Knitting projects – Page 28 – New England's Narrow Road

Golden Afternoon Mittens With a Cable

The Golden Afternoon Mittens pattern can be found in the “By Hand” Lookbook No. 11 which features, among others, Harrisville Designs of New Hampshire. I mainly bought this book because of the New England focus. I used to live very close to Harrisville, but never visited. I was not a big time knitter back then, but you can be sure I will make the effort when I visit next time.

I miss my Autumn “golden afternoons” from my time living in New Hampshire. As I browsed through the book, I became very homesick. I decided to try the mitten pattern.

By Hand book for knitters and crafters — Harrisville, NH featured in “By Hand” Lookbook No. 11

As I looked through the book (I bought mine from The Woolly Thistle), I was reminded of the beautiful state where I long to live once again. It’s no wonder this location was chosen for a craft book – some of the craftiest people on the planet live in New Hampshire! The book contains stories from farms (including a pie recipe), a basket maker, and a few knitting patterns. I was interested in knitting the mittens.

The designer of Golden Afternoon Mittens used Harrisville Highland yarn which I did not have, but would love to try when finances allow. This year I am trying to use stash yarn and not buy more new yarn, so I’m using my Azalea pink, Brooklyn Tweed Arbor yarn for this project. I found it on sale at Purl Soho.

Brooklyn Tweed Arbor in bright Azalea pink

Casting On For My Mittens

The Arbor yarn is a DK weight and the pattern calls for worsted (although I’ve also seen Highland listed as DK). I have two other mittens recently knit with this same Arbor yarn, so I do know my gauge somewhat. Those mittens (see Fiddlehead and Glissade) were stranded colorwork, and this pattern has a cable up the center, but is all one color, which makes it quicker to knit.

I used a size 5 needle in the small, 9-inch circular size, and casting on 44, which is the largest size in the mitten pattern. This turned out to be too large – see notes below.

Mitten cuff in Brooklyn Tweed Arbor Azalea — Beginning “Golden Afternoon Mittens”

My Gauge

The mitten was finished within a couple of days, but I did run into trouble. This mitten will be a good future reference for knitting gauge.

Size 6 needle / DK Arbor yarn / After washing and blocking my gauge was 21.5 stitches and 31 rows. Gauge in pattern is 20 x 30.

Notes to Self on Knitting The Second Mitten

Azalea pink, cable mitten Golden Afternoon pattern — Yukky thumb, but finished one mitten

One mitten is finished. It was easy and quick, but finding the right size was a problem. The cuff could be tighter, and the wrist / beginning of hand is loose. I switched down to the Medium size by knitting a couple of stitches together around the thumb gusset.

After blocking, my gauge increased (note above), so I need to stay with a size 5 to knit the hand using Medium size stitch counts.

Next time: Size 5 Needle, cast-on 40 (size Medium) and continue on with size 5 needle.

The Thumb… Ugh! I’m no pro at knitting thumbs, but I managed to pick up all the stitches and fill in the holes fine. I followed the directions for a size M which put 12 stitches on the DPNs for the thumb – this turned out to be too small! I tinked (un-knitted) back down the thumb and tried to fix it by adding more stitches. You can see that now the thumb looks horrible…!!

I guess experienced knitters would somehow tear it out and re-knit, but I don’t think I will be able to make it look any better at this point.

Use the Large size thumb stitch number – only very skinny-thumbed people could use 12 stitches on a thumb!

Final Thoughts on Golden Afternoon Mittens

I’ll make the second one and probably give them to my daughter as long as that thumb turns out alright.

Easy pattern, once you know what C4B and C4F mean. But thumb stitch number seems off.
I love Arbor yarn and the mitten is soft, but this is definitely a Fall / Autumn season mitten. A more wooly yarn may actually look better and be more forgiving of mistakes!
The cable is not all that pretty (IMO)

I’m much happier with my colorwork mittens, even though the knitting is slower. The fabric is heavier and the end product was (near) perfection!

Tettegouche is My Second Colorwork Hat

If you have the Milarrochy Heids hat-knitting pattern book, you have the pattern for the Tettegouche hat. ( It is also sold separately – see the link at the bottom of this post.)

It’s a beautiful book, with lots of pretty hat patterns and they all use Kate Davies Milarrochy Tweed yarn. I bought the yarn in a variety of colors and began this hat a while ago. I didn’t like the way it was coming out. I blamed myself for not being familiar with colorwork, good cast-on’s, or having the right hat gauge. Honestly I didn’t like the yarn. I put it aside.

Tettegouche hat pattern — Finished Tettegouche

When I joined The Woolly Thistle knit-along, I became familiar with Rauma wool and fell in love! Everyone was using it to knit colorwork projects. After knitting some mittens by this hat’s designer, Virginia Sattler-Reimer, I went back to try to knit the Tettegouche, only this time I used Rauma yarn. By the way, she has mittens to match the Tettegouche hat pattern!

