Goldie Mittens and the Afterthought Thumb
Overview
The Goldie Mittens are an adventure in colorwork with a modern twist on Fair Isle Motif. Designed in 6 colors, they are a perfect scrappy project! You can purchase the pattern in Knitrino by clicking the image below from your phone. This guide contains lots of helpful information for knitting these mittens–you can click any of these links to jump to the appropriate section:
Sizes & fit
The Goldie mittens are available in 2 sizes, the small with an 8” circumference that fits many women’s hands and some men’s hands, and the large with a 9.25” circumference, which fits some women’s hands and many men’s hands. If you’re in between sizes, if you’re new to colorwork or know that you struggle with tension on colorwork, we recommend sizing up. Who doesn’t love roomy mittens!?
The motif is the same for both mittens, but the large has a wider stripe section on the sides, plus a wider thumb and slightly longer top.
Small Mitten showing waste yarn stitches where thumb will go.
Large Mitten showing waste yarn stitches where thumb will go.
Gauge
You’ll notice we don’t have a gauge swatch for this pattern. That’s because the mittens are small enough that they’re barely larger than the swatch. Additionally swatching in a method different than what you’re using for the mittens (i.e. using the Long Float method to knit a swatch vs knitting in the round with DPNs or circulars) often is a poor prediction of what your gauge will actually be. So here’s what we suggest! Cast on your mitten, knit a few inches of colorwork, then block and check your gauge. If your gauge is far off, start over and adjust needle size as necessary. It’s barely more work than swatching, and if you’re gauge is right, you’re already on your way.
Customization
Because of the large motif featured on these mittens, customization is tricky. If you need a slightly narrower or wider mitten, try going down or up 1 needle size. You can easily add length by adding rows of Color A (the main color) at the wrist before the colorwork, or at the top after the colorwork. Thumb circumference is also easily adjusted by increasing or decreasing the number of stitches picked up.
Yarn Substitutions and Color Choice
These mittens work best with a natural wool that likes to felt. When choosing colors, your darker colors should be B, D, and E. (Colors in Knitrino are shown in the order used.) We love these mittens with color pairs, but they also work great with high contrast colors. Without enough contrast, you’ll lose the beautiful diamond motif carried throughout the mittens.
How to Work Small Circumferences in the Round - 4 ways
For those newer to small circumference knitting, there are many options for knitting in the round, and just about every knitter has their preference! We recommend experimenting to see what you like best. Alison has knit the Goldie Mittens using every one of the techniques below, and she finds she gets the best knitted fabric with shorties, though it is not her preference for comfort!
How to Join New Yarn
Because these mittens have a LOT of color changes, you may wish to weave in new ends as you go (one of the methods shown in the video) or you may want to instead carry the yarn up inside the work, as shown in the next video.
How to Carry the Yarn up Inside the Work Without Holes
The first time Alison knit these mittens, she cut her yarns. And by the time she was done weaving in the ends, 10 years had passed. On her second mitten, she decided to carry the yarn. The trick to carrying the yarn inside the work is making sure you secure the old yarn by bringing the new yarn up over the old yarn, making sure it gets trapped. Also, always check that your carried yarn isn’t pulled tight when carried!
Colorwork Tips
We've heard from a lot of new colorwork knitters that they're intimidated by stranded knitting - they worry that it won't be perfect. We'd like to give you all a little gift right now and say "It won't be perfect, yay!" If you're new to colorwork, recognize that you're learning a new skill and it will improve a LOT with practice. Think about your project as the **first** colorwork project you'll make - it's a journal that will document your growth!
Knitrino recommends knitting stranded colorwork with two hands. For most knitters, the strand of yarn that is carried lower than the other on the wrong side will create larger stitches and can appear more dominant on the right side of the fabric, so carry the float of the background color in the highest position on the wrong side, and the color you most want to pop in the lowest position. For most right handed knitters knitting with 2 hands, you'll carry the background color in your right hand and the contrasting or motif color in your left hand.
Everyone knits differently. Many knitters knit tighter when stranding and so often, patterns suggest going up a needle size. Some knitters, though, kit more loosely with colorwork. The goal is to have floats that lie flat without being taut when the stitches are well stretched out across the needle. Here are some tips you can try to improve your colorwork:
As you're knitting, spread the stitches out to keep the floats from being too tight. You can also adjust the tension of the carried yarn, if necessary.
Occasionally stretch the knitted fabric along the diagonals to even out stitch sizes.
Keep the working yarns in the correct positions, and arrange the yarn balls next to the hand you're tensioning with. When you lock floats, always return the yarn to the correct position to avoid tangles.
You can try turning the work inside out so the floats are facing you. This can help you see your tension issues and adjust as needed.
If a stitch is pulled too tight and appears too small on the right side, you can fix it at the end by making a duplicate stitch over top in the correct color.
And don't forget that blocking forgives a multitude of sins. :) If you're worried about your tension, try steam blocking or wet blocking before you're finished to see how your cowl will look.
Afterthought Thumb
We just love the afterthought thumb used in this mitten! There are a few differences between our afterthought thumb and others. First, we placed it in the middle of the round. This allows both mittens to be worked identically, and avoids confusion for left-handed knitters who mirror knit (trust us on that.) But best of all, we love that you just insert some waste yarn, and then later come back and pick up stitches! It’s so much fun, we’re putting afterthought thumbs everywhere! Want to know more about why you’d choose an afterthought thumb? Check our blog post!
Not sure what we’re talking about? It’s Goldie Mittens, available exclusively in Knitrino. To get the pattern, open Knitrino or click the image below from your phone. 📱