Snail Spirals

I had a productive night last night, and whipped out a complete pair of fingerless mitts. These are to be a Christmas present for a co-worker, who is always complaining of cold hands in the office. Start to finish, about four hours, 1.2 oz of yarn and US5 needles (2 circulars).



The yarn is Knitpicks Bare merino DK, the blue and purple skein I dyed on a dreary afternoon last October. I think this was my favorite skein of the eight I did that day, and it looks even better knitted. The colors were Sapphire and Purple, and I dabbed on ~8 inch lengths of color, then aggressively smooshed the intersections together to blend. Lots of variation, but minimal pooling and striping. I may have to make myself a pair of mittens out of this yarn.

I used Elizabeth Zimmerman's sewn bind off for the top edges, and I'm quite pleased with it. It's very neat and tidy, has as much stretch as the rest of the fabric, and was super easy. The cast on edge is nice and stretchy too, since I used the long-tail cast on over two US5 needles.

I don't know if the knitting world can stand yet one more mitt pattern, but I wrote it up anyway, in my next post. Even if nobody else uses it I still want it for my own reference, because these are the best-fitting mittens (well, half mittens) that I've made to date. They fit my hands perfectly.