For Finland!

Mittens are my true love. I love mittens. I wear them more often than the socks I've knitted, that's for sure. Mittens to me are like tiny canvases on which to try things I'd never try in a sweater. Also, buy two balls of yarn (or even just one) and a pair of mittens or fingerless gloves at least is always a possibility. And if something goes wrong, ripping it all out won't be such a drama. What's hard to fit on mittens? Big fat cables, intarsia and well, lace mittens ... maybe not the best idea. Besides mittens, I also love fingerless gloves and wristwarmers, but that's for another post.

Today I'd like to introduce a mitten fresh from the brain. A friend of mine who was among the first people I met when I went online back in April 1999 a very long time ago recently complained about the cold (on facebook, where else). We used to send little things to each other ages ago, so I thought - mittens, why not? After much back and forth about his hand measurements and the color of yarn he'd prefer, I went to my favorite yarn store to search for dark red yarn. In my brain, a devilish idea was already lurking.

It's cold in Finland, very cold (otherwise he wouldn't have complained). So I couldn't knit just a simple mitten - anyone can do that. No, I would knit a superwarm mitten! But how? Simply doubling the yarn would make for warm mittens, but bigger stitches mean colder hands when it's windy. Enter a very simple solution, if you like fairisle, that is.

I bought four balls of yarn of the same color, a fluffy, muted dark red. The yarn is Lana Grossa Linea Pura Verde, a mixture of merino and alpaca. Then I doubled the yarn and knit the cuffs in a simple but pleasing pattern of k1tbl, p2. After 12 rows, I switched back to single yarn and knit one stitch with one ball, the next with the other, etc. So, stranded knitting with the same color. I increased periodically from 30 stitches to 72, then set aside 20 for the thumb, but didn't cast on any further stitches. I knit knit knit until the glove was too long (I still have to fix that), then I started decreasing and did a three-needle bindoff at the top, it just looked better. Add the thumb and - voila - a superwarm dark red mitten, that just needs its top ripped out a little ... for Finland!