Zimtstern Mitts

Since Advent season starts this weekend, here's a "christmassy" pattern. It's called "Zimtstern" because its look reminds me of the traditional Christmas cookie of the same name (the cookies have cinnamon in them ("Zimt") and are formed as a star ("Stern") - here's a recipe (not mine!)).

The Zimtstern mitts are started at the thumb then increased - they combine techniques used in the hexagon mitts and the circle mitts. The stitches in star shape are added as surface crochet (or surface slip stitches) in between the knitted rows. Because of the unusual construction and since surface crochet is fiddly work, the pattern is not really suited for beginners.






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German / Deutsch: Eine deutsche Version dieser Anleitung wurde von Bernadette von Törtchens Blog erstellt. Vielen lieben Dank. Details dazu in diesem Blogpost.

Danish / Dansk: A danish translation was written by MarianneHo (Ravelry name) and is available here. Hjertelig tak

Japanese / 日本語: A video tutorial in japanese has been provided by Kabosu (かぼすの手しごと). It can be found on YouTube here: Part 1, Part 2


Construction

These mitts are knitted in 5 parts: they are started at the thumb and then "grow" in a hexagon (knitted in round and refered to as part 1 and 2 in the pattern),  a bind-off of one side of the hexagon creates part of the upper edge the mitts; they then grow bigger in an open hexagon until the edge of the hand is reached (that's part 3 - knitted flat). During part 2 and 3 rows of surface crochet slip stitches are added to create the star pattern. A three needle bind-off creates a seam along the edge of the hand. Now the lower edge of the mitt is lopsided. To even it out a series of short rows is knitted that also include some decreases (part 4 - knitted in the round). With an even lower edge the shaft is lengthened a bit and ribbing is added (part 5).

As with the patterns mentioned above, these are knitted in one piece, i.e. no yarn is cut which minimizes the weaving in of ends.

Materials

• about 30 grams of fingering weight yarn - preferably variegated - the yarn I used is called Corolli by Schulana (link to the yarn's Ravelry page)
• 3mm dpns (even if you prefer the magic loop technique you will need a 3rd needle for a three-needle bind-off)
• 2.5mm crochet hook
• 6 stitch markers

Gauge / Size

• 7 sts and 9 rows = 2cm x 2cm
• the finished mitt is about 20 cm high (highest point) with 15 cm circumference at the lower edge (ribbing) and about 14 cm at the top

Techniques and Non-Standard Abbreviations

• Surface Crochet or surface slip stitches: Using a crochet hook, you make slip stitches through your knitted fabric. The photo on the right shows how it looks when adding surface slip stitches to a knitted fabric. Here's a video and here's a tutorial that both show surface crochet.
  
  
• Three-Needle Bind-Off: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpJUrCX52DU
• Short Rows in the Round (and t+ky) I learned short rows in the round with this helpful video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCgycxLce94; however, I ended up doing the pick-ups differently.
  
  "Wrapping" of the Stitches
  Basically, when you're on the RS, you do wrap the working yarn around the next stitch (from front to back) and then turn your work, i.e. the "normal" wrap and turn (w+t).
  When you are on the wrong side you slip the last stitch, turn your work with the yarn in front, wrap the yarn around the RIGHT needle and knit the slipped stitch. That creates a sort of double-stitch - one half of it has to be knitted together with the stitch in front when you're picking up the stitches. In the pattern, throughout the pattern I will call this stitch, t+ky (short for "turn and knit w/yarn-over").
  
  Picking-up
  When encountering a w+t, I turned the wrapped stitch on the needle, picked up the wrap from the front and knitted the stitch and the wrap together through the back of the loop.
  When reaching the stitch BEFORE the “double-stitch”, I turned this stitch and knitted it together with the yo through the back of the loop.
  

