This is the last of my FALQ1 catch up blogs! I'm exhausted, so this is probably going to be a short one unless I start rambling!
These are Astra Mitts, pattern by Ambah O'Brien, part of the Astra set of hat (made over xmas), mitts and cowl (yet to be cast on)
The yarn is DK in Towpath (green) and Cairn (grey) from RiverKnits, whose yarns are gorgeous.
I knitted the medium size, which was a surprise as I have tiny hands! They fit nicely, and I think the tight bind off is more to do with my knitting than the actual pattern. When I make these again for me (which is likely as they're great) I will probably reduce the number of rows knitted after the thumb hole, as they're a little bit long on my fingers. I might also reduce the number of rows on the thumb, as again it's a bit long.
These were knitted up using HiyaHiya 9 inch circulars, which make glove knitting SO MUCH EASIER than using DPNs. I hate DPNs so much, especially when there are more than a few stitches on them.
The pattern is well written, and looks lovely. My colour choices are perhaps a little more subtle than needed, as the grey and green blend together, but I really like the way that they look.
They're also delightfully squishy.
I did make the fatal mistake of putting them down for a couple of weeks while I finished something else, so when I came back to them, I did manage to make a mistake and carry the yarn in front for one row, which is why one glove has a slightly weird ridge just below the thumb! I don't mind mistakes like that, they give a project some character!
I've never actually knitted gloves with a separate thumb, so this was a little bit terrifying. I was so proud of myself getting the stitches onto the needles at lunchtime and knitting the thumb, only to realise I'd gone the wrong way round, and so knitted it inside out! I had to frog it and reknit the thumb, but thankfully it didn't take very long, and hey, I learned an important lesson!
I knitted the second glove in about a week, which is a way better record than the last pair of gloves I made which took over a year!
You can see here the ridge where I proved incapable of reading a pattern! I was going to repeat it on the other glove, but couldn't work out exactly which row I'd done it on.
Even the inside is pretty! I really do love the Towpath colourway, and I kind of wish it wasn't hidden quite so much in with the grey (which has hints of green in it so they do blend nicely)
They're done a bit late in the year for them to see a lot of use, but they'll come out again in the autumn, of that I have no doubt! And they might get pulled out for Empire in a couple of weeks.
I've had one person say they'd like a pair, and I did forget their birthday, so if I can work out what colours they'd like, I might do them a pair.
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