Stitch and Bramble

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Lots of Mittens

Here are some lovely mitts for your inspiration, oohing and ahhing. Be sure to click on the name of the knitter to visit their website or blog, leave them a comment and let them know Stitch & Bramble sent you!

Knit by our friends at Penny Was Already Taken.

Maimu's Mittens, knit by Pattern, pattern by Lucy Bush. (This pair is actually an Estonian style, not Latvian, but lovely nonetheless-- had to throw them in!)

Mittens by Be*Mused, variation of her pattern on Ravelry.

Also by Be*Mused:

The Anemoi Mittens, knit by Maud at Warm Hands(pattern by See Eunny Knit). And be sure to check out Maud's blog here, too!

...show me the mittens.

Alright, alright, it's your turn. Email me (or just comment below!) pictures of your own mittens, a link to your favorite pattern, or even another blog that has awesome digit-warmers on display! I'll be putting together a gallery for you aspiring mitteners-- stay tuned!

...warmin up the old black and gold.

After months of eyeing the Latvian mittens in Lizbeth Upitis's and Anna Zilboorg's books I decided to take the plunge and knit a pair of my very own. I quickly tore through the above books and moved on to absoutely devouring every search result matching the phrase "latvian mittens" on Google images, Flickr, Ravelry, and Etsy, (the latter of which produced a disappointing four pairs of mittens). Alas, no one seemed to have the pattern for my dream mittens. What now?

I set to work on designing my own.

This really was a ridiculous endeavor, as I had never designed any of my own knitting patterns before, and I had previously never even attempted to knit anything involving stranded colorwork, mittens, or Latvia, but let me tell you, I was getting desperate. I ordered up six skeins of Palette yarn from KnitPicks and set to work!

I hadn't decided on a color scheme by the time I wanted to order the yarn, so I ordered a ball each of a few solid colors (Edamame, Black, Cream, Cornmeal and Semolina) and some fantastic heather shades (Green Tea and Calypso).

I eventually decided on the Cornmeal and Black for this pair, as I've been wanting some black & gold in my wardrobe to support the Mizzou Tigers at the University of Missouri. I thought I'd keep it simple with just two colors, minimizing both confusion during and end-weaving after! (I do hate weaving in ends).

Then I needed a chart.  I blanked out each of the squares on a standard mitten chart, printed it out, and set to work with colored pencils.

I unfortunately failed to remember while drawing up the design that knit stitches are longer than they are wide, and the vines on the wrists were not pretty when I knit them as I originally planned:

This chart became.......................this cuff. Not pretty.

Definitely time for some revision.

I'll show you how this chart turned out later on, when I show the whole mitten. I ended up adapting this chart from a photo of a knit hat-- not exactly the same, but the proportions turned out nicely, I think.

I mixed and matched motifs from a lot of different sources in this way.  I am a big fan of the interlocking rings on the Tiffany mittens from Knitty, but as a lover of symmetry, I adjusted the pattern some to make the rings both centered and symmetrical.  I prefer the look, and the regularity of the pattern makes it easier to follow than the original from Knitty (if you haven't seen the photos of the original Tiffany mittens, you should follow the above link, though- they're gorgeous).

I wanted to make a relatively traditional pair, with one continuous band for the wrists and cuffs, an "invisible thumb," different designs
on the back of the hand and palm, and the unique pointed fingertips.  I also incorporated a latvian braid (shown below) and a  latvian twist cuff (at left).

I'm still working on the first mitten (just need to finish up the fingertips, attach the thumb, and weave in the ends)

A new day... and a new blog.

Yup, you heard right. Stitch & Bramble is starting over. New look, new content, new style, even a new geographic location (we've moved from the suburbs of Chicago to the bustling college town of Columbia, Missouri- it's bound to cause a quake in the Stitch & Bramble blogging world, right?)

Some things in life, however, stay the same--
Keep emailing us at StitchAndBramble@gmail.com,
Keep reading at StitchAndBramble.blogspot.com, and
Keep us posted on your own knitting ventures!

I'm excited to return to Stitch and Bramble after the long hiatus (during which I was living in Derby, England... amongst a few other places. That, however, is a story for another day!), and I'm really looking forward to sharing with you gentle readers.

Until another time,
Congratulations on getting through hump day and for making your way back to Stitch and Bramble!