Pattern: Bella’s Mittens
Yarn: Knit Picks Wool of the Andes, “dove heather”
Needles: 5 mm dpns
Mods: I eliminated two sets of decreases from the cuff, after reading that others found them a bit too snug.
Notes:There is something a little strange about blogging on a project that has been done many, many times before. I studied these mittens for months before knitting them, checked out other people’s FOs, the many takes on the textured palm that is more in keeping with the original mitts in the Twilight film, etc.
Cabled mittens are without a doubt (along with colourwork and thrummed mitts), part of the holy triage of knitted mitten goodness. Subsequently, these mittens are awesome.
But I’m going to take a moment to talk about the practicality of long mitts- they are not for someone who takes their mittens off multiple times on their commute to work. I probably take off and put on my mittens about 3 times on my way to work, and I do the same thing on the way home. I know that’s a lot of mitten manipulation, but I need to get my metro pass out, show it twice, read my book or knit on the subway, etc. And then repeat all that on the way home. The long mitten needs to be tucked into the coat sleeve, which I can’t do unless I put them on BEFORE I put my coat on. If I take the mitten off once I’m outside, I can’t quite stuff the long cuff back into my sleeve, it bunches, I get cranky, etc. So, my advice is this- either a shorter cuff to make them more ‘normal’ length, or make the cuff wider and more gauntlet style to pull over your coat sleeve. Or maybe you’re totally fine, and I’m the only mitten retard out there.
Never in my life have I thought about mittens in this much detail before. You’ve got to love the knits that teach you something, right? They would be perfect for putting on once and frolicking about, though!
