Test Knit Mitt Notes

I have, through one group and another, found my way to a Test Knitting group on Ravelry.  For those not in the know, test knitters are the ones who take a designer's pattern before it's published and knit it up and check for typos, instruction clarity, mistakes in the pattern, all that sort of thing.  Gives the designer a chance to make corrections before actual publication.

I was test knitting a mitt pattern, and I really liked it!  The designer is currently living in London, and the lace-and-twist stitch pattern on the mitt is inspired by the Tower Bridge.  And as London is one of my favorite cities in the world, I just had to sign up for this knit :)

My project is raveled here.  The pattern page is here, and it's available as a Ravelry download.

 

I'd say this is probably an intermediate pattern.  It's knit in the round, so you have to be comfortable with DPNs or Magic Loop or similar.  More so, though, is the lace pattern itself.  The lace pattern involved twisted stitches (you can see some in the ribbing below) which were fine to knit, but it also involved some twisted stitches that were very fiddly for me.  They are like one stitch cables, to make the "caps" on the lace "windows" in the pattern.  These did take a little bit of practice, as I'm a lefty.  Going in one direction, the twisted stitches were easy, but going the other, it was harder being a "backwards" knitter.  I ended up treating them like mini-cables.  No cable needle, but that's what I had to do to make the pattern look appropriate.  Being backwards, I like using charts because I just have to adjust my knitting to "look like the picture"! 

My other main comment on this pattern is that apparently my hands are even smaller than I thought!  I've always known I have small hands (playing handbells, I always had to use size small gloves, which as a choir member pointed out "Are you sure?  They're really small").  I made the pattern to size small specifications, though - US 0 needles with sport-weight yarn.  And they do fit.  The downside is that there isn't much negative ease, so the lace doesn't open up as much, particularly around the wrist.  A little bit of a pity, since the pattern is so cute.  So, simple solution - the next time I make these (and yes, I will make them again!) is that I'll do 4 pattern repeats, not 5 to encircle my hand.  I might need to go up a needle size so that they still fit, but that should make the lace more visible :)

 

And another attempt to get a clear picture of the lace pattern - it's just so pretty! And yes, you also get another picture of the omnipresent cat hair in our house ;)

The yarn I used is Knit Picks Stroll Sport.  I like the yarn - so soft!  It's a little splitty, but I was also working on 0's, so I think I'd've been sticking my needles through whatever yarn I used - those needles are just so small!  The color (Winter Night) is probably a little dark for this project, as it just makes the pattern a little harder to see.  But I think of blue when I think of the Tower Bridge, and I fell in love with this blue when I was looking for a yarn in the right weight to use for the project, so there you go!