Kaleidoscope Mittens

Here are the mittens I made for the state fair. I've also typed up the pattern and provide it here for free. Feel free to make them for personal use or gifts, but not to sell. A mention of where you found the pattern or link back to this blog if you make them would be appreciated!



Kaleidoscope Mittens
by Kim Helmick ©2010, All Rights Reserved

Materials
Fingering weight yarns: Color A: Berroco Sox-Metallic in color 1369 Papaya (bright multi)
Color B: Nature Spun from Brown Sheep in color 601F Pepper (black)

U.S. #1 (2.25mm) double point needles (set of 5)

Cast On 64 stitches using 2-color long-tail method over two needles to ensure stretchy cuff opening. (Black on thumb and multi on pointer finger.)
Distribute 16 stitches on each of four needles. Making sure cast on edge is not twisted, join in the round. Place marker for beginning of round.

Cuff will be corrugated ribbing for a total of 15 rounds as follows:
*K2 with color A; bring color B forward and P2 (color A remains in back), color B to back;* repeat. (I carry color A in my left hand since I find it easier to purl color B with my right hand in the English method I am more familiar with. Do what feels best to you.)

Hand Pattern:
Row 1-3: Knit around with color B.
Rows 4 & 5: *K2 color B; K2 color A* repeat around.
Rows 6 & 7: Knit around with color B.

Repeat rows 4-7 six times. (There should be a total of 7 completed colored block sections above your cuff.)

Thumb Gusset, right mitten (thumb gusset and thumb will be solid black, color B)
Round 1– Needles 1-3: *K2 color B, K2 color A across. Needle 4: K2 color B; K2 color
A; place marker for beginning of gusset increases and K1 (color B throughout), M1R, K1,
M1L, K1, place marker to indicate end of gusset section; K1 color A, K2 color B, K2 color A, K2 color B, K2 color A.

Round 2 – Knit around in established pattern. When you reach the gusset stitches knit them in color B begin mindful to tack down your carried color as you go. (This is especially important as the gusset gets wider!)

Continue to knit in the pattern of 2 rows of 2x@ color blocks and 2 rows of plain black.
On Round 3 you will increase the thumb gusset again by slipping the 1st marker, K1, M1R and then knitting the gusset stitches in black (tacking down your colored yarn which is being carried behind!) until you reach the last stitch before 2nd marker. M1L and knit the last stitch, slip the marker and continue on in pattern. Increase the gusset every-other row until there are 17 stitches between the markers.

When there are 17 sts between the gusset markers: knit around in pattern to the first marker. Place the 17
gusset sts onto stitch holder. Using backwards loop method, cast on 3 stitches to right needle and finish knitting stitches to end of 4th needle. You will be picking up the gusset stitches from the holder later to knit the thumb.

Left mitten gusset: Will be done in same fashion as the right, except it will be worked on needle 1 rather than needle 4 as follows:
Round 1: Knit first 8 sts on needle 1 in pattern; place marker, K1, M1R, K1, M1L, K1, place marker. Continue row in pattern.

Round 2: following established pattern, knit around evenly. (Don’t forget to tack down the colored yarn you are carrying behind the extra gusset sts! Make sure it’s not tight or you won’t have room for your thumb.)

Continue to knit in the pattern of 2 rows of 2x@ color blocks and 2 rows of plain black.
On Round 3 you will increase the thumb gusset again by slipping the 1st marker, K1, M1R and then knitting the gusset stitches in black (tacking down your colored yarn which is being carried behind!) until you reach the last stitch before 2nd marker. M1L and knit the last stitch, slip the marker and continue on in pattern. Increase the gusset every-other row until there are 17 stitches between the markers.

When you have put the gusset stitches onto a holder and have 16 stitches on each needle once more, continue knitting the hand of your mitten until it measures 1" short of your tallest finger tip, ending with a 2x2 color block section if possible. Cut color A (multi) leaving 3"-6" tail to weave in at end.

Finger tip decreases (worked in color B [black] only)
Round 1 – Needle 1: knit to last 3 sts; K2tog, K1
Needle 2: K1, ssk, knit to end of needle
Needle 3: knit to last 3 sts; K2tog, K1
Needle 4: K1, ssk, knit to end

Rounds 2 & 3 – knit around
Round 4 – repeat as for round 1
Round 5 – knit around
Repeat rounds 4 and 5 until 10 sts remain on each needle. Then do the decrease rounds only until 3 sts remain on each needle. Knit to end of needle 1 and graft the mitten tip together using Kitchener stitch.