• “Make One Purl”-Stitches (a video that shows these stitches):
• mk1p right-leaning: make one purl stitch by inserting the needle from the back in the bar between the two stitches and purl
• mk1p left-leaning: make one purl stitch by inserting the needle from the back in the bar between the two stitches and purl through the back of the loop

Instructions

Part I - Thumb

CO18
Join in round
Rounds 1-10: *k1tbl p2 (repeat from * till end of round)

Round 11: *k1tbl p1, mk1p, p1 (repeat from * till end of round)
Rounds 12-15: *k1tbl p1 (repeat from * till end of round)
Round 16: *place marker, k1tbl p1 k1tbl p1 (repeat from * till end of round)

(You have 24 sts on your needles)

Part II - Increases in the Round

Round 0: k
Round 1: *slip marker, k1, mk1l, k to marker; mk1r  (repeat from * till end of round) (after this round you have increased by 12 sts)
Round 2: k
Round 3: k
Round 4: add surface crochet, put the loop from the last stitch on the knitting needle
Round 5: pass loop from crochet hook over the first stitch; knit first stitch; k to end, k to end

Repeat rounds 1-5 a total of 4 times

Then repeat them once more but add a "mini-ribbing" (k1 p1) and bind-off in the last sixth of the hexagon, i.e.:


Round 21: *slip marker, k1, mk1l, k to marker; mk1r  (repeat from * till end of round)
Round 22: k
Round 23: k until the last marker k1, *k1 p1 (repeat from *) until last stitch, k1
Round 24: apply surface crochet, put the loop from the last stitch on the knitting needle
Round 25: pass loop from crochet hook over the first stitch; knit first stitch; k until the last marker binding off in pattern (i.e. k1, *k1 p1 (repeat from *) until last stitch, k1 - this creates the upper bind-off.

(Now you have 70 sts (84 - 14 BO sts) on your needles.)

The diagram shows where to insert the surface crochet stitches during part 2.

 When adding surface crochet,

• use your working yarn to add slip stitches to the knitted surface, i.e. insert the crochet hook into the first live stitch on the needle and pull the loop, then insert the crochet hook into the stitch below the second stitch and make a slip stitch (see photo), insert the crochet hook into the second stitch below the 3rd stitch on the needle and make a slip stitch; 
• continue slip stitches "one to the left, one down" until you have reached the middle between two markers, 
• then go up again, i.e. make a slip stitch into the stitch one to the left and one above; continue until you have reached a live stitch on the needle - this should be a stitch just after a marker
• when you have pulled a slip stitch through the stitch below the last stitch of the round, put the loop back on the left knitting needle and pass it over the first stitch of the round.
• make sure to keep your slip stitches loose, i.e. don't pull them too tight, in order to keep the fabric stretchy
• insert your knitting needle between the legs of the stitch - except when you are at the upper edge (i.e. life knit stitches on your needle), here you draw the slip stitch through the life stitch.

The diagram shows where to put the slip stitches - it shows one sixth of a round or the space between two stitch markers.

Part III - Increases knitted flat

Complete the BO by slipping the last stitch over the first stitch and continue the pattern flat.

Row 1 (RS): * k to marker mk1r slip marker, k1, mk1l  (repeat from * until the last marker), k to end (-> after this row you have increased by 8 stitches)
Row 2 (WS): p
Row 3 (RS): k
Row 4: apply surface crochet (on RS), put the loop from the last stitch on the knitting needle
Row 5 (RS): k2tog (loop from crochet hook and first stitch on knitting needle); k to end

Row 6 (WS): * p to 1 st before marker, mk1p left-leaning, p1, slip marker, make1p right-leaning (repeat from * until last marker), p to end
Row 7 (RS): k
Row 8 (WS): p
Row 9 : apply surface crochet (on RS), put the loop from the last stitch on the knitting needle
Row 10 (WS): p2tog  (loop from crochet hook and first stitch on knitting needle); p to end

Repeat rows 1-7 once again.
(You should now have 102 sts on your needles; 4 times increases of 8 sts per row (4*8 = 32), added to the 70 already on the needles: 70+32 = 102)

When you're applying the surface crochet in part 3, you don't start through the 1st live stitch on the needles but below (see picture). In the first two instances (rows 4 and 9), this is not a problem because you only need to insert your crochet hook one or two stitches below, i.e. you don't need to draw the yarn too far. Afterwards (row 14) you can bring your yarn down to the starting point of the surface crochet by doing one surface slip stitch on the WS of the mitts.
On the diagram below you can see that even though you have finished row 3 for the 2nd time, the first crochet slip stitch would be 3 stitches below the first live stitch.

