Date: Sun, 05 Oct 1997 11:33:24 EDT From: Genevieve A Winkler To: knit@bolis.com Subject: KNIT: KNIT Holiday Mittens Here is my offering to the Holiday Gift Exchange. These little puppies are not very refined, but they are snuggly, flexible and quick. I have offered only one size since the ribbing is so elastic. Use your "Knitter's Sense" and the few suggestions I offered to make them bigger or smaller. Gennie Winkler, Seattle, Washington (gwink@juno.com) He spoke to his wool yarn mittens as though they were two kittens or pups... ********************************************************************************************* The * *Alice Carroll** All Ribb Mitt This pattern is my realization of a suggestion made by Alice Carroll in the 1947 edition of __The Good Housekeeping Needlecraft Encyclopedia__. She wrote: "For the beginner and for one who is unsure of her gauge, it is advisable to use a rib stitch throughout the entire mitten or glove. The rib stitch, as you know, is elastic, and the same ribbed mitten or glove will fit two or three different sizes." Exactly so; it also makes great charity mittens, growing children mittens, or gifts for those whose hands are far away. You can work the following mitten without a ruler and have it fit fine. Feel free to adjust lengths to suit yourself. I have lavished love and attention on the fingertip and thumbtip shaping and on the finishing. The pattern is written for a medium size (sort of a large kid or small to medium woman.) For small, drop down to 36 stitches in the cast on and 8 stitches in the waste yarn thumb. For large, go up to 44 or even 48 stitches in the cast-on and 10 stitches in the waste yarn thumb. Adjust the fingertip length appropriately. One or two "Thumb Joint Units of Measure" (TJUoM) adjustments up or down will fit most. MATERIALS AND TOOLS 2-4 oz Knitting Worsted Weight WOOL yarn depending on size. I used a regular worsted, not a "light" one. You could knit a smaller mitten using lighter worsted or sport weight yarn and a shorter cuff end. One set of double point needles. If you are experienced, pick the size of needle you would normally use to rib this weight of yarn. If you are not, read the directions on the ball band, then use one or two sizes smaller. You want a snug ribbed texture. For a more refined, "mitteny" look, use even smaller needles for the first half of the Cuff End. A yarn needle DIRECTIONS Lay your right hand across the back of your left hand with your index finger snugged up against the knobby part of your wrist. Point your right thumb towards your elbow and notice where the thumb tip ends. This will be how long you want the cuff end of your mitten to be. We will call this The Cuff End Point. It is a generous cuff end because it will stretch horizontally with a hand in it. Take a minute to massage and stretch your hands. Cast 40 stitches onto your double point needles (12, 14,14 or 10, 10, 10,10), leaving a Good Long Tail (GLT). Join without twisting, and establish a 1 x 1 rib pattern (K1, P1 all the way around). Rib straight until you think the tube is getting long enough to reach from The Cuff End Point to the "V" between your thumb and your hand. Lay your needles across the palm of your hand with your thumb extended and the needles resting along it. The tube will extend towards your elbow. When the cast on sits at The Cuff End Point, you are ready to insert the Waste Yarn for the thumb. Using a generous scrap of Waste Yarn in a contrast color, rib 9 stitches. Slip these stitches back to the left hand needle. KNIT all of the waste yarn stitches. You are doing one row of plain knit to make it easier to pick these stitches up when you work the thumb. Continue established ribbing for about the length of your hand. Now and then, fold the cuff end at the waste yarn up over the working end and check the length. You will usually shape the fingertips when the working end is within a row or two of the same length as the cuff, either longer or shorter as you like. FINGERTIP SHAPING If the first stitch on the left hand needle is a knit stitch, knit it. You want to begin the shaping with a purl stitch being the first stitch on the left hand needle. (You could do SSK instead if the first stitch is a knit. You want the knits to be on top forming stockinette stitch as you decrease.) Round 1: ( K2tog. P1,K1 ) around. Round 2: Knit the knits and purl the purls Round 3: ( K1, K2tog ) around Round 4: K Round 5: K2tog around Cut the working yarn leaving a GLT. With the needle, run the tail through the live stitches, remove them from the needles, and draw the stitches up and pull the GLT through to the inside. THUMB Remove the Waste Yarn one little half stitch at a time using two needles to pick up the live stitches on the top and bottom of the opening. Be very careful to get all of the purl stitches on the cuff side. You should have 18 stitches if you are making the 9 stitch thumb. Some of your stitches are probably twisted on the needles, so use another needle to shift them so they all sit as you want them to. You will begin the thumb with the needle that holds the stretch of all knit stitches from the fingertip side of the thumb opening. Look at the last stitch on the needle to the right. If it is a knit stitch, you will knit the first stitch on the "all-knit" needle in the next row. If a purl, purl. Join a new yarn with a GLT and rib across adding a third needle where you like. This is your row to distribute the stitches, get the ribbing in order, tighten up the corners and to get the right number of stitches for the thumbtip shaping . Knit or purl the last stitch of the all knit stretch together with the next stitch. When you come around to the GLT, knit or purl the last stitch with the first stitch in this round. You will want a multiple of 4 for the shaping, which you will have if you worked a 9 stitch thumb. If not, decrease as needed towards the top of the thumb somewhere above the "V." Notice that, on the fingertip side, the ribbing of the thumb will be offset 1\2 stitch from the ribs in the hand. There will also be handy little holes at each side. Rib On. Check the length of the thumb by sticking your thumb down through the thumb tube, or up from the inside. Down is kind of fun! When the mitten thumb reaches the white part of your thumbnail, which you can see through that little hole, the mitten will fit you. Make it longer or shorter to fit someone else as needed and make sure you have a multiple of 4 stitches for the shaping. Shape the Thumb Tip as described for the fingertip omitting Round 4. Finish the top of the thumb as for the fingertip giving yourself a GLT and pull the GLT to the inside. FINISHING Turn the mitten inside out to weave in the yarn ends. You will be running the GLTs along the edge of a rib catching every stitch of the rib. If you duplicate the direction that the knitted yarn follows, the ends will be darn near invisible. Use the cast-on tail to work 2 or 3 layers of figure eight over the join, then run the end up one edge of a rib for 2 or 3 "TJUoM" and clip. Run the fingertip GLT around in a circle or two, reverse directions and run it some more, clip. Use the GLT at the base of the thumb, to run stitches around the adjacent hole and draw it up. Run the rest along a rib for 2 or 3 "TJUoM". Clip. Run the thumbtip yarn around the tip once or twice and run it down a rib to the corner of the thumb base that still has a hole in it. Adjust the tension so this yarn is just right, then tidy up the hole as above. Run the end out along a rib for 2 or 3 "TJUoM" and Clip. MAKE TWO! For a MATCHING CAP. Cast 84 stitches on to a 16" circular needle. Join Without Twisting. Rib around for at least a hands length, as much as two or anywhere in between, then work the shaping as described above. Fold the brim if there is one. **Alice Carroll was Fashion Director at Spinnerin, a Designer at Alice Maynard, and a Consultant on the American Red Cross Knitting Manual; a creative and productive woman.** --- This pattern downloaded from Wool Works: the online knitting compendium http://www.woolworks.org/