Knitting the Almanac - Norwegian May Mittens


Stranding Along

Note:  I thought I published this on Friday 27 May 2016.  Rather than backdating, I'm just posting it now...Apologies :)

I must say, I have never done so much stranded knitting at once in my life.  It started with the March sweater (still on the needles, sadly), then I designed the Left Stranded hat, then a no-pattern stranded yoke sweater, now these mittens.  While I'm not opposed to stranded colorwork (clearly), I think I've had enough of it for a while.  Unfortunately, Mr. Mouse is after me to show some progress on that March sweater, so I don't think it's had enough of me.

EZ calls for the mittens to be started with either an i-cord edging or some shallow ribbing.  Since this exercise is all about trying new things, I opted for the i-cord edging.  These edgings aren't new to me, but I usually prefer to do an i-cord cast-on for the sake of ease.  In this case, that wasn't a good option because I wanted to start the second color right after the i-cord, so it was a good opportunity to do things EZ's way without feeling resentful.  I did start the cord with Judy's Magic Cast On, then graft it into the round.  I much prefer that to trying to seam neatly and invisibly.

Norwegian Mittens

There really isn't much to say about knitting the mittens themselves.  After a false start due to a gauge misunderstanding, they zoomed cheerfully along without issue.  If I were to make them again, I would move the thumb a bit closer to the side.  As it is I placed it a touch too close to the center of the hand.  This of course does not render the mittens unwearable by any stretch of the imagination.

One of my favorite things about stranded knitting is the wrong side.  Don't you love it?

Norwegian Mittens - one inside out

The yarn is the utterly luxurious Kathmandu Aran 100 from the Queensland Collection.  It is slightly tweedy and textural, which at first made me worry that the yarn would take away from the color pattern.  As you can see, it worked out beautifully.  I expect these to be in heavy rotation next winter since they are so thick and warm!


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