Without the deadline of the Unwind Design Competition these mitts would definitely still be a work in progress - probably forever. Knitting them up was the easiest part - writing up the pattern 'properly' was not so easy. And getting Word and Excel pages into a pdf and then posting them on Ravelry (the Mecca of Knitting websites) was an even bigger. But all done and dusted by 2am Friday morning!
Anyway - the details. They had to be knitted in 4ply/fingering weight NZ yarn so I used Vintage Purls Sock yarn because I seem to have quite a lot of it and it is hard wearing but soft and comes in great colours.
The mitt you see below I called Birdie's Mitts after Birdie Bowers - one of those who perished with Scott on his ill-fated journey to the South Pole. Birdie was the man in charge of stores amongst other things and was the backbone of the expedition. Unmarried, I imagined these to be the sort of mitts his mother might have knit for him to keep his hands warm while he worked.
The next mitts came from a prototype I made last year. I gave them to my sister and she wore them all winter so I figured they must have some redeeming features. They are warmer because of the 2 yarns used that create a double layer. I called these Bonnie Jean Mitts - in memory of my mother who was called Jean and Bonnie.
Once again I made 2 pair to show the effects of different colour ways. They use various Sanquhar patterns - from Scotland.
So at the weekend we had Unwind. 70 mad keen knitters all in one place - including my 2 sisters.
There were classes: I went to ones on crochet, design and reversible cables. There were also Trade stalls and a lot of yarn and goodies found new homes.
Oh - I didn't win the design competition - a beautiful lace-pattern shawl did. All the entries were lovely and I have my eye on 2 in particular that I plan to make soon. Watch this space.
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