Hold the RS togehter and do a three-needle bind-off 26 stitches. Place a marker ("end-marker") on the back needle and put the last stitch on the back needle: then turn the mitts inside out, so that the RS shows.


Part 4 - Short rows to even out the shaft

As you can see in the photo, the lower edge of the mitts is now lopsided. This can be evened out by knitting a wedge of short rows.

This wedge is highest around end-marker and gets flatter towards the sides, i.e. short rows are knitted around the end-marker that get shorter by 2 stitches each row. At the same time decreases are made around the end-marker in order to finish with 45 stitches before part 5.

After the three-needle BO you have 51 sts on your needles (102-26-26+1, the +1 is the one stitch is left after the BO that is placed on the back needle).

Row 1: (RS) mk1, k25 w+t
   (WS) sl1, p21 p2tog p1, slip marker, mk1p, p23 t+ky
   (RS) k to 3 before end marker, ssk
(-> increases and decreases cancel each other out in this row (still 51 sts), the mk1-stitches are used to avoid holes between the stitch left over from the three-needle-BO and the next stitch on either side)
Row 2: (RS) k22 w+t
   (WS) sl1 p19 p2tog p1, slip marker, p2togtbl, p20 t+ky
   (RS) k2 to end marker (-> decrease by 2 sts, 49 sts)
Row 3: (RS) k19 w+t
   (WS) sl1 p16 p2tog p1, slip marker, p2togtbl, p17 t+ky
   (RS) k2 to end marker (-> decrease by 2 sts, 47 sts)
Row 4: (RS) k16 w+t
   (WS) sl1 p13 p2tog p1, slip marker, p2togtbl, p14 t+ky
   (RS) k2 to end marker (-> decrease by 2 sts => there should be 45 stitches on your needles, however, they may be difficult to count because of the double stitches created with the short rows.
Row 5: (RS): k13 w+t
   (WS): sl1 p to end marker, p12 t+ky
   (RS): k to end marker
Row 6:  (RS): k11 w+t
   (WS): sl1 p to end marker, p10 t+ky
   (RS): k to end marker
Row 7: (RS): k9 w+t
   (WS): sl1 p to end marker, p8 t+ky
   (RS): k to end marker
Row 8: (RS): k7 w+t
   (WS): sl1 p to end marker, p6 t+ky
   (RS): k to end marker
Row 9: (RS): k5 w+t
   (WS): sl1 p to end marker, p4 t+ky
   (RS): k to end marker


Knit one round picking up all stitches.

Part 5 - Lengthen the shaft and ribbing
Knit 5 more rounds.
Then do 12 rounds of k1tbl, p2-ribbing.
Bind off (loosely) in pattern (or use your favourite stretchy bind-off).

Brioche

Inspired by a KAL (or rather its German Version StriMiMi - Strick mit mir) in the facebook-group of nadelspiel.com, I've started to dabble around in two-colour brioche.

Using to skeins of fingering weight yarn and 3.5mm needles, I did two colour brioche in the round (with a CO of 120 sts). Cabling is added at three points around the cowl ...

Here's a list of videos that explain the technique:

Two-colour brioche knitted flat:

• the original eliZZZa video (nadelspiel.com) - in German
• the same video in English (direct link to YouTube - nadelspiel's English site is called knitaholics.com - it's a great resource of knitting and crochet videos)

Two-colour brioche knitted in the round:

• video part 1 (cast on), video part 2 (pattern repeat) - direct links to YouTube 

Further information about brioche stitch:

• an article that explains two-colour brioche

A Cowl to Match the Hexagon Mitts - Chevrons all Round Cowl

This cowl was designed to match the hexagon mitts.

