I was working on some mitts for my dad for his birthday, but didn’t quite finish them in time. I finished up the final touches the day after his birthday, and got them sent out. It’s not really the time of year where knitting deadlines are very realistic for me, but that didn’t stop me from squeezing in some knitting time during car rides and whenever I could find it so I could knit him some mitts. (It also hasn’t stopped me from planning some holiday knitting and wondering what I can finish in time. No stress though. What gets done gets done and what doesn’t- oh well.) Since my dad and stepmom have an alpaca farm, I wanted his mitts to have alpaca fiber in them. The yarn wasn’t 100% alpaca, but it had some alpaca blended into the wool.
The yarn is from our friends at Timberwolf Farm. It’s the natural color of the wool, which I love, and comes from their Coopworth/Romney ewe named Bonnie. The pattern I followed was from those same friends, one Inge was selling in their booth at the Holiday Market. (It’s called Fingerless Gloves basic pattern.) I didn’t check my gauge before I started the project and if I were to knit these again with the same yarn, I would go down a needle size (or two) because my weave wasn’t as tight as I would have liked (which you can’t really tell in the picture), but they are warm and cozy all the same. (Ravelry notes here.)
When I finished knitting the mitts, I felt like they were missing something and weren’t quite complete. I visualized a design on the front and decided to go for it. I had cedar boughs in mind (not that they necessarily ended up looking like that), grabbed some green yarn (leftover from Bracken’s hat), and did some embroidery on each one. I had never done any embroidery on any of my knitting before and it was really fun. I felt like it really added something to the mitts and I was glad I had followed that whim. Cedar-inspired mitts. They’re handmade, full of character, and most importantly… full of love.
Well Taryn I want you to know that I absolutely love them!! I could already tell that you put your secret ingredient into them!!
Love…
You are the best and you really touched me!
Thanks Taryn I love you so much!!!
So glad. Love you so much Dad!
I love them! And I love that you added the embroidery. What a special, unique touch!
Oh the mittens are wonderful. I’m so inspired by embroidery on knitting. Have you ever seen woolly tattoos?
No, what are woolly tattoos? I’m curious! 🙂
Oh, I just checked back to see. Dottie Angel came up with them. If you do a google image search for, “woolly tattoos” you’ll see some of her work. She basically takes thin yarn (fingering, sport weight) and does this amazing embroidery work on any knit thing. I love it b/c you can take a basic sweater from goodwill and turn it into something special. I made fingerless gloves and did some basic embroidery (I’m a beginner) on them. Its a great use for leftover yarn. I never thought to use yarn for embroidery. And she basically just layers the yarn to make a thicker stitch.
So inspiring!! Thanks for sharing!!
Very cute touch, takes the mitten from vanilla to sprinkled.
Oh my!!! They are so beautiful Sweetheart! Very impressive!
Looks awesome! Love the green popping out.