Scribe

Last night I was working hard to finalize the layout for a men's color work cardigan when I was surprised by the latest issue of Twist Collective going live.  I found this out by seeing a photo of my mittens, Scribe, pop up on my Ravelry page.  It's a funny feeling when you see something you spent so much time with appear fully formed before your eyes, especially when you finished that work months and months ago.  It's a strange sort of deja vu in which the memory has been intensely enhanced by the skills of stylist, model, and photographer.  Thank you Twist Collective Team for showing my mittens in such a lovely light.

Photo © Jane Heller

These mittens started with the idea that I wanted really warm mittens for winter, especially if there's snowy weather.  I love the concept of lined wool mittens because a liner adds an extra pocket of air between the hands and the outside where even more warm air can get trapped and keep you toasty.  The double layer and dense gauge means that these are water and wind resistant too.  

Photo © Jane Heller  The mittens are constructed by using a provisional cast and working the liner mitt first.  Before working the outer mitten from the provisional cast on stitches, the liner is turned inside out because, as I found out through trial and error, at this dense gauge it's a lot more comfortable to have the purl side next to the fingers.  When I was trying on earlier versions, it seemed like I could feel the decreases at the top of the hand with the knit side in, which bugged me.  This way, it's all smooth.   It's not super obvious in the photos, but these mittens also include a cord to hang them around your neck when they're not being worn.  I'm terrible about losing just one mitten and this was my solution.  It also allows me to take them off to do a task without having to figure out where to put them down.  Photo © Jane Heller As a teenager I owned those very boots: 10-eye oxblood Docs.  Sometimes I still think about them and miss them, so to see them so perfectly styled with my mittens warms the punk rock part of my heart.   Photo © Jane Heller Both mittens are worked the same in worsted weight wool so you don't have to worry about which is which, and the knitting goes quickly even with the lovely color work. I encourage you to check out the rest of this issue of Twist Collective - it really is a stunner.   You can see these mittens in the magazine and on Ravelry.  I can't wait to see the color combinations knitters come up with. Photo © Jane Heller