Look at the weird shape I've knit in garter stitch. Maybe you can tell that it's going to be a mitten. But what's up with the backwards thumb on one side? Take a good look at the folding step below.
I inserted the white cardboard so that you can see the arrangement better. What you might have thought would be a side seam is not; it ends up on the palm side at the inside of the thumb. Then that upside down thumb part flips up to become the other half of the thumb top. Cool, eh! (Yes, I am proudly Canadian.)
The pattern is from a Swedish collection, Warm Mittens and Socks by Eva Trotzig, which I just picked up from the Knit Picks book sale. (I needed a new ball winder since my twenty-five-year-old one cracked. Then I needed to get the order up to the amount for the most reasonable international shipping cost. You know how it goes.) Trotzig suggests that the mitts can be knit in stripes utilizing short lengths of leftover yarn, just tying the ends together at the cuff side for a decorative finish. She has some nice examples in the book photos. I knit these mittens in black sport/DK weight yarn frogged from an unfinished intarsia sweater from the 90's, so I got a chance to use up some small balls, but I did darn in the ends. I think I'd like to make a really crazy pair next with every garter ridge a different color, Joseph's Technicolor Dream Mittens.
The large photo in Trotzig's book shows plain color mittens sewn together the usual way, with a striped cuff added for length. I chose to add an extra 10 stitches to the pattern on the cuff end so I didn't need a cuff. I could always add on later if I change my mind. I decided to change up the mitten a bit by crocheting the seam together with an accent color. (The Chanteleine yarn originally came in a Vogue kit with four colors of Chistmas tree lights looping around on a yellow line on the black tweed background.OMG, the stuff we used to knit!) I'd seen this finish on another lengthwise mitten pattern by Colleen Egan. This is how it turned out:
I considered carrying on the crochet as a fake seam to go all around the mitten and make it symmetrical, but I rather like the way this bright seam goes just where it's needed and highlights the unusual construction of the mitten. So for now at least, I'm leaving the seam just the way it is. I may put a row of single crochet around the cuffs though when I put the second mitten together. I left it open to challenge my Monday knitting friends.
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