Thursday, October 29, 2009

Fall freebie: spiral mitts


I was so enamored of Knitty Gritty Thoughts' spiral cowl that I knit myself some matching mitts. I had exactly the same experience with the mitts that I had with the cowl: I thought I'd never wear fingerless gloves, that they would be impractical or not warm enough, and it turns out that I adore them and wear them and the cowl all the time!

I'm passing on the pattern to you. It's super easy and quick to knit. I had been knitting my cowl with two plies of Colourmart 4-ply weight cashmere (so a little lighter than fingering) held together, so I used them singly to knit these mitts. If you want to do something similar, you could use any luxurious fingering weight yarn to make the mitts, then hold it double to make a matching spiral cowl! I imagine that these would be lovely knit out of Malabrigo sock yarn, for example.


Spiral Mitts

Size: Ladies' small/medium ( 7" hand circumference) with 8 stitch/inch gauge; Ladies' large (8" hand circumference) with 7 stitch/inch gauge

Gauge: 8 stitches and 10 rows = 1 inch (small/medium); 7 stitches and 9 rows = 1 inch (large)

Yarn: 150-200 yards fingering-weight yarn (the more luxurious the better!)

Requirements: US 1 (2.25 mm) double-pointed needles or long circular for magic loop, two or three stitch markers, tapestry needle, waste yarn to use as stitch holder

Note: these mitts are knit top-down (from the fingers to the cuff). This means that you start by knitting the thumb and hand parts separately. It also means that you can tailor it to the amount of yarn you have by knitting the cuff longer or shorter as needed.


Directions:

First, make your thumb tube: CO 28 stitches and join to work in round, being careful not to twist. You can place a marker at the beginning of the round if you’d like. Work 4 rounds k1, p1, rib. Work in stockinette (all knit) until piece measures 1". Break yarn, leaving about a 2” tail, and place stitches on a piece of scrap yarn.

CO 56 stitches. Join to work in round, being careful not to twist. Work 5 rounds stockinette (knit). In next round, *k2tog, YO, rep. from * to end of round. Work 5 more rows stockinette. In next row, knit each stitch together with one loop from your cast-on to make a folded picot hem.

In next row, make one stitch (or increase by one stitch), then begin spiral eyelet pattern as follows: *k6, k2tog, YO, rep. from * to end of round. You should be able now just to spiral your way around the mitt ad infinitum. Work three full repeats of the spiral pattern (24 rounds), or until work measures 2” from folded-down hem.

In the next round, join your “thumb tube” to the mitts as follows: work 28 stitches in spiral eyelet pattern. Place a marker. Knit across all your live “thumb tube” stitches, working the first few stitches with working yarn and tail end of thumb stitches held together, and place another marker. Work remaining 29 stitches in spiral eyelet pattern.

In the next round, work to first marker in spiral eyelet pattern and slip marker. Slip-slip-knit (ssk) or work your favorite left-leaning decrease, knit to last 2 stitches before marker, k2tog, slip marker, and continue round in spiral eyelet pattern.

In the next round, work to first marker in spiral eyelet pattern, slip marker, knit to second marker, then finish round in spiral eyelet pattern.

Repeat the previous two rounds until there are two stitches between the markers. In the next round, work spiral eyelet pattern until one stitch before the first marker. Drop marker and k3tog, drop second marker and continue in spiral eyelet pattern.

Continue working in spiral eyelet pattern for 4 more full pattern repeats or until work measures 3” from bottom of thumb gore or 7” from folded-down hem. Work 6 rounds stockinette, decreasing by one stitch in the first row of stockinette. In the next round, *k2tog, YO, rep. from * to end of round. Work 5 more rounds stockinette. Break yarn, leaving a long tail. Fold hem and tack down live stitches with a tapestry needle to make picot cuff.

Weave in ends, block as you prefer and repeat with second mitt!


21 comments:

Debbie said...

Thank you so much for this great pattern! It will definitely go with the spiral cowl.

Batty said...

Thank you, they are stunning!