Thumbs (worked in color B [black] only)
Place the 17 sts from the holder onto 2 needles. Pick up 7 sts from sides/back of opening. Redistribute these 24 stitches so that there are 8 sts on each of three needles.
Knit around until thumb is ½" short of the tip of your thumb. Decrease as follows:
Round 1: K4, K2tog around all sts.
Round 2: K3, K2tog around
Round 3: K2, K2tog around
Round 4: K1, K2tog around
Round 5: K2tog around

Cut yarn leaving 6" tail. Thread tail onto tapestry needle and run through the remaining sts twice. Remove needles, pull tight and move to inside of thumb (through center of tip) to secure.

Sew in your ends.

Abbreviations: CO = cast on; K = knit; P = purl; sts = stitches; M1R = make 1 right (pick up bar between sts from behind and knit into front of st); M1L = make 1 left (pick up bar between sts from front and knit into back of st); K2tog = knit 2 together; ssk = slip, slip, knit (slip one as if to knit, slip one as if to purl, insert left needle and knit the two slipped sts together)

Fingers Crossed!

I'm over half-way done on mitten #2 for the current pair in progress.

I "winged" the decrease section of the tip of the hand on the first. I guess it turned out ok.



Also, since the pattern I did on the last red/white pair turned out looking differently on the palms (one emphasizes the red vertical stripe, while on the other the white stripe stands out.....I believe this is because one mitten's palm pattern began with red while the other one began with white), I wanted to try something that might look more "uniform" when completed, so I decided to do diagonal stripes. I have intentionally done it so that the stripes run in the opposite direction of each other. I'm liking how it's turning out!



We'll see what I think when it's off the needles.

Also last night I picked up the mitten I had done where I forgot to put in the thumb opening. I figured out which row and which 10 stitches it should have been. Then I placed a lifeline in the row below and the row above. I then snipped the middle stitch. (Ok, yes, this was difficult for me to do! I put it off for nearly 6 weeks! I envisioned a giant, gaping hole and a completely destroyed mitten.)

Guess what happened?! Nothing! It actually took some work to pull out the 10 stitches to make room for the thumb hole!

I had two yarn needles ready and as I gently pulled out the stitches, I threaded them onto the needles. Surprisingly, each side was 2"-3" long when unravelled. I wove them in on the back side of the mitten, on either side of the hole. Then I picked up the stitches from the lifelines above and below the hole and knit up the thumb just as though there'd always been a hole waiting there for me.

Phew! Can steeking be far behind??

Happy Knitting!

Doing the Two Step

As in two steps forward, one step back!

Believe it or not, this mitten's entire hand was knit by Friday evening last week.
As I neared the lovely, pointed tip I had the sneaking suspicion something was wrong.
(That, and the fact I kept trying it on as I knit the decreases.)




WHEN will I learn to trust my gut instinct? (And the plain facts of what is sitting there on my body, clearly not fitting??!!)

The hand section was not long enough before the decreases began and thus the mitten did not fit.

While these mittens are lovely, and fun to knit....they're not exactly easy to frog.
I spent two hours Saturday evening tinking (that's unknitting, stitch by stitch) them to the point of where the decreasing had begun. It was tedious! (I've gotten good at wrapping stitches to ensure short carries on the back!)

Since then, they've been sitting and waiting for me to have a brainstorm on exactly how to lengthen them without overboard the other direction and ending up with palms which are way too long.

In the meantime, I've gone back to knitting on the endless garter stitch baby blanket from EZ's Opinionated Knitter. Bleh.

Happy Knitting!

Mitten Monday

Well, after a weekend of knitting fury, I am making progress on more mittens for Christmas.

Here is the completed pair which are my own chart/design. They turned out well I think! (Although there are some minor differences I can't account for since I knit them exactly the same way....but hopefully whoever receives them won't notice!!)

Queen of Hearts




This is a detail section from a pair I completed a few weeks ago, but haven't shown. I have a receipient for this pair. It was done using one of the charts from Lizbeth Upitis' book of Latvian Mittens, however I changed out the cuff to corrugated ribbing, which may be my favorite part of this pair.



Finally, this is the pair I've begun this afternoon. I'm using one of Lizbeth's charts for this pair as well, again switching out to a corrugated rib cuff. The friend this is intended for loves this color combination of the blue/brown and who can blame her? I think they're going to look terrific when done!!



That's the news from my knitting nest . . . how are your projects coming along?

Happy Knitting!

My First Chart

I printed off some knitter's graph paper and have been playing around with some charting for a mitten pattern of my own design.

This will be the back of the hand:



I plan to do the palm in alternating vertical rows of color. Right now I can't decide if I want to do black mittens with the pattern in red . . .

OR

red mittens with the pattern in white......

What do you think??

Here's the pattern for the wrist area:



I will likely use the Latvian 2-color cast on and do a fringed edge with a braided band above it before beginning the wrist pattern. If I don't think the wrist is long enough, I can add another braid before starting the main heart pattern.

Not sure who the receipient will be. It will be fun to see how it looks knit up. I may find I have to adjust the chart. We'll see. It's kind of cool though!