Saturday, May 1, 2010

Fingerless Mitt Mania

For nearly five months now I've been knitting Fingerless Mitts. Fast and fun, I'm finding these projects are terrific gifts and a great way to use up the small lots of yarn that invariably make their way into the stash.

Fetching 1

My Ravelry queue was so heavy with Fingerless Mitts I created a special tab just for them. Which prompted me to create tabs for all manner of knitted categories - Hats, Baby, Cardigans, Pullovers, and on and on and on. Oh man, to know me is to know I am pretty obsessive with the Queue and Stash organization. But it all started with the Fingerless Mitt category.

Fetching 4

Once I'd nailed the Fingerless Mitts into their own file tab, I delved deeper into researching suitable yarns, viewing other knitter's finished projects and trolling my own stash to find pattern-yarn matches. All the while making electronic notes to jog my memory once I sit down to actually knit the project. God, the hours I spend in the planning - it boggles the mind! But I guess for me the planning stage is part of the process. And though I often get frustrated that I don't knit faster, or act more spontaneously, the reality is most of my projects require me to marinate the ideas till I am sure and can commit.

Fetching 5

These cute blue cabled mitts are the now very ubiquitous Fetching Mitts which everyone in the knitting blog-o-sphere knitted like crazy three years ago (yes, I am very late to this particular party). Quite fetching indeed. A few hours of knitting back in February resulted in a perfect birthday gift. And they hit a sweet spot for me in the Great Houndville Stash Knit Down of 2010. All the technical details are here including the modifications I made - they are longer than called for in the pattern.


Next up is this lovely pattern called Susie's Reading Mitts. Which was perfect since the recipient's name is a bit variation on that. She was so patient waiting for these - the whole Potholder Swap thing kind of jumped to the front of the line in March!

Suanne's Reading Mitts

I had a few false starts with this project. In fact, it started as a different pattern but I hated the way it knitted up. That pattern got booted out of my queue and I moved this one to the top. The yarn was deceptive too! It took several changes in needle size before I found the magic combination of fabric drape with heat retention density. I cannot remember why I bought this yarn in the first place, but once I started working it up on this project, I kinda fell hard in love with the color. And used up all but a smidgen of the yarn, so woo-hoo for continued stash reduction. Linky here for more gory details.

Suanne's Reading Mitts

This mitt design is lovely - simple and feminine without being fussy. And it invites you to consider small changes - additions or deletions, depending on the yarn being used. I particularly like the picot edge, something I'd never used before. It's a nice touch and worth the effort. This pattern is a winner and it will likely become a standard as I work on building that gift stash.

Suanne's Reading Mitts

So the Great Houndville Stash Knit Down is becoming an enjoyable discipline/challenge. It's like a competition with myself to see if I can bring out the best in the yarn by matching it with the perfect pattern. Stay tuned for the next parade of fingerless mitts, there's more where these came from!

12 comments:

Sarah said...

It must be something in the water, I went through a fingerless glove addiction just a few months ago, lol, with the same gloves you made

Gale Bulkley said...

Gorgeous and gorgeous again.

Chris said...

Stunning both (4) of them!! That's a GREAT gift idea! I love the planning, too.

Oiyi said...

Wow, you are going to have quite a knitted gifts selection by Christmas.

The mitts are beautiful and they fit so well on the hand.

Katie M. said...

Lurvly. I am really in awe of your organization and planning.

knottygnome said...

very nice! and look at you with your advance planning. very impressive.

Knitting Out Loud said...

Yes, they are STUNNING!!!

At Home Mommy Knits said...

Love your mitts! They turned out beautifully. I too have a love affair with fingerless mitts and have decided that each May I will be knitting up as many as I can. The reading mitts are a pair I have been itching to make ;)

Rose said...

Hey, those are really pretty. Thanks for the links; I printed a couple of the patterns off today, thanks to you!

Claire MW said...

This is very impressive. I made my first knitted fingerless gloves this year. It took me nearly 2 months to make the first pair, which is a bit more of a comment on the amount of free time I have available, but is also a serious comment on what a slow, noobie knitter I am. Sigh. They were not nearly as lovely as yours.

t does wool said...

great mitts...great color~~have a great weekend~

Suanne said...

Hey! I'm "Susie" and those are my mitts and I love love love them! Truly you are an artist, Lisa. Thank you so much!