Hand warmers

For the UK Swap:

I’ve not made a huge number of adult-sized mittens. When I first started knitting after a 20(ish) year hiatus, I made a job lot of children’s mittens as Christmas presents, complete with animal faces etc. They were pre-blog days so I don’t have any photos. (They were also rather nasty cheap acrylic, so we should probably move on without saying much more… )

A couple of years later, I’d learnt a little more about the warmth of real wool, and knocked these off for Adam just in time for Christmas:

Pattern: Ann Budd’s basic mitten pattern (Ravlink)
Yarn: Freedom Spirit by Twilleys of Stamford
(and I made a very similar pair in pink handspun for the little princess in my life.)

On to adult handwarmers. They’ve all been for me. (I think.) The first, and most successful pair are the Urban Rustic Gloves from Knitty.

Yarn: Noro Silk Garden.
I’ve worn and worn and worn at these. Despite being rather too short at the wrist, and having fairly large holes in them due to the thickness of the yarn, they are WARM! Or at least, they were… I’ve worn them so much that I’ve made several holes in them. I’m now contemplating whether to darn them or simply make another pair (with slightly longer wrists).

Secondly we have my Miss Potters (ravlink) from Yarn Forward Magazine.

Yarn: Trend Setter Yarns Tonalita
I enjoyed knitting these, and the yarn is very pretty, but I find them annoying to wear. I’ve always had the sneaking suspicion that fingerless mitts weren’t for me – I spend too much time cycling, and these really don’t work well enough. Still, they’re fine for the trip to and from school every day! (And they’re getting a good workout in the current weather.)

Thirdly we have my own-designed handspun BFL mittens, which are sleeping peacefully in my WIPs basket:

Shhhhhh…. don’t wake them up…

three comments:

Hmm, must be that time of year. Onto my third pair of hand warmers, having done a pair like mine but smaller for Ciara in multi-blue I’m doing a pair of long rib fingerless gloves for Rhiannon, in blush, raspberry and slate blue. You’ll see. When I finish… x

Louise () (link) - 12 December '08 - 16:21

Handwarmers are on my to do list – which means they won’t get done until the weather’s warm again…

Daisy () (link) - 17 December '08 - 15:41

i love the freedom spirit mittens! and your handspun bfl mittens are simply amazing ... i’ve been making lots of wristwarmers but have a request from my mother-in-law for an actual pair of mittens now. do you know of any good patterns online, or should i go out and get the Interweave Knits book for the Budd pattern?

obsidiankitten () (link) - 13 January '09 - 04:45

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