Mitten Magic

And now, live from Edison, NJ, another remote posting...

There really is something to be said for the old adage, "you have to learn to crawl before you can begin to run." I wanted, really wanted, to make a pair of gloves to match my Odessa hat. Not just using the same yarn, which I had enough of, but to actually incorporate the Odessa design, beads and all. Problem? I'd never made gloves. Or mittens for that matter. And, frankly, I'd never seen the point in wearing mittens. I mean what do you do with your fingers? But now that I live on the East Coast and 40 degrees is considered a warm day, I'm starting to get the picture. So after a couple of failed attempts at the Odessa Gloves, I went back to basics. (Sounding familiar, like sock familiar???) You'd think I'd have learned my lesson! And perhaps I have.

Using Ann Budd's Basic Mitten pattern from The Basic Book of Patterns, and inspired by a photo of Kristin Nicholas' mittens, I started whipping these up.

Flower Power Mittens
yarn: from stash, Teddy Wool worsted weight
needles: 4mm KP Options

ribbed cuff with garter borders and most of the thumb gusset

finished knit work before embroidery

first pass at embroidery

I am happy with the pink flowers, the tangerine ones, not so much. The yarn started getting all splitty and I didn't like the results. Actually, I've already ripped them out and will replace them with more pink flowers. The second mitten really is already on the needles. Almost finished with the ribbing, in fact. And now that I'm getting into the mitten thing, I think I'll add some Thrummed Mittens into the queue! They should prove to keep me toasty, indeed.