I made some changes to the pattern, and one was to do a 2×2 ribbing for the brim. The colors I used were what I had available and they are not the greatest. But I had fun with this. It has been a good practice hat after knitting Katie’s Kep. Because I had already knit that colorwork hat, I knew to try a smaller needle for Tettegouche.

Buy The Tettegouche Hat Pattern

The pattern is also sold separately and you can buy the Tettegouche hat pattern here. Please click the link to see it, because it is so much prettier than mine! You won’t believe it is the same hat…!

What Was My First Colorwork Hat?

My first all-colorwork, Fair Isle knitting project was Katie’s Kep, which is a fun hat pattern which is Free to download.

Katie's Kep hand knit hat — Nearly done, just working the crown

Katie’s Kep, Knitting a Fair Isle Hat

After I finished knitting two different pair of color-work mittens, I wondered what to knit next. Suddenly, knitting with only one strand of yarn seemed boring! I may be on a Fair Isle, or stranded-knitting jag for a while.

I was browsing Ravelry and a very pretty colorwork hat caught my eye. I decided to save it in my favorites. When I went to the designer’s hat page, I found that “Katie’s Kep” was a free pattern – at the time – I wrote this and used the pattern. It is no longer free.

The designer created it as a tribute to her mother. The pattern called for using wool fingering yarn – which I have in abundance – so I had to make it.

Katie's Kep in Rauma wool — Fair Isle hat

Choosing Colors

When I was planning my mittens, I bought a lot of Rauma wool yarn, in various colors. I ended up using Brooklyn Tweed Arbor for both pair of mittens, so I had lots of Rauma wool left. The “Katie’s Kep” pattern uses this type of wool, so all I had to do was choose the colors. Simple, right?

Honestly, it’s tough for me to envision a finished product by selecting colors. As I began the brim for the hat, I was wondering if I had made a mistake in my colors. If you begin this hat and think the same thing, it will probably look better as you knit more.

Rauma finull PT2 pure wool yarn from Norway — Wool yarn from Norway

Stranded Fair Isle colorwork hat knit with Rauma Finull wool yarn.

I wanted a dark background and I had a dark blue called Dark Petrol Heather, which I used. The rows that look whitish are actually a very light green, and I messed up on the first section! I’m not used to doing this type of knitting, and this was more good practice for me.

I think the only color mistakes you can make is to have colors that do not stand out enough to show the design. Wilma Malcolmson (links to her website), the Shetland designer, includes four various color way suggestions with her pattern download, so you can go buy the colors she suggests. It takes the guesswork out of the color selecting.

I also began knitting the colorwork on the brim incorrectly and had to begin over. After the purls the yarn must go to the back before the knits are done. Newbie mistake – lesson learned. BTW, that brim ribbing is called “corrugated ribbing”.

Working the crown using double-pointed needles — Switching to DPN’s at the top of hat

Needle Size

Another problem I had was which size knitting needles to use? Many of the knitters mentioned that the hat had come out huge. I know that I am a tight knitter. Usually I have to go up a needle size for all patterns. Because of this, I stuck with the size 3 suggested needle and the hat ended up being a bit large, but not crazy. If I knit it again I will try a size 2. If it’s too small I can give it to my daughter, who has a small head.

Knitting the Crown Pattern

Knitting the crown took me almost as long as it took to knit the rest of the hat. It came out looking fine, and I only made a couple of color mistakes. I’m becoming used to using DPN’s, and hats only have a few rounds where they are needed, but along with the colorwork, it made for a challenge. An experienced colorwork knitter would not have a problem.

Below is a photo before washing. I still had lots of ends to tuck in. I had read that some knitters were using the CDD (center double decrease) as opposed to the pattern’s Sk2p. And I think it may look neater. I’m not experienced enough to know and I didn’t do my Sk2p’s correctly because I slipped the first stitch purl wise and it should have been knit wise. Live and learn. I should have looked it up.

crown of Katie's Kep hat — Crown detail before washing

There will be lots of yarn bits to weave in.

The Sk2p is a left-leaning decrease and the CDD has no lean, it makes a ridge straight up. Once washed, this hat will look perfect – fingers crossed. I have notes written all over this pattern for my next project.

Scottish Fishermen Keps

So what is a Kep? I had to look around for some info, and it seems they were colorful, Fair Isle hats worn by Scottish fishermen while out to sea. The hats had a liner to keep the head warmer, and some were like stocking caps – longer with a tassel or something at the top. The Kate Davies Designs (KDD) site has a bit of info about Keps.

