well, fiddle-dee-dee! look at my mittens!

pattern: Fiddlehead Mittens

designer: Adrian Bizilia/ hello yarn
yarn: Berroco Ultra Alpaca for the main color of the shell, Cascade 220 in black, charcoal, red, orange, and light blue for the contrasting colors, and Still River Mill 2-ply cashmere for the lining
needles: Addi Turbos #2
modifications: none - the pattern is perfection; I used a lace weight yarn for the lining instead of sport weight

It feels great to start off the new year with a finished project, and this is the kind of project that just keeps on giving. I was never one for mittens until we moved to New England. Now, I can't imagine not having several pairs on hand to choose from or to lend to friends. Not to mention how much I love knitting mittens. They're always such a satisfying knit.

Recently, several of my crafty/knitty gurus on Flickr and in real life have been cranking out Fiddlehead Mittens, a pattern I have been meaning to knit since Adrian first published it way back when. First, I saw Chawne's beauties on Flickr. Next I saw Caro knitting away on her first of the pair at knit night. The final straw was seeing Stacie's amazing handspun Fiddlehead. It was love - pure love. Or actually, perhaps the final straw was Matt picking up the Fiddleheads that Stacie test knit for Adrian and asking me to knit a pair for him because he was so smitten with them. Either way, I had been pushed over the edge. I figured since everyone was whipping them out so quickly, maybe I would be able to do the same. What I didn't count on was my gauge being a bit smaller than I expected. As I mentioned before, the mittens were too small for Matt, but they were perfect for me. Lucky me!

Let's talk about the linings one second, because they are really lovely. I used a super-soft and squishy cashmere; to say they are lovely is almost an understatement. They are heavenly. Anyway, I knit the first lining just a bit too long, and it bunches a little at the top of the mitten. The second one is just the right length. I am going to not be an anal retentive freak and rip back to fix it. I am going to just relax and accept the fact that I knit the linings two separate lengths. It's a good thing I can't see the difference in length once they're stuffed inside the mitten shells. because when I think about it, it does my head in a little. I'm going to focus on the warmth and coziness they provide. In fact, I have no idea how I have been knitting mittens without linings for so long. I have seen the light, people!

One last thing - using the Berroco Ultra Alpaca was snap decision. I was going through the stash picking out any DK/light worsted yarn available to me and just grabbed it because I figured the color would make a great base for the others. What I hadn't considered was the fact that it would give the mittens a nice fuzzy halo which I love. There's nothing like a little bit of knitting serendipity!