Arbor – New England's Narrow Road

Pink and White Triple-Patterned Watchcap

The Triple-patterned Watchcap pattern comes from the “Hat’s On” book. I love the look of this little colorwork hat, but “little” is the key word here.

I should have known better. I knit tightly and this is colorwork – which tends to be tighter and smaller in the end than regular knitting. I decided to knit the size “small”. It ended up being about 15 inches around, which is a child’s size.

Triple patterned watchcap small — Unfolded, finished hat

Originally I had wanted to make this for my grown daughter, who does have a smallish head, but not that small. I realized, not too far into the knit, that this hat would be too small for an adult head. I kept knitting anyway to see if I liked the pattern after all. And I did.

Reminder: Stranded knitting does not stretch much!

This small size ended up measuring 16 inches around, just as the pattern noted for the Small size. If I use the same type of yarn, same needle size (I used size 6 as the pattern suggested) then each of the other sizes should give me the correct measurements. This is good to know because I do plan to knit this one again.

Some previous knitters of this pattern had swapped out the turn edging for a braid. I almost did that too, but I’m glad I didn’t. The turn rows for the edge, which end up at the bottom of the brim, work very nicely.

The brim of the hat is very pretty with the braid which ended up at the top and row of turning stitches along the bottom. The pattern is begun with the braid, worked to the end of the brim, then the work is turned (see notes below for turning) to begin the rest of the hat. This way the brim is made to fold up.

I made the second pattern section a little taller than called for and I honestly don’t know why. I was thinking the hat would be too short since it was turning out small. A short hat is not good, but I overcompensated.

I think another row of smaller snowflakes before the top section would be nice.

The yarn I used is Arbor, by Brooklyn Tweed, and it’s become a favorite type of yarn for me (The link goes to Wool & Company). It is very soft, and creates a beautiful, squishy end product. The colors here are Azalea and Thaw.

Doing the “Turn”

The pattern says to work the cuff pattern for so many rounds, then “turn”. There is nothing else about doing the turn, but I have notes from doing a pair of mittens which are made in this manner where the cuff turns to begin knitting the rest of the mitten.

Simply turning the project and knitting in the opposite direction is what’s called for, but if it seems daunting, here are my notes:

Turn work inside out, with needles at top.
Slip the last worked stitch from the Left needle to the Right. This stitch will be the last stitch of the round.
Cut the unused color.
Begin knitting with the main color as pattern calls for.

Three Hats in Three Different Sizes

I’ve now knit three of these hats, and the green one is a Large – which will be gifted to my daughter. The XL size fits me perfectly, and was knit in another type of wool.

Triple Patterned Watchcap hats in three colors — Knit in sizes, XL (red), L (green) and S (pink)

More Hats I’ve Knit

Turkish patterned cap stranded knitting — Turkish Patterned Cap, Hand-spun Knitting ProjectFinished the cap

Katie's keep crown star — Knitting Katie’s Kep Number Two in Earthy ColorsCrown star

Skiff Hat knitting pattern — Knitting The “Skiff” Cable Beanie Pattern

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!

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.

hand knit pair of mittens in Fiddlehead pattern — Washed and drying

Silver and Gold Mitten in Stranded Colorwork

After beginning The Woolly Thistle mitten knitalong with one mitten pattern, I came across a new pattern for sale that I liked a lot better.

I finished on mitten in my first choice (Milet) and then started this one which is called “Glissade” and you can buy the pattern and download it at Ravelry – I have a link further down the page. I have finished one mitten, and I do love this pattern! Read on…

Arbor yarn mitten knitting project — Brooklyn Tweed Arbor yarn is pretty nice

I wanted to use the same DK yarn the designer used, but it was out of stock, so I began looking for other DK yarn to use.

One thing I want to do this year with my knitting projects is to use new types of yarn. I’ve already fallen in love with the Rauma yarn, and I vow to use more pure wool this year. The Woolly Thistle imports beautiful wool from overseas, so that’s a good place to start when shopping for “yarn with a story”. I love knowing where my yarn came from!

