Hi everyone. I made my little sis some pretty cool mittens for her birthday. It was the scariest project I've ever done and I put it off for a long time...and ended up giving them to her late
.
I knitted them to look like lined paper, and then embroidered Whats Her Face and The Ugly One on after. They're set up like Episode #4, so Whats Her Face says "we're cool" and The Ugly One says "teehee" on the backs of the mittens, and then when they're turned palms up, they're both crushed by random falling objects (in this case, an anvil and a sac o' potatoes):
Here's a close up of the sac o' potatoes embroidery:
And I lined them with fleece and put on a JK string to go through her jacket sleeves:
SO COOL!!!
So, I think this is how I did it. I just used a basic mitten pattern like this:
Materials:
*four double-pointed 3 1/4mm needles
*four double-pointed 3mm needles
*some white yarn (probably acrylic blend), some blue yarn and some pink yarn (I
don't know how much I used or what kind it was, I just used leftovers that
were all in a tangled mess in my wool stash and I untangled them as I went
along)
*one stitch holder
*some fleece remnants from Fabricland
*some thread
*one sharp sewing needle
*one wool needle
*black embroidery thread
Instructions:
LEFT MITTEN:
*With 3mm needles, cast on 48 stitches in white wool (this is for a hand circumference of 7.6 inches...I have a neat sizing chart that I could post if anyone's interested). I put 16 stitches on each needle, but you might want to fiddle with this to make the joins at the edges/sides of the mittens, or at least less noticeable (esp if you are working with more than four needles) so that you don't get really obvious ladders up the fronts and backs of your mittens where the needles meet)
*Round 1: Begin basic rib pattern (k1 p1) twisting in with the blue wool. (Even though the paper pattern is two rounds white, one round blue, the cast on round measures the same vertically as two regular stocking stitch rounds, so the blue line here matches the pattern on the rest of the mitten). On stitch 15 and 43, twist in and knit the pink wool for one stitch, then continue in blue wool and finish round.
*Round 2: twist in and continue with white (k1 p1), knitting one pink stitch at 15 and 43.
*Round 3: same as round 2
*Repeat rounds 1-3 for about 1 inch. Then, to make a buttonhole (for the jk string), reverse your knitting direction so that, when you reach the end of the round, don't continue onto the first needle, but rib backwards (p1 k1) on the third needle on the wrong side (inside) of the work all the way around to the first needle again. Then, reverse one more time and knit from the first needle to the third on the right side. When you get back to the third needle, continue in the round and onto the first needle. You should have a little buttonhole in the outer side of your mitten now.
*Continue until you reach your desired length of cuff (2.5 inches is usually pretty good). Btw, I finished the rib on round 2 so that the first stocking stitch round was the same colour as the last rib round and this made a neater transition)
*When cuff reaches desired length, switch to 3 1/4 mm needles and continue in stocking stitch for two rounds, following same colour pattern as set by the rounds 1-3.
THUMB GUSSET:
*On the third stocking stitch round, knit 20 stitches and then pick up and knit one stitch on either side of the 21st stitch. (I used a twisted knit increase. It goes like this: 1. Using the left needle, pick up the horizontal thread between stitch 20 and 21 from front to back. 2. Insert the right needle into the back of the loop now on the left needle (this will be tight because it's twisted) and knit. Do this again between the 21st and 22nd st). You should have fifty stitches by now.
*knit 3 rounds
*on 4th round, pick up and knit one stitch on either side of the increases you made on row 3 of the stocking stitch (=52 stitches)
*repeat these 4 rounds until there are 61 stitches on your needles.
*knit 3 more rounds
THUMB HOLE:
*on the next round, place the 13 increased stitches onto a stitch holder and cast on an extra 7 stitches, working from the first stitch after the 13 thumb stitches. Finish the round.
*work 1 round
*In the next round, slip the first of the 7 cast on stitches knit wise, knit the 2nd stitch, and slip the first stitch over. Then, knit 3 and then knit 2 together. Finish round.
*In the next round, repeat the decreases, knitting only 1 stitch between.
*work one round
*in the next round, slip the first of the cast-on stitches knit wise, knit 2 together, and pass the slipped st over.
BANDED TIP:
*continue in rounds until the mitten fits up until your pinkie finger.
*at the beginning of the next round (continue in white yarn only): k 1, slip 1, k 1, pass slipped stitch over. Work until stitch #21, k 2 together, k 1, k 1, slip 1, k 1, pass slipped stitch over. Knit until 3 stitches before the end, then k 2 together, k 1.
*Work these decreases on every other round (make sure they line up (you won't always be working off of st 21 because the pattern decreases the stitches) until half the stitches remain. Then, work decreases every round until you reach your desired shape. I usually leave more stitches than are recommended on my needles when I tie up the tips of my mittens to give them that rounded shape. I just cut the ball of wool from my knitting and leave enough of a tail to weave into the leftover stitches with a wool needle (I just pick up and draw off the stitches in a circle, going around the round, and then pull the tail tight, knot it, and tuck it in on the inside).
THUMB
*divide 13 st from holder, plus 7 st picked up from the cast on, between 3 needles. knit in the round (in established colour pattern) until desired length (usually about 2 inches) then k the last 2 st on each needle together every round until 6 or so stitches are left. Tie them in like the mitten tips. You may have little holes where the thumb meets the mitten, but you can just sew these up later.
RIGHT MITTEN:
Work the same as left, but reversed. Be careful where you put your pink margins (they should always be on the left side of the page, to look like real paper)
OK NOW THE FUN PART
Go here:
http://www.homestarrunner.com/tgsmenu.html and find your favourite Teen Girl Squad episode. When you see an image you want, right click and press print. You can't copy and paste them, so you have to be quick!
When you have the image you want, put it in front of you, grab some black embroidery thread and a wool needle and FREE HAND the cartoon onto the mitten. I KNOW THIS SOUNDS SCARY but it's actually easier than you think!! I tried everything before I free-handed it, but couldn't trace the image with any materials that would show up on the wool and not stain it. I used loops for The Ugly One's hair, and just secured the loops with little stitches.
FINISHING:
Get some thin elastic (I think I used 1/8 inch) and weave it through the rib on the inside of the mitten about a 1/4 inch from where the cuff meets the stocking stitch. Trace your mittens on paper, then cut this pattern out in fleece to make two sets of linings for your mittens. Make the fleece cuffs extra long so that you can fold them up after you've sewn the linings together to make a nice clean edge at the bottom of the mitten. Then, sew these fleece pieces together and insert these linings into the mittens (you don't have to turn the linings inside out, just put them straight in so that you put your hand into the "good side" when you wear your mittens. Make sure when you fold your cuffs up on the fleece that you fold them outwards so that the rough edge is between the fleece and the mitten. You'll secure the two cuffs and folded edge together in the next step). Make sure your lining is properly fitted inside the mitten. The best way to check this is to try it on! Then, with leftover wool and a sharp wool needle, secure the lining to the mitten at the tip of the mitten, at the end of the thumb and several times in the cuff (this might be hard, because you have to push your needle through the knitted mitten and two layers of fleece (the fleece lining and the folded over fleece cuff). Tuck in any loose ends. Then, through the buttonhole, cut a hole in the fleece and sew the knitted button hole to the fleece buttonhole around the edge. THEN, knit a long string (4 st across) in garter stitch (knit both sides) to make your jk string, connect each end to buttons, and button them into the buttonholes on the mittens!! by the way, this hole buttonhole thing is optional, as you can just sew the string to the mittens if you want to.
OK I THINK THAT THIS IS THE LONGEST PATTERN EVER.
I hope it wasn't ridiculously confusing.
