Pattern: Classic Mittens by Purl Soho
Inspiration: These
Source: Purl Bee Blog
Yarn: Kertzer Worsted (Green), Remnant Worsted (Turquoise), Garnstudio Super Bulky (Stranded Blue)
Needles: Hand: 4.5mm, Cuff: 4mm
Start: January 20 Finish: January 26th, 2014
I "favourited" these some time ago.
- 'Loved the cuff. Provisional crochet cast on facilitating a tidy join to double the cuff over on itself before moving on to knit the hand.
- 'Loved the k2,s1 pattern of the cuff itself.
- 'Loved a version of it knit flat in worsted with super bulky yarn stranded to infer thrums.
So I hit the stash, grabbed the remnant turquoise, a single green ball of worsted I got as a freebie somewhere and some remnant Super Bulky from my 2 big blue sweaters (knit, worn, ripped, washed, re knit - man have I got my money's worth out of that yarn purchase!).
As you can imagine they flew off the needles and onto my hands where I quickly realized...
Faux thrums
provide...
They were better than a single layer of stockinette but not much. The doubled cuffs were toasty, my fingers quickly numb. They were big and round enough to easily add a layer underneath but I have to admit, I was a bit disappointed.
I am also not thrilled about the seam. The influence of the stranding worked close enough to the seams so as to make at least the pattern seamless made the mittens scream out "Seam's right here everybody!"
They look sloppy and awkward but with the pink mitred mitts underneath they saw a lot of wear and did their job of keeping my fingers from falling off in the -20ish wind chills I often endured as Hudson frolicked. They'll be off to the bath soon for summer storage but I'll be glad to dig them out again (hopefully) late next autumn.
At last night's DKC presentation Sally Melville gave a most entertaining talk on why knitting makes us happy. She cited many of the reasons with which we, as avid knitters, are familiar but beyond that asserted when we knit useful, wearable garments that fit well and look good on us we find the confluence of all the best things that knitting can provide for us, our families and even society as a whole.
It made me think of these mitts among all my pure wool sweaters, socks, cowls, scarves, hats etc. etc. - the pieces that literally made it possible for me to ensure Hudson never missed a single day of being out for at least a couple of hours of the brisk walking we both need.
I know people with big, young, athletic dogs who need and deserve at least an hour and a half of daily exercise who rarely got out for weeks on end because their owners felt it was "too cold".
It was COLD, it wasn't comfortable and we had to be careful but properly dressed and always moving - you can't just stand around in weather like that, it wasn't so cold as to keep us inside and the poor dog from getting his proper exercise. (Or the dog's owner for that matter!). Without a doubt, the products of my knitting made dog ownership, Hudson's life and my own overall fitness all that much better this winter. I'm with 'ya Sally!
Hmm. I would have thought that the 'lice' com thrum look would have made them quite warm. Good to know that isn't so. The mis-aligned stripes are cool.
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