Christmas cast-on day 4

After yesterday’s coloured adventure I decided to continue the rainbow theme today with these awesome mittens from Ysolda.

Ysolda describes the idea behind the pattern…

“Receiving them might be a welcome acknowledgement of their own identity (do be sensitive about outing someone at a family gathering though!), or perhaps you know someone in a position like healthcare or teaching where wearing them will be a subtle way to signal that everyone is welcome.”

I was lucky to visit the Edinburgh Yarn Festival at the start of the year where I met Ysolda on her stand and the subtle rainbow design on these Joy mittens to show my own identity as a gay man, as well as a public show of support for others meant these were an instant purchase!

But after reading the pattern and realising the mittens include both intarsia and double knitting I will confess to being a little put-off and they sat in my stash until now… I needn’t have worried as just following the pattern one row at a time meant I knew exactly what to do. The pattern is really well written and also has a diagram to help with the double knitting section.

In a first for me there’s a provisional cast-on to start which then becomes a folded brim, I was really chuffed when I got this step completed!

After the brim is finished on straight needles you join in the round and then the double knitting starts in earnest! It was a bit fiddly to get going as I had lots of different ends on the go but after a few rounds I was underway. Again I’m really pleased and the double knitting looks great with the rainbow on the outside and grey on the inside. It’s not perfect but for my first attempt I’m happy with any small design features.

I’ve finished the cuff so now it’s over to some plain stocking stitch and adding the rainbow colours into the pattern whilst also adding in the thumb.

There are no rainbows on my next pattern but there are pops of colour again so until tomorrow, happy crafting.