2 Needle Mitten Pattern

Because this year's knitting has been focused on Christmas gifts, I haven't done much spinning, which I am missing. But back in July I posted Spinning - A Break from Knitting. The yarn I spun at that time has been waiting for me. So after I finished another hat a few days ago, I grabbed the newest hand spun yarn. I was hoping I had enough for mittens because I wanted to wear the "yarn" on my hands to be able to look at it. The colors are so pretty. Here it is.

Because it was spun quite thickly, I was having trouble finding a good double pointed knitting mittens pattern. It just wasn't working out, gauge-wise and knitting nicely on DPN's-wise. I found a "chunky yarn" mitten and fingerless mitt pattern but after starting both several times, neither one was pleasing me. My husband couldn't believe how many times I ripped out the beginnings. 

Finally I remembered a pattern that I had made way back in the early 90's with home spun yarn. I dug through my "soon-to-be organized patterns" and located the one I needed.  Ah-ha - Success on finding a pattern to use with my thick hand spun! The pattern is called The Candide Mitten; Five Sizes for the Whole Family. 

I got busy and man-o-man, do they knit up fast.

Unfortunately, the pattern is copyrighted, out of print and seemed to be unavailable on-line anywhere without paying for it. And the yarn is also no longer made. But I dug and dug and finally found a pattern on Ravelry that appears to be the same one. Except that this one is for both DPN's or 2 Needles. It can be found here at Free Vintage Knitting. God bless them for the effort of getting this great pattern on-line.

The 2 needle version is really great for beginners who haven't yet used DPN's. Just tell them to do it step-by-step and to do a gauge swatch. My original pattern knitted up a bit large, but again that may be from using hand spun yarn. I knew nothing back then about yarn weight but did try to do the proper gauge.

So here are the newest 2 Needle Mittens.

I'm really pleased with the color variations in them. At first I wanted them to be somewhat close to identical - the obsessive/controller part of me wanted them to be alike. But the relaxed, enjoy-the-craft part of me ultimately won out, keeping me from ripping out the top half out of the second one. Maybe I'm maturing. Or maybe it was because my son said, "that would be just psycho."

And here are the older ones I knitted so long ago. The blue striped ones were originally knitted for my late husband. They were very large for me and he had worn them so much that they were almost thread bare around the index and middle fingers. So I needled felted some similar colored roving to the thinning areas, as I showed in this previous post. And then threw them into the wash to felt them to my size.

 And the ones I had knitted for me were quite large, too so when I machine felted the blue ones, I also felted these. I think they are a bit small now but are soooo thick and warm.

If you click on the link for the pattern, you will see sizes for children as well. I did make a pair for my little one who is no longer a little one, also with hand spun. I forgot about them when I was taking pictures, but when he wore them, they were toasty warm. It is really a wonderful pattern and so versatile.