Knits Men Want: fingerless mitts

tealmittsBruce Weinstein’s Knits Men Want is subtitled “The Ten Rules Every Woman Should Know Before Knitting For A Man.” Most of the rules proceed from a heavily stereotyped place.  Women like knitted stuff fancied up and colorful and men like only simple knitted stuff in shades of brown, gray (and possibly navy blue if they are daring). It’s not true in my world. But once you get beyond the point of view, Weinstein’s patterns are compellingly utilitarian. For me, there’s not anything to not like regardless of the gender of the wearer.

These are his Fingerless Mitts, knitted in Berroco’s worsted weight version of Comfort. It’s an acrylic/nylon 50/50 mix that is enjoyable to work with even though it tends to be splitty. For the wool adverse we knit for, it’s an excellent choice.

My only modifications were to shorten the top ribbing and the thumb ribbing to five rounds.

Before you buy Knits Men Want, you might want to read up some on Weinstein’s idiosyncratic pattern writing. Everything was correct, in both patterns I’ve knitted from this book. He provides directions for just about every weight of yarn, by gauge, and for a variety of sizes. This is a great feature. But, to handle the variant gauge issue, he uses multiple charts, with multiple columns, for every step in the pattern. It’s confusing until you get in the swing of it. It works, after you think about it for awhile. Making a copy of the pattern and highlighting the direction in each step for the size and gauge you are working helps a great deal.