I’ve just remembered that I haven’t yet posted photos of my Offbeat mitts.
I am really happy with these. The pattern was designed by Anna Elliott. I have wanted to make them since I first saw them on Kate Davies blog here (they were designed to be knit with Kate’s yarn, Buachaille). There is a matching hat design, but it is the mitts which really captured my attention. Aren’t they pretty?
They were not the easiest mitts for me to knit; the problem arising not from the very well-written pattern but rather from my lack of skills in stranded knitting on DPNs, which I discussed in this previous post.
I noted in that post that blocking produced miraculous results. As proof, I present the below photo, showing a blocked mitt on the left, and the rather pathetic-looking unblocked mitt on the right.
The moral of this photo is to persevere; knitting is a very forgiving sport!
(If you are interested in the sweater I am wearing here and in the top photo, it is the Leyfi sweater designed by Romi Hill and blogged here.)
I knit the Offbeat mitts in Buachaille – which is a lovely yarn that becomes even more lovely with each time you wear it. The mitts are surprisingly soft, warm, and cosy. I took them out for a walk a few weeks ago:
I like this photo because it shows me wearing three mis-matched hand-knits, which manage nonetheless to look great together: the Offbeat mitts, my Peerie Flooers hat, and my gold Cabled-rib shawl.
For the knitting purists out there, here is the obligatory shot of the reverse side.
I highly recommend this pattern. And if you have a chance, you should knit them in Buachaille. It makes for lovely mitts. (This is my third pair of mitts in this yarn.) It is hard to describe how lofty and sheep-y the yarn is, and how nice it feels on the needles. And look at how the colours glow in the sunshine:
I have come down with a flu bug. My prescription? Watch the Olympics and knit. Sleep. Repeat.