Ruthless Knitting Archive

Pattern: Bird in Hand by Kate Gilbert
Size: 7" in diameter and 10" long
Yarn: Jaeger Matchmaker Merino DK (100 percent merino wool; 130 yds per 50 g skein), shades 865 and 790
Yardage: About 160 yds turquoise and 90 yds beige
Source: Monterey Yarn, Green Bay, WI
Needles: US 2 (2.75 mm) Knit Picks classic circular and double-pointed needles
Gauge: 28 sts and 36 rows = 4″ in pattern
Notes: This pattern has become quite popular among the knit bloggers this winter, and for good reason. It’s easy to follow and quite cleverly put together, and the finished mittens are cute and (I hope) warm. The pattern can be purchased directly from Kate Gilbert as a PDF file for $5.95, and it’s worth every penny. 

The only modification I made was to knit the mittens in DK-weight rather than worsted-weight yarn. I did this for two reasons. First, I noticed that some bloggers were finding the finished mittens to be a bit too long in the fingers and thumb, and since these are a gift for a dear friend with tiny hands, I wanted to ensure that they would be small enough without having to resort to modifying the chart. Also, the thought of knitting worsted weight yarn on size 1 or 2 needles made me squirm. I did a project once with worsted yarn and tiny needles, and I found it thoroughly unpleasant. I am quite willing to trade off a bit of warmth for more enjoyable knitting.

Though many people have omitted or modified the braids, I didn’t mind them much. The cuff portion of the mitten is pretty time-consuming compared to the colorwork portions — I found that it took me about 20 minutes to do a braid, and there are three on each mitten — but the braids look nice, and I was glad to learn the technique, which is different than the one I had previously used to create two-color braid.

I had a little trouble with the thumbs, particularly with the birds. It’s hard to get the tension just right on such a small number of stitches so that the birds don’t come out funny looking. Also, my approach to embroidery is to make it up as I go along — perhaps a detriment in this particular situation. Still, I think the little fellows are acceptable, if not smashing.

I came up with one innovation in the process of blocking the mittens that makes me feel clever: I cut out cardboard into a mitten shape and used it to block the wet mittens over. This evened out all the lumpy bits (particularly in the thumbs) and made the mittens look more professional than they otherwise would have. Of course, if you look closely at the pictures, one mitten appears to be a little bigger than the other. That’s because it is. But I think it’s the case because I blocked one a month ago and the other yesterday, rather than because I actually knit one larger than the other. Over time, the more recently blocked mitten ought to settle out at the same size as the smaller one. And if it doesn’t, well, close enough.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 14th, 2008 at 9:29 am and is filed under Finished Objects. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.