Saturday, July 4, 2009

Christmas in July...





Christmas knitting has officially begun in my house. My first project was a pair of mittens for my daughters teacher. This was such an easy project but it caused many headaches. I ended up ripping out my first glove twice but got it right on the third try... or so I thought. The first one was perfect until I made the second one... I'm not sure what I did, just miscounting I guess, but the second one turned out bigger than the first. Maybe I was knitting looser? They both seem to fit OK though, just one is longer. I have enough yarn to make another one so I might do that to see how it turns out and to see which one it matches. Anyway, the pattern was free on Ravelry. Gotta love Ravelry with all its free patterns.

The pattern can be found at http://www.chroniclebooks.com/Chronicle/excerpt/0811835332-e2.html. I did make some adjustments... 1) I went up to size 7 and 8 in needles after trying the 4 & 5 the pattern called for and 5 & 6 because the glove was way too tight, 2) I used a Kitchener stitch at the top instead of weaving the yarn through the last sts and pulling (I don't usually like the way that looks unless I'm making a hat) and 3) I only knit 10 rounds on the thumb instead of 14 otherwise the thumb would have been way too big. The pattern doesn't give you a swatch gauge so play around with your yarn first to make sure your glove won't be too tight.

The yarn is from Punta Yarns, Merisoft Hand Painted, I love this yarn. My yarn is colour HP50, it has several different colors of green mixed with white and cream, very pretty! The pictures, of course, don't really do it justice. The yarn is soft and wonderful to work with.

In the end, the pattern was really easy to follow and to memorize. I think it was perfect for my first pair of mittens. Now I just need to make myself a pair!

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