As a retired trial attorney, I am always curious about what
people think and do during their time on a jury. So when I came across the
Juris Mitts in the 2011 issue of Interweave
Knits Accessories, I knew that I simply had to knit them.
First, the designer came up with the idea while serving on a
jury.
Second, and more important as far as knitting is concerned,
I had been on the lookout for a while for a fingerless gloves knitting pattern for
myself and my sister Cynthia, who also lives in Colorado. These flip-top mitts
were perfect!
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Cynthia loves her Juris Mitts
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I showed the magazine photo of the mitts to Cynthia at
Thanksgiving, and she was equally enthusiastic about them. I went to a local
yarn store the next day, avoiding the Black Friday crowds at the mall in favor
of spending time wandering around the walls and bins of yarn. Since it was one
of the elements that drew me to the pattern in the first place, I decided to
stick with the Tahki Yarns Donegal Tweed yarn used in the mitts modeled in the
magazine. The yarn weight used for the Juris Mitts is substantial enough to
hold their shape without being too bulky in the fingers.
The directions called for two skeins, so I bought two skeins
of red for Cynthia's mitts and two skeins of blue for mine. I decided to knit
the medium size after measuring my hand as a reference. I made the right-hand
mitt in red in just a couple of weeks of evening knitting. It was an excellent easy
knitting project of one-by-one ribbing and stockinette, great for knitting in
front of the TV or when I didn't have much time. When I got to the fingers, I
knit an extra two rows after the pinkie for the rest of the hand before
knitting the other three fingers. Then once all of that was done I tried the
mitt on and realized that it was too big for my hand and would be too big for
Cynthia's as well.
But the mitt was perfect in construction, and I couldn't
make myself ravel it. Instead, when I knit the left-hand mitt, I made it in
size small. For it, I shortened the fingers so that they ended just below the
bottom knuckles. The longer fingers in the pattern limited my finger dexterity
and shortening them restored it. I got the medium and small mitt out of one
skein of yarn. At Christmas, I had Cynthia try them both on, and as I
suspected, she much preferred the small one. I knitted diligently over the next
few days and was able to deliver a complete pair-in size small-to her before
the New Year rang in. She loves them, and they are now her favorite pair of
hand coverings. She likes the flip-tops for handling car keys or grasping coins
and can flip the tops on and off very easily.
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One small red mitt
and one medium red mitt. |
I was left with a single, lonely medium-size mitt. Since I
had gotten a medium and small mitt out of the first skein, I knew I had enough
yarn left in the second skein to finish the second pair of mitts. With all four
mitts done, I have enough yarn from the second skein remaining for a flip-top for
another mitt, but not the rest of a mitt. I think the medium pair took more
than one skein, but the small pair took a little less than one skein.
The medium-size pair of knit mittens has been mailed off to
a friend of mine who lives in northern New Jersey and is a real estate agent. He spends a considerable amount of time
driving clients around and fishing keys out of little boxes. He also does a lot
of yard work, even in the colder months. The flip-tops will preserve his
dexterity for doing all his activities and keep his fingers warm when he is finished.
It is good that I love this pattern so well, because I will
end up making four pairs of Juris Mitts! Get a copy of Interweave
Knits Accessories and knit something that will warm the hands and hearts of your loved ones.
Now on to the blue yarn!
Kate