Man Mitts Step One
I thought that I'd do a series of posts to talk about how I knit a pair of mitts, using the pair I'm currently working on for TheBoy. I don't tend to use a pattern for mitts, although my mitts are always constructed in the general manner of Marnie's Hooray for Me Gloves which are linked to the right.
I received the yarn that I ordered for TheBoy's mitt's this afternoon. He helped me wind it into a center-pull ball [he makes a great and patient swift!] and then I swatched. I started with a gauge of 9st/in on size 2 needles and it was TheBoy approved as a good fabric for his mitts. I measured his wrist and then I did a little math. He's got an 8" wrist so I multiple 8 inches by 9 stitches/inch for a total of 72. I then multiplied this by .90 [90%] and rounded down to the closest even number, for a total of 64 stitches. I used a stretchy cable cast on and joined to knit in the round. I like a good stretchy cuff so I worked the cuff in K2,P2 rib. I ended up knitting 2.25" because after 2" of cuff he asked for "just one-quarter inch more please."
The cuff done, I then determined the length of the gusset. I've found that a good rule of thumb [pun not intended] for my gussets is to increase two stitches every third row for the length of my gusset, so I knit halfway around, placed a marker, knit in the front and back of the next two stitches and placed a second marker. Then on every third row I increased by knitting in the front and back of the first stitch after the first marker and then the last stitch before the second stitch marker.
In order to determine how many rows I needed to knit, I took TheBoy's hand and measured from the bottom of the thumb joint to the lowest knuckle. On his hand, this measurement was 2 inches, so I knit two inches in the gusset pattern established in the previous paragraph.
Once that was done, I knit to the marker and then placed my gusset stitches on a piece of waste yarn. I took it to TheBoy's hand and he tried it on again to determine how many stitches I needed to pick up in order to make it fit around his hand. You'll need to pick up at least two, since you've got two of your original stitches are now on the thumb gusset waste yarn. In the case of TheBoy, he has big knuckles, so I decided to pick up four. Then, I measured the gap between the top of the mitt and bottom knuckle of his fingers to determine how much I needed to knit before breaking off for the fingers.
Part two will cover adding on the fingers. Feel free to ask questions if anything I've said seems unclear!
Cross-posted at the MittenFest Blog
I Vote!
This will be a little bit of a bits and bobs update. Last night TheBoy and I sat down with our voter guides and our Oregon mail-in ballots and voted. It was fun, like taking a take-home test. I would review the measure and the letters in support and opposition and then cast my vote. I got to take my time and not worry that someone was waiting impatiently behind me. However, I do worry a little bit that my vote won't ultimately be counted, but I have as much assurance of that as everyone else does right now. It's a sad state of things.
My simple knitted bodice body is done. I am done with the lace on one sleeve but boy, are sleeves kind of boring. In other knitting news, I ordered some yarn for mitts for TheBoy. He's been pulling his sleeves down over his hands to hold the steering wheel in the car in the mornings because we've had an unseasonably cold snap for the past week or so. That means he gets mitts to solve that problem. They'll be black and orange which is perfect since he loves the color combination and it's the colors of his alma mater; Oregon State. I also want to get started on some tall socks from my natural dyed yarn [more about that soon.] They will be stripey and fun I think. And I need to finish the second sock in the pair for TheBoy.
My wedding dress arrived in the mail the other day, a month and a half earlier than expected. It's in good condition, no worse for it's cross-country trek and it's even more beautiful than I remember it being. There's something about a dress that no one else has ever tried on that makes it a little fresher if nothing else. The beading also seems shinier and prettier. TheFabulousKristi will be coming over on Saturday to lace me into it and ooh and ahh over it. I'm looking forward to that.
TheFabulousKristi and I are also planning on seeing The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D. I've actually never seen the movie, nor have I ever seen a movie in 3D so it should be great fun. TheBoy is likely going to go with us, and then TheBestMan will be over for a visit since he's got to come partway downstate for a test.
My Christmas shopping is somewhere near 30% done. We started in August and I recently placed a few orders with places like amazon.com and a few different etsy sellers. For those of you that haven't heard of etsy.com it's a great place to get some really quality handmade goods. Like everything else online there's some crap but a lot of quality items as well. I recommend checking it out for your holiday shopping needs.
Sheepwarmers!
My doppelganger mentioned awhile ago that she was having difficulty keeping her wrist warm due to a hefty amount of metal doctors used to put her forearm back together. She also mentioned that her double pointed needles were sticking in the palms of her regular armwarmers making it difficult for her to knit while wearing them. I offered to knit her some, and after gathering a few measurements and a quick gauge swatch, this is what came off my needles:
They're 8" long and have neat paired decreases on their underside [I love them, and the V-shape they create between them.] With an inch of ribbing at the top and bottom, they fit snugly on the arm. I knit them using Red Heart Soft Yarn [originally I was going to knit palms and Bonnie's crutches work over mitt palms pretty quickly so I was looking for durability.]
After knitting them I tried to embroider on them, but it didn't work out. My stem stitch, well, it bites it. Instead, I duplicate stitched the sheep from The Baby Knits Book by Debbie Bliss at the top of the armwarmer because what fiber artist doesn't love a good fiber animal? You can find an action shot of them here.
For the next pair I knit I'm going to start at the small end and increase upward using a pair of K1FB increases.