Knitting nirvana
Despite the dark, dreary day (thunderstorms and eventual snow on the way) and my resulting inability to get a shot of this mitten that I'm happy with, and despite it still being thumbless, I couldn't wait to post about my progress so far on my dream project, my first, almost-complete Latvian mitten. *sigh* I'm in love.
For all of you who've drooled over the Upitis book but have been paralyzed by the thought attempting these mittens (me, for years,) I'd say, come on in, the water's fine! They really are not difficult. What was difficult for me...not difficult, but intimidating...was piecing together the directions. The author presents several mitten pattern instructions, but none were exactly what I wanted. Once I figured out the basics, taking a little from this pattern and a little from that, it all fell into place. Now I have a basic pattern for my hand worked out (still needs a little tweaking...I'll know better once I get the thumb knitted and block the mitten) and I'll be able to play with patterns and colors within that basic pattern.
As an aside, I can't praise Terri Shea's Selbuvotter book enough as an introduction to patterned mitten knitting. So much of my success with this Latvian mitten (Am I jinxing it? It's not done yet...) was due to my experience with Terri's mitten patterns. Her charts are large & clear and seeing them laid out the way she presents them in her book makes the structure of a charted mitten easy to visualize.
When I finish the thumb and can get some decent photos, I'll share some of how I got from 'eyes glazing over at the mere thought of trying this' to 'ta-da! A mitten' Did I mention I'm in love?
Nice work, Jan!! What a WONDERFUL mitten! I'd be putting that mitten on and patting myself on the back, thumb or no thumb. And you're inspiring me and I'm going to avert my eyes now because I have too much "work" quilting to do to be diverted by this loveliness. Maybe a self-striping sock will calm me down for a while.
Posted by:amy | January 29, 2008 at 01:01 PM
I completely agree with you on the Selbuvotter book. Your new mitten is beautiful.
Posted by:Carole | January 29, 2008 at 01:47 PM
WooHOO! Congratulations, Jan!! It's beautiful and inspirational. I think my tensioning is better now (more even) and maybe for my next trick I'll knit a pair that are equal in size!
; )
Posted by:Vicki | January 29, 2008 at 02:49 PM
Very pretty, Jan! It reminds me a little of a Mary Englebreit motif.
Posted by:Leslie | January 29, 2008 at 02:50 PM
Outstanding!
Posted by:KathieB | January 29, 2008 at 03:10 PM
I love your mitten. I've been meaning to make the black and white one from the Latvian Mittens cover.
Posted by:Nanette | January 29, 2008 at 03:27 PM
I LOVE it Jan, what a beautiful group of colors! It's a fantastic mitten! Also I was especially pleased to read what you thought about the books. I have been reading both, an at times have been quite confused. I started my mitten knitting with the one on the Pieceworks cover and did get through that pretty good.(it doesn't fit at all!) But starting another from the books has me confused, this will help me look at them from a different view. You make things very clear....thanks for that!
Posted by:Wendy | January 29, 2008 at 04:37 PM
Bravo! So happy to hear you're having fun.
Posted by:Nancy | January 29, 2008 at 06:36 PM
That mitten deserves some celebrating. Maybe some champagne? A bit of chocolate? Something special at the very least!
Posted by:Angela | January 29, 2008 at 07:27 PM
Pretty. I just like to look at the pictures. :)
Posted by:Chris | January 29, 2008 at 10:13 PM
Oh my gosh, it's gorgeous! I can't believe how fast you knit that. Great work!
Posted by:Kristin | January 30, 2008 at 02:44 AM
ooooh, pretty! i have drooled over that book for many many years.
have you seen _the mitten book_ ?
http://www.amazon.com/Mitten-Book-Ingrid-Gottfridsson/dp/0937274364/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201692910&sr=8-3
it's a sweet book, though it doesn't chart out the shaping for you.
and i say all this as if i've knitted intricately patterned mittens!
Posted by:gray la gran | January 30, 2008 at 06:38 AM
Beautiful work! lovely colors! I got the Selbuvotter book, and I am excited about starting some of my own ;)
Posted by:Lolly | January 30, 2008 at 07:09 AM
It's GORGEOUS Jan, stunning! A woman in my knitting group knits these for herself with no pattern! She's an anomaly!
I'd love to make some for myself for the challenge, but then frame them and hang them on the wall back home in Australia - lord knows there'll be no practical need for them there! Yours is a work of art and if it wasn't so cold here, you too could frame it!!
Posted by:Geri Barr | January 30, 2008 at 08:13 AM
Beautiful!
Posted by:Cami | January 30, 2008 at 12:07 PM
Oh that mitten is fabulous - such gorgeous eye-catching colors! =)
Posted by:keri | January 30, 2008 at 01:33 PM
your mitten is very, very cute. it looks like you've put a lot of work into it.
Posted by:sammyjo | January 31, 2008 at 02:08 PM
Gorgeous knittiing, pattern and color combination.
Posted by:Judy B | February 01, 2008 at 10:52 AM
Jan so glad to see you are consoling yourself after a horrible week! The mitten is lovely - you are really getting into this!
Hope your finger is recovering from your slicing incident!
Posted by:Cascade Lily | February 02, 2008 at 01:05 AM
I'm in love too - that mitten is spectacular!! Oh the work! It's beautiful.
Posted by:Day | February 02, 2008 at 03:23 PM
wow.
but I still think it's scary. Beautiful, but scary.
Posted by:monica | February 03, 2008 at 05:10 AM
It's a beautiful mitten!
And happy belated birthday!
Posted by:Melanie | February 03, 2008 at 08:13 PM
Your mitten is so lovely! I did my first two-color project in January, and I'm eager to try it again... so I'll be looking for this book.
Posted by:abby | February 04, 2008 at 12:34 PM
Thank you so much for your comment in my blog! Isn't it fun to knit mittens in colorwork! These are beautiful, I love both pattern and colors. Have a nice day!
Posted by:Hobbygåsa | February 05, 2008 at 05:05 AM