Friday, February 02, 2007

Blow Wind Blow

My Anemoi Mittens have been finished for a while now, but I've waited to photograph them until the blocking was done. I find that more than any other items I've knit, colorwork must be blocked well. I may actually have recovered somewhat from my aqualanophobia, we'll see how I do when I have to block a sweater or, cringe, lace.



These mittens were just a pleasure to knit! They are going to be auctioned at the Richmond Waldorf School Auction at the end of March (along with a to-be-knit matching hat and vest -- a head, hands, and heart package).

Here are the facts, Jack:



Pattern: Anemoi Mittens by Eunny Jang
Yarn: Wildfoote Sock Yarn in Vanilla (MC) and Boy Blue (CC)
Needles: US2s. I struggled with knitting the cuffs so they would fit over my hands (very medium sized hands, btw). I ended up using the US2s for the entire mitten and they fit my hand perfectly.

I had a quandry with her instructions at the mitten tip to: Turn mitten inside out and join sts with three-needle bind-off in MC. How does one successfully, without dropping sts and without freaking completely out, turn this mitten inside out with 2 dpns attached to the top? For the first mitten, I scootched the needles so that the stitches were almost falling off and then slid them carefully inside the mitten. I found it to be a high risk manuever for me, but it worked.

With the 2nd mitten, I did this ...



Right-side out with dpns


Placed stitches on safety pins

Turn inside out then replace needles


Voila!

Easy-schmeasy and much better for my committment not to swear around the children. The mittens have been "outed" already for Knit Night at the Yarn Lounge. What a wonderful night Stewart and Melanie host! Snacks, wine, free massages ... and great knitting! Now I'm to start on a hat to match the mittens, time to get out the graph paper ...

15 comments:

Dave said...

Those mittens are gorgeous -- I really like the colours you chose. And thanks for the tip about the safety pin!

Dorothy said...

Great job on the mitts! The pin trick looks so much easier to execute too.

Liz K. said...

I, for one, can't wait to see the matching Anemoi hat.
Another XRK pattern??

I can't imagine auctioning such loveliness off, they are so gorgeous.

Mo said...

Wow! Just beautiful. I'm not sure I could part with those amazing mitts.

Anonymous said...

gorgeous! i bet there's a biding war.

margene said...

Beautiful! Love the way you finished the second one, too!

Melinda said...

They are stunning!

HPNY KNITS said...

love your mittens! colors are so cheerful! I was going to suggest small stitch holder, but you already thought of that (safety pin)

Anonymous said...

Beautiful mittens! You did a great job on them. I'm just wondering if the tops could be finish with the kitchener stitch?

Sally said...

Really lovely Ann!

I, too, am anxiously awaiting the matching accessories. I so want to learn Fair Isle knitting. Now that Liz has taken a class, she's going to teach me! (I wonder if I told her that yet?)

:o)

Annie said...

Those are beautiful! Love the wave pattern very unique.

Anonymous said...

stunning!

wish you and mo lived closer to philly...

anne marie in philly

Anonymous said...

Beautiful! Love the colors.

I didn't even bother with turning the mitts inside out with the needles - couldn't figure how so I kitchener stitched them closed.

Backyard Boulanger said...

Mittens look almost as good in the photos as in real life ... though I'm distracted by cut marks on the butcher block -- we need to get more of that mineral oil to keep it in top shape for your knitting photos.

Hannah said...

Love the idea of the Waldorf head-hand-heart set!