But this time I chose Brooklyn Tweed’s Arbor yarn for a couple of reasons. After researching this yarn, reviews are outstanding. Everyone loves it, and I can now join that group – it is so nice. Secondly, the color selection was fabulous. I bought mine at Wool and Company, and they wound the skeins for free (as always).

My Arbor colors are “Kilmt” (gold) and “Thaw” (silver gray) and I think I made good color choices. It’s not super expensive yarn for the nice quality. It will need to be hand-washed, but how often do you need to wash mittens?

Glissade mitten pattern knitting — Getting beyond the cuff

The Glissade Mitten Pattern is for sale on Ravelry by Virginia Sattler-Reimer and I believe it is one of her newer patterns. She also has a very popular mitten called Tettegouche mitten which has many colors. She has a hat with the same name which is featured in the Milarrochy Heids book which I bought a while ago.

This mitten pattern is fun. It starts with a Latvian Braid, which I think looks really nice. (The designer includes directions for making the braid.) I think one reason a braid is used at the beginning of the cuff is to keep it from rolling.

Knitting the Thumb

The pattern is in chart form, and the thumb is shown separate, which took me a bit to figure out. The thumb stitches have to be added at a certain point in the pattern, which takes some getting used to for a newbie like me.

You can see my thumb placement knitting in the photo below. It was easier for me to add a marker so I would know exactly when the thumb stitches begin.

Thumb stitches on mitten knitting — I placed a marker at the beginning stitches of the thumb area

It’s tough to know gauge with mittens until you get far enough along to slip your hand through the DPNs. I began using size 3 DPNs, as the designer used – I switched to size 4 after the thumb – because the hand seemed to be a bit tight.

thumb knitting for mitten — Getting started on the colorwork thumb

I did okay for my first colorwork thumb. It did get a bit hairy at times, but all in all it was completely worth it because I love the outcome! I used a marker for the BOR, and added one in the center of the pattern, just to help keep me on track.

Love the color, love the yarn, love the fit, and love this pattern!

Here you can see how the side line of the mitten carries onto the thumb.

Inside thumb — Pattern on inside of thumb continue along the side of the mitten as well

I Love This Mitten!

Although I still have one more Glissade mitten to knit, I look forward to having a pair of these. The fit is perfect, but I did end up going up to size 4 DPNs once I put the thumb stitches on hold. I tend to be a tight knitter.

When I do the next mitten I will do the cuff in a size 3 and then change to a size 4 for the hand and thumb. It’s the only change I’ll need to make. (That worked well on #2)

I have not washed and blocked it yet – I am waiting for the second mitten to be knit.

Love my first colorwork mitten — Love this!

When doing stranded colorwork knitting, the inside of the mitten looks like the image below. It makes for a bit thicker fabric than plain knitting.

wrong side stranded knitting Glissade mitten — Wrong side

I am trying to be a better “pairs project” knitter, where I finish two mittens, two socks, etc., but I have to love what I am knitting for that to happen. I can’t see wasting time knitting something I dislike.

Finished today! My first pair of hand-knit, full colorwork mittens. They still need to be washed and blocked, but they fit well and look decent. In fact, I really enjoyed this knitting project. It was quick, even for me.

I did not knit every day. I have to work also, but the pair only took 13 days. Haha… some knitters can knit 3 pair in that length of time! Still, I am happy that I have a new pair of mittens AND I finished before the knit-along ends (March 26th).

hand-knit mittens in gold and off-white — Washed and blocked and ready to wear

Inspired to Knit More Mittens

Once I knit a project that I enjoyed, and turned out wearable, I want to do more. The Brooklyn Tweed Arbor yarn is so fabulous that I have my eye on a new mitten pattern in DK yarn. It’s called Fiddlehead, and is very popular. The DK weight works up quicker than fingering, and that is a good thing for a beginner.

In fact I might write a page full of DK and Worsted weight patterns.