Knitted flat with ends grafted together, this cowl is great for showing off variegated yarn. It's a simple chevron pattern; the colour effect is achieved by switching every other row.

With the fingering weight yarn I used (Lang Yarns Mille Colori Baby), the finished scarf is 25 cm wide.  I made it long enough to fit twice around my neck (145 cm) which took a bit less than 2.5 skeins (i.e. 130 grams).

This pattern is another case of me being too lazy to search the Ravelry database for something suitable ...







This work by Knitting and so on is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.


Marianne Holmen from strikkeglad.dk has written a danish translation of this pattern - it is available here. Thank you very much!


Materials

• 4mm needles
• a total 150 grams of  fingering weight yarn - either in two colours  or two ends of a skein of variegated yarn
• scrap yarn and crochet hook for provisional cast on

Non-Standard Abbreviations 

• slm = slip marker

• mk1p-left = make one purl stitch left leaning; make one purl stitch by inserting the needle from the back in the bar between the two stitches and purl through the back of the loop

• mk1p-right = make one purl stitch right leaning; make one purl stitch by inserting the needle from the back in the bar between the two stitches and purl

Techniques:

• Provisional Cast-On: My preferred method of a provisional cast-on is the crochet provisional cast-on as shown in this video.

• Make1Purl-Stitches are shown in this video.

• Grafting: A brilliant blog series on grafting can be found here an Joni Coniglio's blog at knitting daily. For this pattern you'd need the explanations on "Garter stitch grafting (purl ridge row on the front needle and knit valley row on the back needle):" in this post.

Instructions:

Provisionally cast on 63 sts using scrap yarn and a crochet hook.

In the set-up row (Yarn B), where you place the markers: k4 pm k14 pm k14 pm k14 pm k14 pm k3
Make sure that you leave a tail long enough to graft the ends together in the end (ca. 1 meter). (If you use a variegated yarn, leaving this tail makes sure that the colour in the graft row matches the row it is grafted to)

Row 1: (RS, Yarn A): k
Row 2: (WS, Yarn A): sl3 * slm p1, p2togtbl, p11, mk1p-left, slm p1, mk1p-right, p11, p2tog, slm p1, p2togtbl, p11, mk1p-left, slm, p1, mk1p-right, p11,  p2tog slm, p1, sl3
Row 3: (RS, Yarn B): k
Row 4 (WS, Yarn B): sl3 k to last 3 sts sl3

Repeat these 4 rows until desired length.

Put the stitches of the provisional cast-on on a needle and graft ends together with the long tail of yarn that you left when you cast on. Use the method as described in section "Garter stitch grafting (purl ridge row on the front needle and knit valley row on the back needle)" in this blog-post by Joni Coniglio.

(If you have grafted before, the set-up stitch is: front-needle knit leave, back needle knit leave; then front-needle purl slip, knit leave and back-needle purl slip, knit leave.)

Lopsided Wrist Warmers

Trying to reverse the construction of the hexagon mitts and circle mitts, i.e. starting down at the wrist in a triangle shape and working my way up and finishing with the thumb.

Circle Mitts

These mitts form a circle shape around the thumb. They are knitted in five parts and can be adjusted to fit different hand sizes - their construction is similar to the Hexagon Mitts. The circle shape shows best when using variegated yarn.

Please note, that at some points in the pattern I don't give exact instructions or exact stitch numbers but rather the general outline of how to construct the mitts. Since hands are different, the mitt can be shaped individually as well.

However, as an example (and written in purple) I will give you the exact numbers for the mitts in the picture. These measure 18 cm in length. The circumference at the upper edge measures about 14 cm – and about 16 cm at the lower edge ribbing.

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Translations and other versions 

• Fellow raveler purke translated this pattern into Russian. It can be found here: http://ru-knitting.livejournal.com/5020751.html
• An Italian translation was provided by Maria Rosa Spighetti (mariarosa72 on Ravelry) from fili & colori - knitting therapy. It can be found here.
• A German version was provided by liesl24 on Ravelry. It can be found in this blogpost.

