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Viola and Reading Mitts

Not a single ladder to be found, the heel is turned, gusset set and on to the foot.
As an update, the Viola sock is coming along nicely.  The small needle, U.S. 0 or 2 mm, helps create a very neat and professional-like look.  That is the good news.  The bad news is the sizing is smaller than I anticipated.  This will fit a child, but until it is finished I will not be able to determine how old that child must be.  It is an experiment and I will be making a pair.  But after knitting in circles for what seemed like forever, I took a brief break.  (Those of you who know knitting will recognize I indeed continued to knit in circles.)



Meet Susie Roger's Reading Mitts from Ravelry.  I had purchased some time ago a linen, cotton, wool blend (band removed) to make a pair of socks.  But after reading about wool for socks I decided this combination wouldn't make durable socks so instead I decided to make them into fingerless gloves.  I have to say I am loving making these types of gloves.  There are two interesting features about these particular gloves, both created with a simple YO and K2tog ( yarn over and knit two together).

First, this set of stitches repeated across a row creates holes and at the beginning and/or end of a project contributes to what is called a picot edge.  This edge looks like tiny little scallops, something until now I thought must be rather complicated to create, but truth be known the process is very simple.  Just knit a few rows, repeat the pattern across one row, knit an equal amount of rows, flip the first set of knit rows to the wrong side of the project and sew them in place.  It is just that easy and creates a firm edge wherever it is placed that will not curl.

At the top, that is the pre-folded row surrounded with knit stitches

This is now that top edge again folded to show the picot edge.

The second feature is the simple lace pattern across the wrist and at the fingers of the gloves.  Again the easy YO, K2tog plunked between a set of purl and knit rows adds a small bit of character to these gloves.

See that simple lace just below the fingers?  It is also around the wrist visible in the first photo of the mitt.

I like the fact these gloves are long enough to fully cover my arms as I struggle to find coats with sleeves that are long enough.  (Yes, I have been accused of having Neanderthal-like proportions before.)  Warm wrists makes for a happy me!

The first mitt is complete and the second one will be finished today.  In total they took about 10 hours to make.  I mentioned to Paul the first one took 5 hours to create and he thought I meant 5 hours for the pair.  When I corrected him he said I would never to able to sell them and get what I should because even at $10/hour they would be far too expensive.  About this one thing Paul missed the point; I knit for the love of the journey; it is never about the money.

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