Way back at the beginning of the summer, my friend Lisa, the dyer behind Fibernymph Dye Works, asked me to design something using one of her Inversibles sets that was not socks. If you're not familiar with these sets, they're two skeins of self-striping yarn that are basically mirror images of each other. One skein has wide stripes of color A and narrow stripes of color B, while the other skein has wide stripes of color B and narrow stripes of color A. While they're great to use for socks, Lisa wanted to give her customers some other ideas of what could be done with them. Of course I immediately agreed, and when we went to TNNA together in June, she brought a big bag of sets for me to choose from (let me tell you, it was hard to pick just one set!).
My first thought was fingerless mitts, because it's only fitting that such beautiful yarn be shown off on the hands. I experimented with a few things before I realized that a lace pattern adaptation I'd wanted to use for several years would be perfect for this yarn. The stripes in the yarn are simple enough that they add interest without obscuring the pattern, and I knew as soon as I was a repeat in that I'd made the right choice. These are my Deco Lace Mitts.
The lace stitch used on the back of these mitts is adapted from my Corbusier Socks and is sort of a hybrid of lace and 1x1 ribbing that flows out of and into the 1x1 rib at the bottom and top of each mitt. It's very simple to work and becomes very intuitive once you've worked a couple of repeats. It's both charted and written out in the pattern.
To make things easy, the two mitts are identical except for the placement of the thumbs for right and left mitts. The thumb gussets are worked using lifted increases, which create a really lovely and gentle line without the pulling that you sometimes get from bar increases (m1R and m1L). As with the top of the hand, the thumbs are finished with a bit of 1x1 ribbing and a stretchy bind off.
I've graded the mitts for three sizes, to fit a hand circumference of 6 (7, 8) in./15 (18, 20.5) cm, and you'll need 130-170 yds./119-155.5 m to knit up a pair. I had some very enthusiastic preview knitters for this pattern, and all of them were happy with the fit.
As we head into fall, I know that my mitts are going to see a lot of use -- they're just perfect for those early fall mornings when there's just a hint of a chill in the air and you need a thin layer to keep your hands from going numb. I'll soon be casting on another pair as well, because Rainbow has asked for her own pair, and how can I not oblige her? After all, I think I can credit her as being the inspiration for this pattern, as a pair of mitts I knit her a couple of years ago was the original prototype for this design.
These are just gorgeous! And, I love the opposites!!
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