• A version of these mitts knitted with aran weight yarn can be found in this blogpost.

• A crochet version of these mitts (called Kreisel Fingerless Gloves) is available in this blogpost.

Materials

• ca. 30 - 35 grams of fingering weight yarn (the yarn that's used for the mitts in the picture is called Zwerger Opal Hunderwasser, the colourway is "Blinde Venus"

• 2.5mm dpns or 2.5mm circulars if you prefer the magic ring method - then you need an extra needle for a three-needle bind-off (for me it was perfect to begin with dpns, switching to circulars and magic ring when the circle got wider and switching back to dpns after finishing the short rows in part 4.)

• a crochet hook

• a tapistry needle to weave in ends

Techniques
Knitting a flat circle
Generally, a flat circle is knitted as follows.
CO8 and join in round
Round 1: k
Round 2: *k1 mk1 repeat from * (i.e. every 2nd stitch is doubled) (-> 16 sts)
Round 3: k
Round 4: * k2 mk1 repeat from * (i.e. every 3rd stitch is doubled)(-> 24 sts)
Round 5: k
Round 6: * k3 mk1 repeat from * (i.e. every 4th stitch is doubled) (-> 32 sts)
Round 7: k
Round 8: * k4 mk1 repeat from * (i.e. every 5th stitch is doubled) (-> 40 sts)
… I'm sure, the formula is clear by now, namely that you increase by 8 stitches every other row. It also means that the distance between the "doubled" stitches increases by one in each of the increase-rounds. The same "formula" will be used when constructing the mitts. If you do the increases at the same spot a pattern (maybe even corners) will become visible; to achieve a more circular look I started the increases at a different location in each increase row.

Short Rows in the Round (and the abbreviation t+ky)

I learned short rows in the round with this helpful video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCgycxLce94; however, I ended up doing the wraps on the WS and all pick-ups differently.

"Wrapping" of the Stitches
Basically, when you're on the RS, you do wrap the working yarn around the next stitch (from front to back) and then turn your work, i.e. the "normal" wrap and turn (w+t).
When you are on the wrong side you slip the last stitch, turn your work with the yarn in front, wrap the yarn around the RIGHT needle and knit the slipped stitch. That creates a sort of double-stitch - one half of it has to be knitted together with the stitch in front when you're picking up the stitches. In the pattern, throughout the pattern I will call this stitch, t+ky (short for "turn and knit w/yarn-over").

Picking-up
When encountering a w+t, I turned the wrapped stitch on the needle, picked up the wrap from the front and knitted the stitch and the wrap together through the back of the loop.
When reaching the stitch BEFORE the “double-stitch”, I turned this stitch and knitted it together with the yo through the back of the loop.

Instructions

The picture on the right shows the parts of the project.

Part 1: Thumb (knitted in the round)

CO18 and join in round
Round 1: *p1 k1 p1 repeat from *
Repeat round 1 a total of 7 times
Round 8: *p1 k1 p1 mk1p repeat from * (-> 24 sts)
Round 9: *p1 k1 repeat from *
Repeat round 9 a total of 6 times

Part 2: Increases in a Full Circle (knitted in the round)

After finishing the thumb, you have 24 sts on your needles. Until the end of part 2 you have to increase by 8 stitches each 2nd round/row (as explained above in the "Techniques" section).

Round 1: k
Round 2: double every 3rd stitch (e.g. * kfb k2 repeat from *; you can use any form of increase you like, I prefer kfb's as they are easy to knit, but you could do *k2 mk1 repeat from * as well); now you have 32 stitches on your needles
Round 3: k
Round 4: double every 4th stitch (-> 40 sts)
Round 5: k
Round 6: double every 5th stitch (-> 48 sts)
Round 7: k … etc.
Continue until the distance between the thumb and the upper edge is high enough for you - always increasing in the even numbered round. Make sure to start the increases at different points in each increase row - this "randomizing" avoids the formation of an octagon pattern. Finish with an odd numbered row, i.e. a row without increases.

