So it turns out that I'm in deep smit... with MITTENS!!
Could it have been knitting the Smitten that has me so enamoured? In my recent (and somewhat frenzied) raid of the stash for abandoned and languishing UFOs (UnFinished Objects) I came across the wonderful Bella Mittens I had begun knitting MONTHS ago last year when we were headed for the snow! I decided I would like extremely snug and warm mittens, and having seen Sactosara's wonderful cashmere lined mitts I was inspired to line my own too!
I bought the most luxurious yarn I could think of and afford/find (= Malabrigo!) for the lining and after knitting up the main mitten pattern in a rather non-descript workhorse chain store yarn I looked to the lining.
By this time we were actually on the road driving up up up towards the snow and I was getting there, bit by bit! I picked up stitches around the base of the mitten and knit a replica of the mitten outer, but without the funky cables (which, incidentally, remind me so very much of reptile (especially dragon) anatomy!). Once I had lined the first mitten I was a little concerned with how bulky the mitts were. An already dense and very cosy pattern was made extremely thick with the layer of malabrigo inside. So thick in fact that I felt rather like a cross between the Michelin man and some sort of robotic, yet awfully cosy, humanoid.
So... I stopped working on them. *cringe*
It's an awful, disgraceful and neglectful thing to do, to just move on from a project like that and leave it for "a bit later" which is procratinese for "two chances I'll ever get back to that". But you see we were AT the snow by then. IN the snow. The very SNOW that we had been dreaming of! Snow, all white and crunchy underfoot! We were frolicking and stomping and making the snowbear, riding in over-snows, breathing deep lungfuls of icy-beyond-crisp air and marvelling at all the snowland wonders.
Add to all this excitement, the fact that I was SMASHING myself in to the ice and hard packed snow each day while learning to snowboard! So by the time we were riding the over-snow back to the lodge, or resting aching limbs after nice warm showers, I didn't want to be knitting something un-wonderful and un-marvellous.
I still had my mind set on the mittens being lined, but knew in that deep knitterly way that it just wasn't cricket. SO rather than have to deal with figuring that out, I let them be and continued to use my normal snow gloves (store bought and not even WOOLLEN! But admittedly very warm and handy for manipulating helmet straps). When we returned from the trip I stuffed the knitting bag away with my other goodies and we flew back away for work, and that was that. Only NOW have I ferretted them out and realised... I don't neeeed a lining!! For goodness sake they're fantastically warm and snug as it is and look fantastic, feel fantastic and are super cute!
The lining would be excellent in a yarn of appropriate thickness (ie sock weight, not worsted!!) but is certainly not a necessity. And I'm in LOVE with my mitts!! I'm in deep fabulous infatuated love with them! It's a ridiculous heat outside and I'm sitting in my donga wearing my mitts (obviously not while typing...) and thinking how wonderful it would be if I could wear them all the time! And so the voyage of the Sasha Bella Mitts is now complete! The only prologue to be added is when I actually DO get a chance to use them in the snow!
Could it have been knitting the Smitten that has me so enamoured? In my recent (and somewhat frenzied) raid of the stash for abandoned and languishing UFOs (UnFinished Objects) I came across the wonderful Bella Mittens I had begun knitting MONTHS ago last year when we were headed for the snow! I decided I would like extremely snug and warm mittens, and having seen Sactosara's wonderful cashmere lined mitts I was inspired to line my own too!
I bought the most luxurious yarn I could think of and afford/find (= Malabrigo!) for the lining and after knitting up the main mitten pattern in a rather non-descript workhorse chain store yarn I looked to the lining.
By this time we were actually on the road driving up up up towards the snow and I was getting there, bit by bit! I picked up stitches around the base of the mitten and knit a replica of the mitten outer, but without the funky cables (which, incidentally, remind me so very much of reptile (especially dragon) anatomy!). Once I had lined the first mitten I was a little concerned with how bulky the mitts were. An already dense and very cosy pattern was made extremely thick with the layer of malabrigo inside. So thick in fact that I felt rather like a cross between the Michelin man and some sort of robotic, yet awfully cosy, humanoid.
So... I stopped working on them. *cringe*
It's an awful, disgraceful and neglectful thing to do, to just move on from a project like that and leave it for "a bit later" which is procratinese for "two chances I'll ever get back to that". But you see we were AT the snow by then. IN the snow. The very SNOW that we had been dreaming of! Snow, all white and crunchy underfoot! We were frolicking and stomping and making the snowbear, riding in over-snows, breathing deep lungfuls of icy-beyond-crisp air and marvelling at all the snowland wonders.
Add to all this excitement, the fact that I was SMASHING myself in to the ice and hard packed snow each day while learning to snowboard! So by the time we were riding the over-snow back to the lodge, or resting aching limbs after nice warm showers, I didn't want to be knitting something un-wonderful and un-marvellous.
I still had my mind set on the mittens being lined, but knew in that deep knitterly way that it just wasn't cricket. SO rather than have to deal with figuring that out, I let them be and continued to use my normal snow gloves (store bought and not even WOOLLEN! But admittedly very warm and handy for manipulating helmet straps). When we returned from the trip I stuffed the knitting bag away with my other goodies and we flew back away for work, and that was that. Only NOW have I ferretted them out and realised... I don't neeeed a lining!! For goodness sake they're fantastically warm and snug as it is and look fantastic, feel fantastic and are super cute!
The lining would be excellent in a yarn of appropriate thickness (ie sock weight, not worsted!!) but is certainly not a necessity. And I'm in LOVE with my mitts!! I'm in deep fabulous infatuated love with them! It's a ridiculous heat outside and I'm sitting in my donga wearing my mitts (obviously not while typing...) and thinking how wonderful it would be if I could wear them all the time! And so the voyage of the Sasha Bella Mitts is now complete! The only prologue to be added is when I actually DO get a chance to use them in the snow!
2 comments:
a pair of lined mittens?? this pair will definitely keep you very very warm indeed :)
Lovely mittens & they do look like dragons. Like your new blog look too. I have also changed my look from the same site - great minds think alike!
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