Mittens

Have you seen the mittens of Rovaniemi yet? WOW!

My first thought was, “Not for me.” Then I read Stephanie’s description: “mittens, knit in several colours in the round, in intarsia, only continuing in the round (never turning back to purl), without carrying any colour at any time (with the exception of the base colour) and without ever twisting them together.”

ooooooooo! Intarsia in the round... now that sounds interesting...

One of the main reasons I don’t like intarsia, is that it doesn’t easily lend itself to knitting in the round, my favorite way to knit. And there’s an added benefit with these mittens; even though it looks like Fair Isle, there's no twisting... I don’t mind twisting the yarns for Fair Isle, but it does take longer.

So, of course, I became excited and intrigued…

Until I saw Susanna Hansson’s photo (third photo down). I am still laughing. Had I been the knitter, that nice neat set of spooled yarns would quickly become a giant, snarled knot. Even though Susanna lives in Seattle, she still had to pack this knitting for travel to the Madrona Fiber Arts Winter Retreat in Tacoma.

One question: How long did it take her to untangle those balls?!!! Maybe I am projecting, and just thinking of what the spools would look like had they traveled with me.

That said, I am really curious. How is this technique done? I wonder if TKGV would consider this as a class...or am I the only nut willing to work through tangles to learn a complicated technique to create an item that wouldn’t have much use in Virginia?

Not much growth on Starlight... teaching and grading interfered!