Example: For the mitts in the picture, the last full increase round was the one where I doubled every 12th stitch.

Then, to move to part 3 BO 6 stitches; ssk and knit to the last stitch before the BO sts (make sure to do the circle increases in this row as well - and keep the increases random, any changes to your stitch count can be "corrected" in part 4) – in case of the mitts shown here, I increased every 13th stitch.


Before turning slip the last stitch to the right needle and - using a crochet hook - draw the working yarn through the first BO stitch, put the loop on the left needle, move the last (not yet knitted) stitch back to the left needle, knit the two stitches together. This avoids the little gap between the first bind-off stitch and the last stitch of the row. (See picture on the right for illustration.)

Part 3: Increases in an Open Circle (knitted back and forth)
Row 1 (WS): p2tog purl to last 2 sts, p2togtbl
Row 2 (RS): ssk k to last 2 sts (not forgetting the increases); k2tog
Repeat these rows until the mitts are wide enough for your hands.  (In case of the mitts in the picture, the last increase round in this part was the one where I increased every 18th stitch.)
Please note, that in the number of increases per round is less than 8 in this part.

If you feel that just the upper edge should be wider, but  you don't want the mitts to be longer, you can also use short rows.
Row 1     (RS): ssk k10 w+t
    (WS) p to last two stitches p2tog tbl turn work
    (RS): ssk k (not forgetting the increases) to last to stitches k2tog
Row 2     (WS): p2tog p10 t+ky
    (RS): k to last 2 sts k2tog turn work
    (WS): p2tog p to last 2 sts p2togtbl

If the mitts are wide enough for you (try them on!), do a three needle bind-off in a WS row.

The picture on the left shows how the mitts look at the end of part 3.

The number of stitches to bind off should be a few stitches less than one fourth of the total circle circumference (this number differs from the actual amount of stitches on your needle, because of the upper bind-off and the decreases that form the upper edge). The total circumference is calculated as follows: (distance between doubled stitches in last increase row + 2) * 8 / 4
It is also important that the stitches that you have left after the bind-off are more than you need to fit around your wrist.


Example: If the distance between the doubled stitches in the last increase row was 17 (i.e. every 18th stitch was doubled), then add 2 to the distance (in this case 17 + 2 = 19) and multiply by 8 because you added 8 stitches in every increase round (19 * 8 =152). Then divide by 4 (e.g. 152/4 = 38).
Before doing the three-needle bind-off I counted 116 stitches on my needles. The total circumference (without the upper edge) would have been 152. I choose to bind off 32 stitches. That left 52 sts after the three-needle bind-off.

After binding off the chosen number of stitches, place the last stitch on the back needle.
While doing a three-needle BO, the WS is visible, i.e. the mitt is turned inside-out. After binding off place the single stitch (around which the last 2 stitches were bound off) on the back needle and turn the mitt back so that RS shows.

To move to part 4, place a marker ("end-marker"), slip the first stitch (that's the one that has already been knitted when you did the three-needle bind-off), pick up one stitch from the gap between this stitch and the next, knit the round and pick up one stitch from the gap. This gap might be a bit bigger than the one at the beginning of the row. To avoid a hole, you might try to pick up another stitch inbetween.
While you're knitting this row count the stitches - put a marker at the half of the round ("half-marker").

Part 4: Even out the Shaft with Short Rows (knitted back and forth)

Now you need to use short rows to shape the shaft while decreasing the number of stitches so that the mitt fits nicely around your wrists.

Example: With yarn of this weight, I wanted the shaft to be 45 stitches wide – it had to be a number divisible by 3, because of the k1p2-ribbing.

For doing short rows in the round, please read the explanations in the “Techniques” section.

