A Back-dated Test Knit

This was a test knitted pattern done a while ago, solidly in my non-bloggy-chatty period. I saw it on the Test Knitters forum board and just couldn't resist. Even with all the color work! It just screamed my name. Books AND hand mitts (I'm always cold at work, and it's even worse in my hands if I'm at the computer a lot). Too perfect to pass up!  Anyhoo, since I just finished the Surprise Cowl, to match a recent test knit, I felt motivated to write up this test knit too.

The Yarn:

Most of the yarn I used was Patons Stretch Socks. The books and the shelves were other sock yarns, not Stretch Socks, but in the same weight. Just stash yarn, so nothing more specific. The Stretch Socks (being stretchy, after all) had to be held with a loose touch. Pulling it too tightly stretched it out and would affect the gauge. So, use a gentle touch. Otherwise, nothing really to striking to mention about any of the yarns.

The pattern works best if there is a good amount of contrast between the background and the books. So, I have dark books (purple, dark rose, burgundy-brown, and navy) on a mottled cream background. The shelves are, of course, brown. The background can be a little darker than what I chose, if you like, just as long as you have some good contrast to the books. No navy mitts with dark green books, or cream mitts with butter-yellow books. You get the idea.

The other thing to consider with the background yarn is that it needs to be relatively plain. No bold stripes or busy patterns. Once again, because you'd lose the books to the background. It would be a lot of work for books you couldn't see!

The Pattern: 

Reading Mitten by Lotta Groeger (my project is Raveled here).

This is a great pattern for using up lots of odds-n-ends of sock yarns (and c'mon, who doesn't have those?) The books don't need to match, and each book uses a yard, give or take. So, long-length repeats of variegated sock yarns are perfect for the books! I actually went to the skein I was using for the books and cut off the number of lengths I needed, just snipping the yarn as the color changed. But that would be just as easy to do if you're working from multiple skeins of leftovers. I did find it helpful to cut the lengths of yarn for the books, so that I could handle them, lay them out, and decide what color I wanted for which books (try not to have like colors adjacent, that sort of thing). The duplicate stitching was by far the most time consuming part of the whole project!! But, when the alternative was stranding multiple colors on teeny-tiny US 2s, working in the round... I'd rather do the duplicate stitch!

Notes, Alternations, etc:

No modifications, really. This one was pretty much as-written.

I made the Size Small mitt (6 inch hand circumference), and it fits my tiny hands just fine. I cast on and bound off with US 4s, not the 2s I used to reach gauge in the rest of the project. I tend to cast on and bind off rather tightly, so the larger needles were needed. Other than that, I reach gauge just fine with the US 2s. Did feel like I was going to snap them in half the whole time, though - been a while since I worked with needles that small!

One thing I might add would be a word around the cuff, that long stretch of cream before the first bookshelf. "Read" or "Book" or something. I'm still deciding on that one. There are plenty of free charted alphabets out there, in a variety of gauges, that it would be simple enough to do. It would give wrist a little more structure, (more duplicate stitching), and it would immediately associate the book pattern above with reading (instead of a less bookish person just thinking "Oh, what a cool geometric pattern"). And it would help me tell the right mitt from the left :)

 

Overall: 

I really like this pattern. The mitts fit comfortably, and are not too bulky. The knitting went very quickly, so these might make nice gifts for family or coworkers or future grad school friends. Other bookish people :)