The yarn I used (Rauma) is from Norway, so to truly knit a Kep, I suppose I need to use Shetland yarn from Scotland. Maybe next time. I have none in my stash, but it’s on my list of yarns to try.

More Keps and Fair Isle Hats For Us to Knit

If you love to do colorwork and want to try more hats like this one, I’m making a list here. The Katie’s Kep pattern is free. The printout is in small print and I had to enlarge the charts – and yes, you must be able to read a chart.

Fair Isle Hat, Janet McMahon
Roadside Beanie – Sheep pattern hat
Hatshine – Worsted weight yarn
North Star Hat – Sized for kids and adults, Aran weight yarn

Where to Buy Wool Yarn

The Woolly Thistle is based in New Hampshire and sells lots of wonderful wool sourced from the UK, Scandinavia, and Europe. This type of yarn must be hand-washed. It comes in many beautiful colors as well as natural animal colors. The prices can be high at TWT compared to other places that sell the same type of yarn. I’ve found Jamieson & Smith 2-ply, 125 yard skeins at Fairlight Fibers much cheaper!

At Wool and Company they also sell Rauma wool yarn, and other types of course. Remember that the purpose of a hat is to be warm, so real wool will do the trick. Even if the yarn is hand-wash only, how often do you wash a hat?

Fiddlehead Mittens

I’ve caught the mitten knitting bug! As I write this the temperature here in Florida is 88 degrees (says the app on my phone) but it feels like 101…! What? I don’t think that is correct, but the humidity here can really spike the “real feel”. My AC is not on, so I don’t think it feels like over 100. It does feel like 88 though.

Even so, I am knitting on my second Glissade mitten beneath the ceiling fans. Once it is done, I will begin the Fiddlehead mitten pattern. Because it will be knit in the same DK yarn (Brooklyn Tweed Arbor), I have an idea of needle size to use.

Fiddlehead Cast On Changes

The suggested needle size sounds quite big for such a large cast on number of 60. The Fiddlehead mitten pattern calls for a lining to go inside the mitten, and I want to avoid that. So I went down to a size 2 needle, and I am a tight knitter.

Fiddlehead Mitten knitting — A different cast-on

I tried the suggested i-cord cast on – which took forever – and I didn’t like it for my purpose. So I began over, and used the Latvian Braid. The i-cord is probably used because stitches will have to be picked up inside the cuff to add the liner. Since I am not knitting a liner, I changed things.

Mitten gauge is hard to judge unless you’ve knit a lot of different mittens and know which sizes works for each yarn weight. I recently knit the Glissade pattern and used a size 3 and 4 needle, but the cast-on number was only 48, not 60. I knit with this exact same Arbor yarn, so I knew if I used a size 3 or 4 with a 60 stitch cast on, these mittens would be huge!

Now that I’ve knit this far along, they still seem slightly large, but should be okay.

DK Yarn and Colors Used

I loved, loved, loved the yarn I used for the Glissade mittens. It was my first time using Brooklyn Tweed’s Arbor yarn and it’s a new favorite. Need some nice DK yarn? Check it out. The link takes you to Wool and Company, and they ship free to US locations, with NO minimum order! Arbor comes in many colors, but I knew I wanted greens, because this is a fiddlehead pattern after all!

For the background color I chose Degas, which is a light tan. Then I chose five shades of green for each section of the pattern. Color names are: Dorado, Treehouse, Wreath, Lovat, and Parka, with Degas as the light color for the background. Very pretty yarn and colors, and a few are now discontinued.

Arbor yarn in shades of green — Five green shades

Whenever I put stitches on hold, I always have a tough time picking those stitches back up again. This time I put the thumb stitches on hold using two different strands of yarn. I’ll use a very small size needle to pick them up, which may help. Then I can slip them onto the correct size DPN.

Fiddlehead mittens being knit on DPNs with thumb stitches on hold — Thumb stitches are put on hold

I have now reached halfway on the second mitten without doing the thumbs. I will do both thumbs last. These will not be done in time for the KAL with The Woolly Thistle, but I have already finished Glissade for that.

I am very happy with this pattern and the colors I chose – Dorado, Treehouse, Wreath, Lovat and Parka, with . Even without a liner, the knitting is quite dense and should keep hands warm.

Fiddlehead mitten pattern — Working on second mitten

top of mitten hand — Brooklyn Tweed Arbor DK yarn

Got some pictures today of my finished “Fiddlehead” mittens. I love the way they turned out. Fantastic yarn, good pattern (although chart printing is small – and the called for cast on takes forever – I didn’t do it), and best of all, they fit me perfectly! Those thumbs took some patience, but I am not used to doing colorwork. I’m also very happy with the colors. Possibly I will knit a hat in the future to match in order to use up the rest of the yarn.