I went to a workshop last December to learn how to knit these fabulous mittens that have a fuzzy lining.
Someday I’ll even put the thumbs on them.
It was fun, and the mittens are pretty, and if you live near me and like knitting, I highly recommend going to The Bobbin Tree the next time that they hold a workshop. Also, they have some lovely yarns.
However!
All the thrummed mitten patterns I can find use a reducing process at the fingertips that leaves the end un-fuzzy. Since it is always my fingers that are cold, I wanted to figure out how to carry the pattern all the way to the end. Wait! Let me show you what I’m talking about.
Fuzzy:
Yay! 🙂
Not fuzzy:
Less yay. 🙁
So I decided that on my next pair, I would reduce in the round instead of with that squared off tip and Kitchener Stitch (I’m sure there’s a technical term for those two approaches. )
I will assume that you have a thrummed mitten pattern already, so this is only after the mitten has been knit to the appropriate length (just past the pinkie finger, they seem to suggest). I also assume that you already know how to knit, since this is more of a proof-in-principle than an actual pattern. Really, I just want to be able to make the other mitten match, and I had to write it down anyway, so I thought it might put it somewhere that it could help somebody else, too.
Back to the needles!
On the next thrumming row (mine was a thrum-k3 all around 44 stitches) reduce one on alternating thrums.
Row 1: Something like, ssk-thrum-k3 all around. This made for an odd number of reductions, but that’s OK. We’re going to fix that before the next thrumming round.
Row 2: Knit (including whatever you’ve been doing with the thrums all along. My instructor told us to knit into the back of them to hold them in more securely.)
Row 3: Reduce on all of the alternations that you didn’t do the first time. That is, k5, k2tog, k4, k2tog (or however it works so that you wind up with a repeat for the next thrum that will go t-k2 all the way around. I seem to have a k3 in there somewhere.)
Row 4: Knit
Row 5: thrum-k2 all around.
Row 6: Repeat Row 2
Row 7: Reduce ~1/4 of your remaining stitches evenly.
In my case, I took out 8 of 33. I found a great calculator to figure out how to distribute your evenly spaced reduction here: http://www.thedietdiary.com/knittingfiend/tools/EvenlySpace.html
Row 8: Knit
Row 9: Evenly reduce the same number as row 7 +/- 1 (if you need to come back to an even number of stitches. I reduced 9 on this row to leave me with 16 because I’m fond of the grafted closing instead of the drawstring through the remaining live stitches.)
And thus:
Two extra rows of fuzzy goodness! You’re welcome. (You know who you are.)
4 responses to “Thrummed Mittens – Now with 18 % more fuzz”
Love it! I agree: the end is where the fluff’s most needed. I added an extra round of fluffs to the tip of my mitts, too… or at least to the one mitt that I’ve finished… 😉
Oh dear.
I can knit, because I had to learn in order to teach handcrafts at a Waldorf school. So one of the third graders met me before school every day and made sure I was at least one step ahead of the kids. But the idea of building an article of clothing, even a mitten, one stitch at a time is beyond me.
Also, I have the opposite of your desires: I prefer fingerless gloves and wrist warmers. So I’m thinking I can send you all the fingertips I’ve cut off of thrift store gloves and we can both live happily ever after.
Bwa ha ha! I have never understood fingerless gloves, but my hands and wrists never get cold. And I have to admit that I doubted that knitting would be satisfying, yet here I am. I pondered this before, too.
I find it strangely fascinating that I can understand G’s suggestions about how to land a virtual spacecraft on the moon much more easily than I can your knitting instructions, even though it’s all based on mathematics.
(And yes, I know why this is the case. Doesn’t change anything)