Monday, March 12, 2012

Perenelle

I had a mysteriously sleepless night last night and yet seem to be running on all cylinders! It is possible that later there will be some sort of crash and burn episode followed by a nap on the couch! But in the meantime I am bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and a little more exclamatory than usual!

There's a new pair of mittens in my pattern arsenal if you are interested at this mitten-inappropriate time of year. I've had the sample languishing mostly finished for kind of a while now, owing I think to a lack of weaving-in-ends mojo, but now they're properly finished and I am quite tickled by them.

Cuffs

The cuff treatment is only about an inch deep, but it is effectively an inch of stranded garter stitch, so it stabilizes the edge very effectively.

Cuffs and palms

I was so excited about the checkerboard grid thing going on at the wrist and on the back of the hand that I knitted the palms in a smaller version, with squares three stitches wide by three rounds tall rather than nine by nine. The palms are a little dizzying to look at, actually.

Palmistry

This morning I successfully wore them out of the house and didn't regret it, but only because it was still a bit chilly out at 6am. I regret that it's due to be warm all week; where will I wear my mittens?

Hand-holdy

Salient details: I used two 3 ply yarns from Sunday Knits, purveyor of different blends that knit up at the same gauge for a little extra textural oomph. The yellow is Angelic (75% merino, 25% angora) in Dijon; the navy is Eden (100% merino) in Night. My gauge here is 38 stitches and 41 rows to 4", so the mittens are not insubstantial-feeling for all that they are lightweight. The lengths of the hand and the thumb are easy to adjust by small increments on the fly; the circumference is most easily adjusted by tweaking the gauge. At 9½ stitches to the inch my mittens measure 7½" around, but the fabric is marvellously stretchy and pliable; a mitten fits me comfortably with no ease. I named them "Perenelle" because this series has got me thinking about Awesome Lady Alchemists Of The Past.

They've got a pattern page on ravelry over here; you can buy the pattern PDF for $6 CAD without needing to log in by clicking this here link.

2 comments:

Eileen said...

OK, that series looks really interesting. I once took a grad class in early modern Europe & got super excited about the concept of ritual; I bet these would bring up much weirder facets. (& then talked to an Engdept advisor about going into early modern, & had to correct him when he was all "well, Yeats and Maud Gonne...")

Also, yay mittens! I am jealous that you get to wear them at all, even if only for a few weeks. :)

cauchy09 said...

oh, those palms are stunning! those are some super great mitts.