast knitter it makes me practically go into a seizure. :D

  6. bellamoden on 16 Dec 2007 at 9:22 pm

    Any particiular reason why you don’t often do gussets for the thumb?

    And dude. That is a lot of mittens!

  7. Jane on 16 Dec 2007 at 9:41 pm

    I love knitting mittens, and those cable ones look like something I need to work on very soon! They are all fabulous, though.

  8. Tracey on 16 Dec 2007 at 9:52 pm

    My favorite are the Very Cably Mittens, how fun looking (although all are great)!!

    Are you going to finish the other mittens, or will you frog them?

  9. Cheryl S. on 16 Dec 2007 at 10:18 pm

    Those Turkish ones look fun! Yay for mittens!

  10. Jessica on 16 Dec 2007 at 10:36 pm

    Dang. That’s a whole lot of mitten knittin’. I particularly love the Turkish mittens.

  11. Erica on 16 Dec 2007 at 10:41 pm

    That’s a veritable pile of mittens! I love the colorwork ones, and I had to look for the “glaring” error, so it may not be as glaring as you find it. I know that doesn’t really help a knitter feel better, but it isn’t that obvious, at least to this casual observer. =)

  12. Sharon on 16 Dec 2007 at 10:59 pm

    Wow! You’ve been busy! But I love it that you’re getting them finished. They look stunning!

  13. marie in florida on 16 Dec 2007 at 11:21 pm

    you got a pet octopuss?

  14. Lara on 17 Dec 2007 at 12:34 am

    Oh my gosh you have been busy! All the mittens look great! You are inspiring me to knit a pair. Maybe after my Christmas knitting is done.

  15. Jennifer on 17 Dec 2007 at 4:11 am

    Wow! Can I come shop at your lovely mitten warehouse? Your stockpile is breathtaking!

  16. Laurie on 17 Dec 2007 at 4:51 am

    Lovely grouping! I’m lusting after most of them. They are either in my queue or on my bookshelf. Hmmm. Maybe cabley ones for Mr. E.

  17. Carole on 17 Dec 2007 at 5:07 am

    Wonderful mittens! Down with Second Mitten Syndrome!

  18. margene on 17 Dec 2007 at 5:54 am

    You’ve got a fever and the only prescription is more mittens!

  19. Becky on 17 Dec 2007 at 6:27 am

    Wow! You’re a mitten knittin’ maniac! They’re beautiful. I especially like the blue cabley mittens. They look so soft and warm.

  20. Knitting Analyst on 17 Dec 2007 at 7:09 am

    I have mitten fever too! It must be all the snowy weather. Amazingly beautiful work, thanks for sharing!

  21. Anne on 17 Dec 2007 at 7:17 am

    They are addictive and apparently contagious - mittens are next up on deck for me too!

  22. Catherine on 17 Dec 2007 at 7:18 am

    Gah! I love mittens!! ALL of yours are so gorgeous. I’m so mad because I have the Selbuvotter book with all these fab mitten patterns and I can’t find it. I guess I’ll just admire yours…

  23. Pat on 17 Dec 2007 at 7:45 am

    Oh - yes, I have the fever too! I love your pile-o-mittens! Now I have to go take another look at Sander’s in Folk Knitting - yours are gorgeous!

  24. Heather Joins The Round on 17 Dec 2007 at 8:04 am

    As I was reading this, I kept thinking to myself “wow, that’s a lot of mittens”, then I’d scroll down and discover that there were even more mittens. This happened at least twice. Go, Susan! Way to rock the mittens!

    I think the cabley ones are my favorite.

  25. Cheryl on 17 Dec 2007 at 8:04 am

    I’m loving those Turkish ones! I have that book too, I’ll have to dig it out.

  26. Lark on 17 Dec 2007 at 9:18 am

    Wowza grrl! We’d better get some snow soon, ’cause it looks like there’s gonna be a wicked snowball fight at your house!

  27. Kat with a K on 17 Dec 2007 at 9:48 am

    I knit mittens yesterday too. Yours are much more exciting, though! I especially love the cable ones.

  28. Beth S. on 17 Dec 2007 at 12:12 pm

    There is no such thing as too many mittens. And all of your mitten projects just brought a huge smile to my work-stressed face. :-)

  29. Beth on 17 Dec 2007 at 2:31 pm

    Looks like a sickness to me! :)

  30. Jennifer on 17 Dec 2007 at 2:47 pm

    I love all the mittens!

  31. Lois Budnitsky on 17 Dec 2007 at 3:08 pm

    WOW! They’re fantastic. You have inspired me.

  32. Kate on 17 Dec 2007 at 5:35 pm

    Wow, you need to finish some more pair, and welcome to the mittens club. I think there are a mittenweave over the web these days.

  33. lisa on 17 Dec 2007 at 5:58 pm

    wow, you really do have a mitten thing going on there! But what lovely mittens. I had to look HARD at that lopi mitten to find the error, nobody but you will notice. Mostly I’ve only made plain mittens, so I find them quick (as opposed to that other item in pairs-socks…ugh, I find the second of those hard to finish!). I really love those cable ones.

  34. Wanda on 17 Dec 2007 at 6:45 pm

    Dang, Susan, this is mitten mania! you’ve got a few to finish, but wow, you’ve got a lot of mittens done too. I still love the Herringbone mitts.

  35. Kim on 18 Dec 2007 at 12:15 pm

    Spectacular work! What wool are you using for the Turkish mittens? It looks like it has a very springy quality which gives the mitts a great texture.

  36. Grethemor on 18 Dec 2007 at 1:38 pm

    WOW!! Wonderful mittens :)

  37. polly on 18 Dec 2007 at 11:09 pm

    they are all gorgeous. i love the turkish mittens and the colours that you have chosen for sander’s mittens.

  38. Jacqueline on 19 Dec 2007 at 1:30 am

    Love them, love them, love them a lot! Beautiful!

  39. Jen on 19 Dec 2007 at 4:44 am

    That’s a lot of mittens! I can see how they are addicting though. I am almost done with my first pair, and I am already thinking about my second, third, and fourth. . . .

    Happy Holidays!

  40. Katherine on 19 Dec 2007 at 12:01 pm

    I love, love, love the mitten madness.

  41. Alyssa on 19 Dec 2007 at 8:48 pm

    Wow all those mittens! They’re amazing…where do you find the time?

  42. jane on 21 Dec 2007 at 6:16 am

    Wow, they all look fabulous!

  43. Julia on 25 Dec 2007 at 2:01 pm

    Wow - you should have warm hands for quite a time to come… Good job!

    (And I didn’t see the error either.)

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