Adventures of a Desi KnitterAn academic juggles knitting, sewing, and other crafts in Kolkata

Endpaper Mitts!

§ February 5th, 2008 § Filed under Mittens, Gloves, etc § 14 Comments

There was a time when patterns were merely described as “fair isle mittens” or “cabled socks” with AC-230 or some such official-sounding number attached to distinguish one raglan and its distributor from another. Knit-blogging has changed all that. Designs now have names of their own. To be sure, there were always patterns like Dorothy’s socks or some such, but patterns with names like Clapotis and Pomatomus have taken on a presence that is so much larger than the sum of their designers, yarns and knitters put together. Sometimes the knits seem like people – just as real (or virtual) as their knitters in the online world itself. Admit it, have you never felt that Clapotis was a slightly annoying French girl, or that Selbuvotter was actually was a hero from some Nordic saga? I find it fascinating how this new interplay of technology, language and communication is changing not only the actual craft, in bringing together so many different styles, patterns and ideas, but also its discourse. I like reading about why a pattern was named what it was – I don’t know if it always adds value to its attractiveness, but certainly, it makes it stand out. DROPS seems to be the only holdout in this regard, doesn’t it – doggedly continuing to mark its patterns as “Design 10-B7″ and the like!

All this being said, I couldn’t have cared less if Eunny Jang had called these the Sandpaper Mitts, instead of the Endpaper Mitts, because they are soft and wonderful and altogether quite lovely:

I decided to make them fraternal twins, instead of identical. I have been trying to design a rangoli motif onto a pair of mittens for the longest time now, but Life and Work have intervened in dramatic ways, and following someone else’s pattern is about all I can manage right now, it seems. No matter, for I quite enjoyed the mindless peace of just following the instructions.

Details:

Pattern: Endpaper Mitts, from Eunny Jang (free!)
Needles: Size 1 bamboo for the main pattern, size 0 for the cuffs.
Yarn: Rauma 2 ply Gammelserie, in grey and navy. I used maybe 150 yards of each skein.

I bought this yarn in Oslo in 2004. It is perfect for fair isle, and given the way the grey stuck to the blue, I imagine steeking will be quite hassle-free with it. Not that I’m looking to steek anything anytime soon, but just a thought. As you can tell below, the grey is a lot hairier than the blue, I wonder if the extra dye on the darker yarn made it smoother?

Modifications:
I omitted one repeat of the long cuff, cause the mittens are long enough. The Italian tubular cast-on really helps to smoothly stretch them past your wrist on to your upper arm. I couldn’t decide which colour to use for the cuffs, and was worried about running out. So I compromised and knit them as mirror images, even though I wasn’t quite sure that this would look good. But in the end, I think I prefer my twins fraternal, even though it’s really not that easy to tell them apart when you peer closely. One seamlessly blends into the other, doesn’t it?

If I were to make these again I’d probably choose a sharper colour contrast and even omit another cuff repeat. But these are really warm, and perfect for my chilly flat and office and running errands around town. And they go quick.