Aislynn said...

Totally love those!

Kimmie said...

Oh they make my heart sing. I hope I have enough skill to make these.

bless your heart for sharing!

Kimmie
mama to 7
one homemade and 6 adopted
*come meet us, we love new friends!

Grammar Parrot said...

Neat pattern! I live in Texas and rarely need gloves, but I'd like to try to make these for my Northern friends. Is there a way to print just the pattern without printing the whole page? (e.g., "print-friendly" copy?)

Jen said...

I guess the easiest way is to cut and paste into your own document -- I haven't made this into a pdf yet and I may not have time in the near future.

Grammar Parrot said...

In our Knowledge Base at work, we have a Print link, and when you click the link, the article opens in its own HTML page. I'll look at how that's done and let you know. Maybe it's as simple as a little HTML code instead of making a PDF.

keri said...

They're beautiful! Such a wonderful idea and they match beautifully! Thanks so much for sharing! =)

Anonymous said...

I love these mitts! :) Have you ever experimented with a version of the pattern that could be done with worsted-weight yarn?

If so, I'd love to know the details!

Thanks!
Purlescence on Ravelry

Ann B said...

To print the pattern only you just need to open a new word document, highlight the pattern text only and copy/paste..... easy really. You can also copy and paste the image and resize it so it doesn't use too much ink.

Michelle said...

This is exactly what I was looking for! I purchased two skeins in hopes of finding a good way to make my first part of fingerless gloves to go with the sprial cowl. I made the cowl for a friend and had to have one too. Perfect!

lydia said...

Hi there, thanks for the beautiful pattern. This is my first attempt at a new design (spiraling) I am really stuck though at "Knit across all your live “thumb tube” stitches" i have tried googling it but cant seem to find a good example. I am working with 4x2.5mm double pointed needles and Im not sure how i am supposed to knit all the live stitches of the thumb tube and I also cant picture this being the right thing to do all at once? is there a link that you know of that would help explain this step to me, maybe with visuals, or it broken down more.

Thanks heaps. Lydia

kathryn said...

hello! like lydia, i'm also stuck at the thumb tube part. clarification would be really, really helpful.. i'd like to gift these to someone for christmas! thanks,

Jen said...

It's tricky to explain in words but very intuitive when you see it. Hold your thumb upside-down with the live stitches on top. Transfer the stitches to some extra dpn's, putting half on one needle and half on the other. Then knit to the point on the hand at which your thumb will be placed, and continue to knit the first needle of thumb stitches with the same live yarn you're knitting the hand with, just adding half the thumb stitches to the needle you had been using for the hand. Then turn and knit the rest of the thumb stitches with the dpn you just freed up, then go on to knit the next stitches on your hand dpn. It will probably be pretty tight on your needles at this point, but it will get looser in subsequent rounds. You're basically holding two tubes next to each other, then joining their stitches to make one big tube.

kathryn said...

thanks so much for the explanation, jen! i got it to work & should be gifting these on schedule :-)

Cheryl said...

Completely stumped by joining thumb :-(... Ripping out and finding an easier pattern!! Wish I was cleverer!

bumpie said...

thank you for the pattern, i will attempt it even tho i too haven't been able to wrap my head around the thumb part. i'm hoping i'll get it when i try. i do have a question: you wrote 'stockinette stitch (all knit)'. i was taught that it was knit 1 row, purl the next. isn't garter stitch knit all?? i can't tell from the pic so i'll do it your way, all knit.

Emma said...

im confused with how to complete the "24" round of spiral pattern !
Can someone advise me please :)

Emma said...

i am confused as to how to complete the "24" round spiral pattern as it is not listed. can someone please help ?
thanks

Jen said...

Emma, one round of the spiral pattern is noted at the beginning of the section with the notation you're confused about. Just repeat that round 24 times.

Anonymous said...

These look great and I am working my way through them, but have a question. When in the spiral rows, do I increase one stitch at the beginning of each row? That will skew the pattern, won't it? I'm confused. Thanks, Lolo