Finished Object – Anemoi Mittens

Thanks for all the love during my Michael Jackson flashback. For those of you waging bets, the left thumb won out 🙂 After that post I quickly went on to finish up the two thumbs which were not that hard at all. And while admiring my handy work I quickly realized that I obviously have a thing for this fuchsia/purply color, as evidenced here, here, and here. So I decided to TRY and branch out into more everyday wear colors – gray, tan, brown – since I already have an outfit or two to match these gloves 🙂

Yarn: Rowan RYC Cashsoft 4 Ply
Inspiration: Eunny Jang Anemoi Mittens
Size: Large (8.5″) Hand Circumference
Needles: Size 0 and Size 2.75mm
Yardage: 140 yards of Purple (3/4 ball) and 140 yards of Apricot (1/2 ball)
Modifications: None
Enjoyment Factor: 8
Knit Time: November 2007 – January 2008

The Good

• The pattern was EX-CELLENT!! I don’t think you can find a more detailed pattern that really gets you from A to B, holding your hand the entire way.
• The yarn is dreamy! I liked it in the ball, I liked it while I knit it up, but I LOVE it now that it is washed and smells like Soak Flora. Mmmmm…. I guess the Cashmere in the yarn really paid off.

• I love the design. It is so simply and elegant. Reminds me a lot of Japanese style paintings. The corrugated cuff is also a very nice touch.

The Bad

• The mittens are a little bigger than I would have liked. They are longer .5″ to .75″ too long in the hand. Guess I have stubby, fat hands because they fit just fine in the circumference. Uhhh…or I guess it could be gauge issues. Of course I wouldn’t know because I did not do a swatch….Opps!
• Not knowing how to properly tell which color is going to be brighter or more dominant resulted in me knitting half a mitten and then finding that I had the color choices backwards. I am very glad I went back though or I would have been very disappointed. I think the pattern is much more apparent now.

• The thumbs were a pain in the a$%. I always hold my breath when doing this because it feels as though picking up thumb stitches to make a perfect thumb connection is the luck of the draw. Unfortunately, lady luck was not with me because it seems the stranded knitting around the thumb hole was just too loose and really stretched the stitches when I tried to pick them up. I ended it remedying the problem by sewing up the holes during the weaving in process, but I wish it had been perfect from the get go. However, I do have to give Eunny props for such a cute thumb tip pattern.
• I live in California so these gloves will not see the light of day for some time. It was 19 degrees in Oakland last week, so maybe I will get some use out of them during Stitches in February. We shall see.

The Ugly

• I messed up on the palm about half way so the pattern is a little wonky (click on the picture above to see it better). However, I did get it together and started anticipating the pattern instead of just plodding through . Note to self… be proactive not reactive in both life and knitting.