Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Trio of Mitts

I'm no Tiennie. I don't knit rainbows of mitts for all the playground moms, nor do I knit flowers of snowboarding caps for all my son's friends. No, there's only one Tiennie, and all I can hope to do is to be inspired by her generous spirit and knit for those I love.

Coincidentally, the day before Tiennie amazed the blog world with her incredible colorwheel of Evangelines, my sister-in-law requested a pair of black fingerless gloves to keep her hands warm but still enable her to adjust her MP3 player. My sister-in-law knows that I love to knit on request and when she found herself borrowing her 8 year old's fingerless mitts, she knew she needed to commission a pair.


Pattern: Evangeline, from MagKnits January 2008, inspired by the amaazing Tiennie
Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted
I lengthened the ribbing by a few rows on the cuff, but otherwise this is a great, easily modifiable pattern, and they are especially yummy in Malabrigo.


I really do not knit for others to get showered with praise and thanks, but was gratifying to have my sister-in-law tell me how much she loves her mitts, and how she's told all her friends that I just whipped them up by request. And when my daughter brings home schoolwork like this, how can I refuse her when she asks for a new pair? She wanted fingerless gloves too, so she can keep her hands warm and deal with her seatbelt in the back of the car. She had grown out of her Playground Mittens, and really, she prefers gloves. She wanted green, because that's her favorite color. Since I have colorwork on the brain, I threw the hearts (borrowed from here and here) onto a basic Ann Budd pattern and used some Naturespun Sport from the stash.

And since I had a ton of Malabrigo left over, I made some for me too. Like I said, I'm no Tiennie.


Pattern: Natalya by Jody Pirello
Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted
Mods: I shortened them considerably as I had to conserve yarn, but otherwise, a simple but elegant pattern from my friend, the certified knittng genius we all know as Savannah Chik.

Rosebud's and my mitts saw a lot of action this weekend as we participated in the Audubon Society's Great Backyard Bird Count. We printed the checklist for our area, we took our identification guides and pencils, and settled in, ready to count.



We counted exactly zero birds in our cold backyard. But at least our hands were warm!

12 comments:

Sally said...

Is there anything more perfect than crooked letters and messy coloring from our children? I do so love those school projects.

The mitts are lovely, and man, you are quick! Keep searching for those birds - they'll come out. ;o)

nova said...

Evangelines in Malabrigo. Everything is better in Malabrigo...I like all the fingerless mitts featured in this post. It's inspiring me to finish mine!

Madge said...

Crack me up! You and Rosebud are all decked out in your birdwatching finery, and the birds are in hiding. Ah, well, your mitts are stylin'!

Christie said...

Wow, look at you with all the crazy knitting!

Kristy said...

All of the mitts look great! Sorry you didn't see any birds.

Annie said...

Channeling your inner Tiennie, heh heh. Lovely mitts!

Anonymous said...

they look great! i once bumped into a woman at a farm sale that had made a pair of regular gloves or mittens (can't remember which), but the thumb of one glove had a hole so that she could use the scroll wheel on her ipod. cool, right?

Knitty Gritty Thoughts said...

Hee - Tiennie is a tough act to follow but I love all your mitts! =)

Anonymous said...

sweet! I just knit my evangelines!

Anonymous said...

What do you mean you're not as crazy obsessive as I am?! :) Thanks! But really, yours are fabulous! And, you are a much saner and better knitter than me.

Laurie (Moo!) said...

Wow! You really got your Mitt on! Love them all.

Sarah said...

I'm convinced you can never, ever knit or own too many fingerless mitts. They're fast, easy, practical, and used all the time by the recipient. Next to hats, they're my favorite thing to knit!