Design In Progress.. or DIP

But first, even though knitting was a little awkward for a couple of days (I sliced the tip off my right index finger on Sunday evening), I did manage to finish one of the Annemor #2 mittens this week. The first picture shows the mitten size in relation to the toddler and adult mittens.

The second picture shows the back of the hand. I don't know if it's just me or if the mittens are supposed to be like this, but I find the hand very long. Perhaps, in time and with wear, it will stretch in width and reduce in length. Or, perhaps the extra length helps with warmth... I really don't know. Perhaps some of the old mittens were as long as they are/were simply to accommodate the pattern.

One thing these pictures don't show is the true colour. They were photographed under a table lamp, with the flash, which really washed out the colour. There's a truer picture, colour-wise, in an earlier post. The light colour is a very pale teal and the darker colour is more of a purple-y periwinkle. Now, to cast on the second one.

I'll have plenty of knitting time this weekend. John just left (just after 6 a.m. here) for the coast. He's going to spend the weekend looking after Tony's affairs. It looks like Tony will be moved into a care home in the not too distant future. He's still in good spirits, but obviously not recovering. I'll be on my own for the weekend for sure, and perhaps until Wednesday, depending on how much John will need to look after.

Seeing as I'll have all that time, I'll also have time to work on what the title of this post alludes to. It's been a long time, but I have a design in progress. I've been so inspired... again... by the work of Heather Desserud, the designer of the Ruba'iyat and Lilac mittens. She's come out with another winner, one that I'm sure I'll be casting on at some point.

When she came out with the Ruba'iyat mittens, I made an Excel chart of the basic mitten layout and shared it with her. It is, in essence, a blank canvas for designing Selbu-style mittens. I've printed out a few sets for myself and have played with designing my own mittens a couple of times, but have never been happy with what was emerging. This time is different.

I know it's a little tough to see. That's intentional (If you click on the picture, you may be able to see the design a little better). What I will say is that both of the books you see in the picture have contributed to the design. I have no working title for these mittens yet, but they're becoming quite an international project. Anna Zilboorg's book "Simply Socks" is about Turkish sock design; Alice Starmore's "Book of Fair Isle Knitting" is self explanatory and the mitten design is Danish. As I said, international in scope.

Both John and I can see this design in bold, bright colours to make the Turkish design "pop". He was leaning to a deep blood red for the main design with a dark blue for the background. I was thinking of black or navy for the main design with a variegated yarn with long colour repeats (like Noro) for the background. We'll see. First, I have to get the design finished. Then, I can decide on yarn and colours.

Now, though, it's time to get ready for work. Oh, one last little thing... Happy 30th Birthday, Kristen!!