Mitten!

This blog started with mittens almost 2 years ago, and I'm back to mittens again. The first pair I made were for Kristen, just a few weeks after I had learned to knit, and while successful, they've seen a lot of action over 2 Chicago winters. So I am working on a new pair for her, this time with a bit more style than simple variegation.



Now that I've learned the magic trick of the Invisible Make One (thank you Techknitter), I felt emboldened to do a mitten with a thumb gusset, rather than a peasant thumb. And I wanted to put an attractive cable up the back of the hand. I am using the specs from Ann Budd's "The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns." The thumb gusset is coming along fine.




For the cable, I decided to use Barbara Walker's Close Braid Cable. But it turns out that changing from cables knit flat and cables knit in the round requires a bit of thinking. The set up row is on the wrong side, so that means I had to change every knit into a purl and vice versa. So I did that, but it still wasn't right. What could be wrong? Well, this particular cable is not symmetrical right to left, so I also had to reverse the order. Ok, got that worked out. And then the WS rows had to be converted from knit the purls to knit the knits. And it worked! What I have deduced is that in knitting a cable in the round, you will *always* knit previously knit stitches and purl previously purled stitches. At least on cables that look like ribbing that's been intertwined. (If there's seed stitch in there somewhere or something, it might be different.



The yarn I'm using is Berrocco Ultra Alpaca, 50/50 wool/alpaca mix that is very energetic and bouncy. The color is either called Pea Soup or Pesto. Actually I think it's called Pea Soup, but I bought a skein (or less!) from a woman on Ravelry, and she claimed it was called Pesto, which I like the sound of better. Size 6 needles, magic loop. This is really fun! I hope I can make the second to match!!