living in the woods and making stuff

Today was cold and rainy. I ended up spending most of the day outside in a barn playing fiddle tunes, which suited me perfectly. I also finished a new pair of mittens (in the car on the way to the barn). Funny that it is cold enough to start thinking about keeping hands warm..

Last week we got a shipment of wool and patterns from Classic Elite Yarns. I made a pair of mittens using princess yarn (wool, microfiber, and cashmere) and a pattern by Jared Flood. I did end up modifying the tips of the mittens. When I followed the pattern they ended up a little bit shorter than I wanted, so I added an extra repeat, and changed the tops so that the decreases weren’t so abrupt.

The pattern was fun to knit up, a lot of twisted stitches, and little cables on the cuff created a nice sideways rib. The sideways rib also ended up being functional, and the cuff hugs the wrist quite well. The thumbs were also a little short, and so I just added a few more rows to fit. The nice thing about mittens, is that you can just try them on and adjust the pattern a little so that the fit comes out well. All you have to do is remember what you did on the first mitten so that you can repeat it for the second mitten…