Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Seasonal thoughts

Preparing to travel from Australia to the north of the northern hemisphere in the Australian summer takes quite an effort of imagination. At a theoretical level you know it's going to be cold, but while you're complaining about Sydney's heat and humidity you just can't make yourself feel the cold in your bones.

This is how I've felt while knitting these fingerless mitts.

Colette

I know my hands will be cold when I'm in Europe, and I know I'll be grateful to have them, but I just haven't been able to work up much enthusiasm or feel any sense of urgency for their need.

What I've ended up with is a somewhat adapted version of Friends of the Forest Mittens by Katrin Silvius. I've omitted the bobbles that were a feature of the original pattern and added a simple yarn-over motif to the part of the mitt that covers the back of the hand, as this is most frequently visible. I like the proportions of the mitts very much - particularly their length - and am very pleased with the texture and colour of the yarn (Rowan Tweed).

I've discovered in knitting these that I really like to have access to both written directions and charts when knitting lace - even for a simple pattern such as this one, which had only written instructions. It's particularly useful to be able to check back and forth between the chart and the words, especially when the start of the pattern repeat varies from row to row and the number of stitches varies through decreases.

Nevertheless, they're done and I now have a warm hat, warm mitts and a wide choice of warm scarves ready for my trip.

Colette 2

This small project has reminded me just how much I like knitting with Rowan Tweed - the tweedy colours, the grabby quality of the yarn, its extremely tactile quality. I think I'll have to save my pennies (or rather, pounds and pounds) to buy enough to be able to wrap myself in a Rowan Tweed cardigan of some kind.

5 comments:

Rose Red said...

These look great! I too love the length, and the hint of lace is lovely. And I do love a picot edge (although I hate doing them myself!).

missfee said...

Lyn they are gorgeous and I am sure once you are there and wearing them all the hassle of summer knitting will be forgot.

Emily said...

Looking forward to seeing these in the wool, so to speak!

And you will of course appreciate them. I've just knit striped noro sock yarn long arm mitts, to replace the ones I lost in Sydney, and they're much worn and enjoyed.

Sel and Poivre said...

From here in Canada, if I were to imagine a lovely trip to France in the coming weeks I would be dreaming of being so much warmer than I will be when I head out in a few minutes into the falling snow!

Hence I can summon a tremendous amount of enthusiasm for your lovely new lacey FO!

DrK said...

so beautiful, lovely colour and detail. so tres francais!