Knit Gloves for the Ones You Love

kateg0762 — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:57:00 GMT

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!


Cynthia loves her Juris Mitts

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.


	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

Knitting Mittens For The Holidays

kateg0762 — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 21:04:00 GMT

One of the perks of working for Interweave is seeing our magazines and books before they are available to the general public. The new issue of Knits Accessories is bursting with easy knitting patterns—I can make for friends, family, and myself without busting my budget or time limitations. I decided to start with the Arc Mittens by Peggy O'Grady—the ones with the angled increase for the thumb (pictured left). I like that little design element. Turns out the photo in the magazine shows the mittens reversed; the pattern places the increase on the palm. So it's knitter's choice if they increases go on the palm or top of the hand; I like it on top of the hand though.


Above: Knitting mitten (left) completed

Above: Knitting mitten (right) in progress

The day after Thanksgiving I visited my local yarn shop and got Brown Sheep Yarns Lamb's Pride Bulky yarn, the same brand of yarn used in the sample mittens, in a soothing cream, and a set of size 8 double pointed needles. The next day, when the weather wasn't so great, I spent an enjoyable 5 or 6 hours watching Christmas specials on TV and knitting the first mitten. I am a slow knitter, but with fewer than 40 stitches in the body, once the thumb was done, things went quickly. I had to rip out the first few rows because I wasn't paying enough attention to the placement of the increase stitches, but after three or four rounds, I was able to easily see where the stitches went. I had the first knitted mitten done by bedtime.

The second mitten gave me a little more trouble, all of my own making rather than the knitted mitten pattern's directions. I brought the second mitten in to work on Monday and got the help of a co-worker. That evening I tried again, but still was not able to get a nice, clean demarcation for the increase. On Tuesday I brought it to one of the magazine editors, and she straightened me out. It turned out that I was doing two different things wrong.

The increase stitch moved one stitch to the left on the first mitten. So that is what I did on the second mitten where the increase stitch gets made at the same place of each round. Next time I'll read the pattern more closely. I was also not picking up for the increase stitch correctly. Once I understood, the increases started looking like they should. I should have the second mitten done by the end of this week, in plenty of time for Christmas.

Enjoy!

Kate

P.S. If you'd like to knit mittens for this gift giving season, you can download Interweave Knits Accessories 2011 and get started right away.

Inside Knits : Knit Mittens

Knit Gloves for the Ones You Love

Knitting Mittens For The Holidays