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Tuesday 8 November 2011

Sissal Mitts by Jamieson & Smith

The pattern for these lovely mitts was made available by Jamieson & Smith, the Shetland Wool Brokers as a free download for Love Wool UK in September -a celebration of what is so special about British wool.

I have knitted three pairs, in the colours photographed above. The J&S Shetland Jumper Weight and Shetland Supreme Jumper Weight yarns are ideal for stranded colour knitting. I am sure that the mitts will mould themselves to the wearers' hands and be really cozy as we battle through the approaching winter.
I enjoyed knitting them, I love the way the 'pirie' pattern on the palm carries the colours across that make up the bigger motif on the back of the hand. The 'afterthought' thumb is a nice simple method too.

I found a few mistakes in the pattern that I downloaded. I think J&S are working to correct the pattern now, but for anyone who has already downloaded and printed it, here are my corrections:

ERRATA in pattern:
Note: The pattern specifies dpns (excuse the abbreviation - a set of four (or five) double-pointed needles) but distribution of stitches on needles is (mostly) given for 2 needles e.g. for magic loop. I actually used a long 2mm circular needle for the rib, worked using the magic loop technique, and changed to 4 x 2.25mm dpns for the rest. You could use magic loop throughout or dpns throughout.

Increase row: After increasing you need a total of 60 stitches, not 54 as stated, to be able to work the two charts
Using dpns I had all the stitches for the back-of-hand chart on one needle, and the stitches for the palm shared between the other two
After changing needle size, it should read Follow chart A and Chart B …. there is something a bit confused in this section of the instructions but you basically need to work row 1 of chart A followed by row 1 of chart B. This will bring you round to the beginning of the row, then you do row 2 of A followed by row 2 of B, and so on....

Decrease row: I decreased 12 so back to 48 sts

If I've just confused you more than ever, get in touch! Happy knitting!!