Evergreen Lake Mittens

Last year I was interested in learning more about fair isle knitting, so I signed up for the Craftsy class Stranded Colorwork: Basics and Beyond.* I have sort of lukewarm feelings about the class and about the mittens I made as my class project.

With the class, I was hoping for a bit more broad introductory material on stranded color work (like an in depth explanation of how to hold the yarn, how to keep it from getting tangled, how to keep even tension, etc) and the instructor doesn’t go that as much as I would have liked. She explains how to do a float, then hops right in to the mitten lessons. The instruction on how to knit the mittens is excellent – if you want to be walked through how to knit this pattern, I recommend the class. If you want to know more about fair isle, I preferred the class Simple Sweaters: Stranded and Steeked.* But I digress…. here are the mittens:

I feel lukewarm about the mittens for a few reasons: (1) I had a limited choice to pick from because I was buying closeout yarn so I just picked the options that were going to give me the highest contrast… but I really just don’t dig these colors. (2) I don’t wear mittens. (3) Even if I did wear mittens, these are extremely bulky and I don’t think I would have any use of my hands if I wore them.

Still, this was a fun project for learning stranded colorwork and they knit up fairly quickly. Now I have the confidence to knit stranded colorwork with finer yarn into something I will actually wear (think: socks).

yarn details
Cascade Yarns Cascade 128 Wool
Highland Green and Marigold
dye lots 2J2045 and 2I8003
Bulky Weight
100% Peruvian Highland Wool
handwash cold
100 g / 128 yards @ $5.99 each

project details
pattern: Evergreen Lake Mittens by Sunne Meyer (pattern is in course materials of the Craftsy class Stranded Colorwork: Basics and Beyond)
needles: Can you believe I never wrote this down? It was probably size 9 for mitten and size 7 for cuff – nickle plated circs (used magic loop)
gauge:16 st and 15 rows over 3” in main pattern (after blocking)
yarn used: 97.3 yards green (0.76 skein) and 67.8 yards yellow (0.53 skein)
finished size: 8.5” cuff to mitten top, 4” wide (laid flat), 3” thumb
duration: February 17, 2014 – February 22, 2015

Notes:

Take a look at the thumbs. See how on one of the thumbs the green is dominant and on the other the yellow is dominant? Weird, huh? I held the green yarn in my right hand and the yellow in my left when I knit these. (I am a thrower, so I held the main color in my right hand). The green thumb is the first mitten I knit. I think by the time I knit the thumb of the second mitten almost a year later, I was more comfortable maneuvering the yarn with my left hand and it took over as the dominant color. Crazy.