Today's Happenings

A Variation to the Mitten Pattern (Part One)

Happy Easter! I hope you are all enjoying yourselves. It may be a very different Easter, but I hope you still do get to talk to friends and family, albeit digitally, and that you are able to have a bit of a sense of "normal" where possible, whatever that means to you.

A little while ago, I promised to do a knit along for those who do not own circular needles. Well, today, I will explain how to do the last knit along on straight needles. A lot of the steps are very similar; however, I will explain them again for those of you who could not do the last knit-along.

Casting On

To cast on, you start by making the first stitch as a slipknot. Firstly, make a loop around 30cm away from the beginning of the ball.

Then, pull the strand that is not attached to the ball through it in a looped shape. This is your first stitch. Now, put this on the needle an pull the two ends to secure it tightly on the needle (but not too tightly - make sure it can move along the needle).

Then, put the needle with the stitch on into your left hand (or right hand if you are left handed) and the other needle in the other hand. Put this needle into the back of the stitch and make a loop around the back needle using the end of the wool that is attached to the ball. Then put the needle and the loop through the stitch, bringing the back needle to the front. Finally, put what is on the front needle onto the back needle, where the other stitch is.

Repeat this until you have enough stitches to go around your wrist. I cast on 52, but you can have any even number, depending on the size of your hand.

Rib Stitch

Rib stitch consists of alternating knit and purl stitches. To do this, as with casting on, you hold the needle which does not have any stitches in your writing hand, and the one with the stitches on in the other. Similarly to casting on, you start the knit stitch by putting the needle without stitches into the back of the first stitch, winding the yarn that it attached to the ball around the back needle and pulling the loop and needle through the stitch and round to the front

However, instead of putting what is on the front needle onto the back needle, you slide the first stitch on the back needle off.

Next, to purl, you put the yarn round to the front instead of the back. You then put the needle that is in your writing hand into the front of the stitch, wrap the yarn around this front needle, pull the needle and the loop through the stitch and to the back, and slide the stitch off of the other needle.

Keep alternating the knit and purl stitches until you reach the end of the row. You should have ended on a purl stitch with the stitches on your writing hand. Then put the needles into the opposite hands and repeat. Do as many rows of rib as you like, but you do not need to do a lot as it is not going to make up the whole mitten. I recommend doing 8-10 rows, but it does not matter what amount you do, so long as you write it down somewhere so that you can make both mittens even. The rib pattern should look something like this.

That's it for today. Remember, if you are having any problems, feel free to leave a comment. Also, there are loads of websites and YouTube videos out there if that is more suited to you. 

Otherwise, happy knitting!

Caiti