Mission accomplished

 

I've done it.  I've finally completed a patterned mitten and I'm hooked!

It's from the Selbuvotter book, specifically the Nordic Heritage Museum #3 mitten on page 91.

It's not perfect, but I recently came across the quote 'Finished is better than perfect' on someone's blog and I've taken to repeating it like a mantra at critical decision junctures.  It works!  In any case, this mitten won't have a mate.  It was a pure learning piece and was approached as such, which freed me to plow through difficult areas, learning my lessons and maintaining a rhythm without pressure to rip back.  Good enough meant that I could see what mistakes I had made, corrected them (or figured out how) and it was still looking like a mitten.  Crucial criteria.

The thumb join area is one of these small disappointments.  Clearly, the pattern doesn't flow here and some of the pickups look twisted.  C'est la vie!  Part of the problem was that I was that I was using Susan Bates metal dpns, which while easy to knit with, are extremely slippery.  In that small thumbhole area, it was all I could do to keep moving along, picking up stitches, working in pattern and trying to keep the stitches on my four needles.

The inside even looks pretty, doesn't it?  The blue line of carried yarn along the right edge was at a break on my needles and even though I could see early on that it was being pulled a bit tight, my efforts to allow a looser carry didn't seem to make much difference...there's still a little ridge there, even after blocking.  Have any of you done similar mittens on two circs?  I recall seeing patterned socks worked on two circs (fun ones here by Haphazard Knitter) but since I've never tried that method with socks, I probably shouldn't start with Norwegian mittens.

I feel a little silly posting a mitten project in June, but really, this is the perfect project for this time of year.  Small and lightweight...no pressure to finish quickly because of need.  I'll definitely be making more of these, though I'll try different yarn.  I used the Satakieli for authenticity, but found it to be too splitty for my taste.  Though maybe that was because of the metal dpns?  I do like the resulting fabric. 

Ok...I just can't write my first June post without a summery touch.  How about my lilies?

 

Comments

[thimbleanna]

The mitten is beautiful! Haven't had the nerve to try that technique yet -- probably my next great frontier -- someday. How can you bear to make it single for the rest of it's life -- does it not cry for a mate??? ;-)

[Cara]

Beautiful! I was just talking about mittens today!

[Corry]

looks real complicated that mitten, beautiful!!

[Annie]

Gorgeous- both the mitten and the lilies. And I totally agree with your mantra. :)

[Lolly]

Holey moley, that is beautiful! I love the motif! I have some mittens on my list this year.

...I am counting the days till my lilies bloom. Yours are stunning!

[Chris]

Wow - excellent work on the mitten!!

The lilies are gorgeous indeed.

[gray la gran]

*squeal* ! how pretty!!!
i had the same problem with my tension when changing needles (by the way, i'm knitting my sock via "magic loop"). some people recommend knitting inside out to remedy that stranding problem. i also found that if i carried the unused yarn right next to the point of where i was making the change, my tension was smoother (but, haven't figured out how to carry the dominant yarn while i'm knitting with the contrast yarn when doing this ....).
i almost ordered that book today. rats!

[catherine]

wow - that is 1 beautiful mitten - congrats -haven't tried knitting socks on 2 circs because i jumped right from dp's to 1 circ & won't go back - it's really satisfying - wonder if your fancy mitten could be knit w/this technique?

[Katie Greenwood]

The mitten is Wow. And the lilies are beautiful. :)

[Kathie]

I bow down in worshipful awe. The mitten is total gorgeousness.

[Hedgehog]

The mitten is just gorgeous!! I'm so impressed - I'm a totaly knittingphobe!

[Nanette]

Your first colorwork mitten looks beautiful!

[Sharon]

Beautiful lilies!
I hope that you do make another mitten--not one that matches, but another "learning" mitten, so that you will at least have a pair of mismatched mittens to proudly show off when someone kindly informs you of your "mistake". Tee hee. The mitten is beautiful, inside and out.

[Lily]

Well yes, your lilies are gorgeous, but that mitten is just about right for our new winter in Australia!

[Scribbles & Bits]

That mitten is glorious! Really beautiful work!

[Diane B]

I am not a knitter, so your post was a foreign language to me. But I recognize beauty when I see it and both the mitten and the lilies are gorgeous! I have always been a perfectionist with my needlework, but my new mantra is, "Sometimes good enough is good enough!"

[JudyC]

How did I miss that mitten?? Wowzer!! What a great job!!

[Vicki]

Congratulations, Jan!!! Your mitten looks fantastic!

Re: Sharon's comment above. My second mitten, which was to be a matching mitten, is definitely, also, a learning mitten (it is a fair bit bigger/looser than the first).
; )

[terri]

Just wonderful! BTW, most of the old mittens had inside thumb joins that look like yours, so don't feel bad. It took me a *lot* of trial and error to get the flowing pattern figured out. Make the mate, so you can wear them this winter!

[Marnie]

Knitting on two circs is basically knitting on two long DPNs. There's nothing exotic or different about it. I don't care for it because at the end of each needle, you need to resituate all the stitches to start knitting the next needle. Some people, however, consider it a life changing improvement to work on 2 circs.

The mitten came out beautifully. :)

[AlisonH]

Beautiful! And I love Terri's book!

[LisaK]

Love the mitten! And it's blue! Great job.

[Siri]

Oh my, oh my! It's gorgeous. Not perfect? Not that I can tell.
My aunts in Norway used to make lots of these and send them to us here in the States. I asked my mom about them last time I was home and she said she didn't realize I'd be interested in them so she'd given all but a pair or two that she wears skiing to the Nordic Heritage Museum where she volunteers. Oh well. I know they're in a good place, and I suppose I could always knit them for myself, right?