Fingerless Mitten Binge

I've been on a bit of a mitt knitting binge, started when I saw my friend Sharon's Monkton Mittens, that she knitted from the pattern in the the new Jane Ellison pattern book, Noro Unlimited.

These fingerless mittens are knit in combinations of two different Noro yarns, one for the cuffs and the other for the body. Sharon did hers in Silk Garden and Kureyon, and they looked gorgeous. I'm such a Norophile, and anything that's a quick, uncomplicated knit-up that uses small amounts of Noro and looks pretty cool is a project for me!

My first pair makes me laugh when I see it -- I made so many mistakes in this uncomplicated pattern, and my decision to go up a needle size (because I knit somewhat firmly and because the pattern said for "small hand") combined with the boucle of Silk Mountain resulted in a pair of mitts that give me Muppet paws!
And I love them! Nothing beats being able to smile when driving, and every time I looked at my mittened hands on the steering wheel the other day, I kept thinking of Grover and Cookie Monster.
Details on this pair: Silk Mountain with cuffs of Cash Iroha 101.
My big mistake was not doing enough rounds between the thumb gusset increase rows on the first one I knit. I was just not familiar with the general principle of thumb gussets and didn't realize I'd read the pattern incorrectly until I did the second one correctly.

My second pair went much better - I used the size needle that was called for and made the proper number of work-even rounds between increases in the gussets. In all the mitts, I chose to make the body smaller in length than the 9 1/4" the pattern calls for. For one thing, it was just too long for my preferences and for another, by only going to 7 1/2" or 8", I am able to get both mitten bodies out of one ball.

I'm going to post 3 pictures of pair #2 because I had such a great model. Daughter Molly was in town when I finished these and agreed to pose for me. Naturally, she got to take the mitts with her when she went back to school!
Details: Cuffs are in different colors of Cash Iroha (101, green and 88, light purple.) The body worked in the new Cashmere Island.

I really like that the mittens come out differently from each other.

Pair #3 in Kureyon 102 and Cash Iroha 88 cuffs:

Pair #4 in Kureyon (147, I think) with cuffs done in black Cascade 220:
I absolutely love that the mitts are different.

And finally, I started looking around at other patterns for fingerless mittens and made this pair that doesn't have the half thumb, just an opening for the thumb. I did these in some handspun 2-ply, made from a Winderwood Farm hand-dyed roving.
Right now, I'm spinning some more 2-ply for another pair of these little mitts, from a Dudleyspinner hand-dyed roving, some greens and very deep ,almost black, purple.

Today I'm getting ready for a Saturday arts and crafts holiday fair, and I am always amazed at how many things I can take for such a fair in one lightweight box. Certainly beats the transporting and setting up of books at a fair!!

I will post one last picture of one of my freeform hair pins (which can do triple duty as a scarf or shawl pin, too!) This is Noro Kureyon - I just did a lot of chaining, doubling back with it randomly and then doing sc and hdc randomly.


And if I do say so myself, I think my hair looks mah-velous. (It is thanks , of course, to my wonderful colorist daughter-in-law, DeAnne, who really works hard to make my hair and me happy!)