Farm to Market Mitts times three

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Ravelry Indie designers have been staging the second, hopefully annual, “Gift-A-Long” (GAL) since November. The event started off with zillions of patterns discounted. It’s meant to help knitters get their holiday knitting in high gear and, in the process, to learn about designs and designers we might miss in the highly competitive knitting pattern environment. It’s been lots of fun. And I’ve been especially productive, finishing 17 projects from ten different designers, including eight whose patterns I’ve not knit before.

These fingerless mitts are the Farm to Market Mitts by Aimee Alexander of Polka Dot Sheep. I’ve knit three pair during the GAL. The pattern is downloadable on Ravelry. These are worked up in Shalimar Yarns Breathless DK, a superwash blend of merino, cashmere and silk. The tamarillo colorway is beautiful and the 15% cashmere (10% silk) makes for a wonderfully soft fabric.

The cable, which needs to be knit with two cable needles, is the star of this mitt, for sure.

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I prefer mitts with a thumb gusset rather than just a hole, or even less attractive, a stovepipe thumb that juts out from the mitt with not a touch of grace.

Here another sample, this time in Classic Elite Chesapeake. Chesapeake is a lightweight worsted and I used the same size needle thoughout (a US 5) instead of the 5 and 6 I used on the DK weight ones. It’s 50% wool/ 50% cotton and has excellent stitch definition.

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Yes, I know you see it. The beautiful chain cable is screwed up on the right mitt. I didn’t see it until I cast off and I was too lazy to rip back. They will not be less warm than if they were error-free. Hopefully a non-knitting recipient will not be as bothered by the botched cable and I am.

The next set was my first pair–before Aimee decided to increase the number of yards a typical knitter will need to 140. I had the bare minimum recommended in the original version of the pattern (130) and it was just barely…not enough.

So I decided to make this mismatched set, knit in wonderful Plymouth Yarns DK Merino Superwash Select DK. This yarn has amazingly great stitch definition.

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It’s getting to be my new “go to” yarn. This is my first time using the DK, rather than the worsted. No knots. No slubs.

farm_mittsAlexander’s pattern is totally error free. It’s also very intelligently laid out, with both line-by-line and charted directions. The key abbreviations–for the cables–are repeated on the page with the chart. Such a good feature, because you don’t have to keep flipping pages. She even helps the knitter out by telling you exactly how many stitches you will have in the gusset increase rows and includes a table (on the same page as the chart) that shows the stitch count and what row of the chart you’re supposed to be for each of those rows. The gusset increases in alternate rows, and then changes to every third row, so she signals the increase rows with an asterisk. Much appreciated!

2 thoughts on “Farm to Market Mitts times three

  1. @knitski…the Polka Dot Sheep patterns I’ve knit have each been clear and correct….yep…wonderful!

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