A warm finish

Yesterday morning, as I was sitting down to finish the final mitten top on my Podster mitts, it became rapidly and sinkingly clear that I was not going to have enough yarn left to finish. I was going to have about enough to make it halfway up the mitten top, and that was it.

However, this was not the end of the story. One of the reasons I had grabbed this particular skein of yarn (other than the super awesome colour, and the cashmere content), was that it was already wound up into a ball. And I recalled that, one of the reasons it was already wound up into a ball was because I had used it about a year ago for some swatches. So, if I could find the swatches, I was good to go.

Lo and behold, sometimes sticking your swatches in a bag and stuffing into the back of your stash pays off in unexpected ways – because I did indeed find the swatches, and one of them happily gave its life (well, half of its life, actually), so that my mitts could be complete. (The other swatch is going back into the bag. You never know when I might need it.)

I’m happy to report that not only are my mitts a lovely and useful finished object, but that I’ve given the original pattern a bit of a sprucing up. It is largely the same, with a few improvements. My original pattern has given 2 years of good and faithful service, but I felt it was in need of some tweaks. The most significant one is that the smaller size is truly a smaller size; I wasn’t happy with the relatively small size differential between the S and L, and now there is a true inch difference in circumference. Size Small will fit a hand 6.5-7.0 ins in circumference, Size Large a hand 7.5-8.0 ins in circumference (At least, at a pattern gauge of 8 sts/inch.) I’ve also changed the ribbing from k1, p1 to k1tbl, p1, but this could always be adjusted to your own preference. Heck, do k2, p2 ribbing! Do no ribbing at all on the fingers! Go crazy.

The pattern is still available for free, and may be found in my Ravelry Store, or here on my blog as a PDF. I’ve done this pair in Tanis Fiber Arts cashmere sock, and the originals in Dream in Color Smooshy, but just about any fingering weight wool would do – if you’ve got a sock yarn stash, you’ve got a skein of yarn for this project. It uses about the same amount as you would use for a pair of socks.

Every so often I receive a request for advice on how to make this pattern to fit a child. This is indeed an adult pattern and I have kept it sized to fit small and large adult hands, so most teens would likely fit this range. However, if you are interested in knitting this for even more wee hands than that, I would recommend doing a bit of quick calculation of hand size x stitch gauge per inch, and modify your cast-on and thumb gusset increases accordingly. You might wish to simply eliminate the fingers altogether and just do one fingerless mitt cuff where the individual fingers would be.

In any case, I hope your weekend is enjoyable, and that your knitting is close by! Catch you next week.