The Not So Fair Isle Mittens

There is a lot to tell you about these mittens. They were one of the early projects that I started, about 5 years ago. I was working in a biology lab that was actually a front for a knitting circle. I checked out knitting books from the library like they were going out of style (and some of them were). Alice Starmore's Fair Isle knitting was one of the books (it will never go out of style). I loved the colorful patterns, and the "rules" of Fair Isle knitting. Only 2 colors per row, usually not more than 5 stitches of one color in a row.

So I embarked upon mittens. I based the colors on a beautiful sunset in the woods that I saw one evening. It took me half a mitten to start to despise the color combination.

Finishing one took a while. Then I waited too long to knit the second one. I started on the wrong size needles (1 instead of 2). I switched back when I realized this, but didn't tear it out. I had fought too hard for those rows to frog it. I made other mistakes. I tore out some of them. I held the yarn too tightly. I just wanted to finish, damnit!

So finish I did. Yuck! The second one has puckers and a transposed color stripe and is longer and has a different point on the top and is smaller in the wrist.

But it's done. And that has a beauty all its own.