Row 1:    RS: k1 k2tog k to 3 sts before half-marker w+t
    WS: p to 3 sts before end-marker p2tog p1 p2togtbl p to 3 sts before half-marker
    RS: t+ky k to 2 sts before end-marker ssk

Row 2: RS: k1 k2tog k to 3 sts before the last wrapped stitch w+t
    WS: p to end-marker, p2togtbl p to 3 sts before the last “double-stitch”
    RS: t+ky k end-marker

Repeat row 2 until you have reached the number of stitches you need for yuor wrist size. (When counting the stitches, make sure that you count the double-stitches created by t+ky as one.

Example: Since I had 55 sts on the needles (52 left after three-needle bind-off plus 3 picked up stitches, I had to decrease by 10 sts – I therefore did row 1 once (minus 4 sts) and row 2 three times (minus 6 sts).

Row 3:     RS: k1 k to 3 sts before last wrapped stitch w+t
    WS: p to end-marker p to 3 sts before the last “double-stitch”
    RS: t+ky k to end-marker

Repeat row 3 until there are only 3 stitches or less between the last turn and the end-marker. Then knit one complete row picking up all stitches – as described in the “Techniques” section.

Part 5: Lengthening the Shaft and Ribbing (knitted in the round)
You can lengthen the mitts by knitting a few more rounds. (For the mitts in the pictures only added one more row.)

Then knit the ribbing at the lower edge:
Round 1: * p1 k1tbl p1 repeat from *
Repeat round 1 a total of 9 times, then BO in pattern.

Weave in ends.

Drop Stitch Scarf

Made based on a pattern I found on Ravelry. It's called #13 Drop Stitch Scarf by Laura Bryant.

 

Helga Cabled Mitts

Made from Aran weight yarn, these
fingerless gloves are a quick knit with decorative cables.

They were knit to very (!) clear specifications of my Mum who saw a photo in a catalogue and asked me to knit her such mitts.

This is not a complete pattern, but only a rough explanation.




This work by Knitting and so on is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.



Materials: 

• about 60 grams of Aran weight yarn
• 4.5 mm dpns
• a tapestry needle to weave in ends

Terms:
Cable abbreviations are explained in the knitting cables section of http://www.mahalo.com/how-to-knit-a-cable-stitch/ .
Half the stitches of the width of the cable are placed on a cable needle (in case of C8F the cable width is 8, therefore the number of stitches you place on the cable needle is 4). This cable needle is held in front (in case of C8F) in at the back (in case of C8B) of your knitting while you knit the other half of the cables stitches. Then you knit the stitches from the cable needle.

Instructions:

• CO 32 and join in round
• knit 6 rounds of "k2-p2"-ribbing
• the cable is knitted in 3 strands that are each 4 stitches wide; all stitches are knit-stitches, except for a purl channel (1 st wide) around the 12 cable stitches, i.e. set-up row: "k1 p1 k12 p1 k to end"
• cabling is done every 4th row; the strand that leans to the middle is always the "front strand" (in row 4 the cabling part reads "p1 C8F k4 p1" and in row 8 "p1 k4 C8B p1" (and the other way round for the second mitt)). See chart below.
 

 
• for thumb gusset start increases in 24th row after ribbing: place markers around a stitch 2 stitches away from the cabling part (for one mitt on the left side, for the other on the right side) - and k to marker mk1r k to next marker mk1l
• do thumb gusset increases in rounds 24, 28, 32 and 36 (i.e. you increase by 8 stitches)
• in row 40 place 9 thumb stitches on stitch holder and CO1 above the thumb hole (with backwards loop CO)
• do last cabling in row 44 and knit 3 more "k1 p1 k12 p1 k to end"-rows
• finish with 4 rows of "k2 p2"-ribbing then BO in pattern
• for thumb gusset distribute the 9 sts from stitch marker on two needles and pick-up 5 more stitches from above thumb gusset (-> 14 sts)
• knit 2 rounds in stockinette stitch (knitting decreases in the first row where the stitches from stitch holder meet the newly picked up stitches to avoid gaps) -> 12 stitches
• finish with 2 rounds of  "k2 p2"-ribbing then BO in pattern