Sanders Mittens Finally Finished

The mittens described in this post sat in the UFO pile for an extremely long time. They are finally finished and I am very pleased with them.
Yarn: Dale of Norway Falk 0090 Black 48.4 g.; 6027 Turquoise 22.3 g.; 8426 Green 15.0 g.
Needles: 2.5 mm. dpns
Pattern: Sander's Mittens from Folk Knitting in Estonia
Begun: July 29, 2007
Completed: February 20, 2011
Size: 9 5/8" long and 4" wide. The thumb is 2.5" by 1.5"; I think this is a child's medium.

Helgi's Mittens in Gold & Brown

This is the beginning of Helgi's mittens from Folk Knitting in Estonia by Nancy Bush. I needed something for my trip to Texas in April and this fit the bill nicely. I'm not crazy about the color combination but it is what I had in my stash.

I'm using Dale of Norway Falk and size 2.5 dpns as usual. The white mark you see in the photo is the "thumb trick" waste thread.

I added a cuff because I can't imagine wearing mittens with no cuff. If someone from a cold climate can explain why so many mitten patterns have tiny cuffs I'd appreciate being enlightened.

These will probably be donated to Native American Support (see sidebar).

Twisted

The Sander's Mittens from Folk Knitting in Estonia is my first project using three colors simultaneously. Keeping all the strands from twisting around one another is a bit of a challenge but I'm rising to it. I'm using Dale of Norway Falk in 0090 black, 6027 "ocean blue" and 8426 "grass green" and rosewood 2.5 mm dpns.

This is also my first time working the half-wick decrease which is used at the top of the mitten. It is similar to a centered double decrease but involves knitting two of the three stitches rather than just one.

The pattern contains an odd number of repeats and I didn't like the way they were off center when I began the decreases at the top. I solved the problem by keeping the edge stitches black and working three rows of alternating stitches in black and the pattern color. The motifs use three rows per pattern color so the new design balances the main design nicely. I wanted to use stranding rather than all black at the top so the mittens would be as warm as possible.

This photo shows the thumb. I asked some children in my Monday knitting class try it on and it is much too short so it will have to be frogged and reknit. Fortunately I haven't yet knit the thumb on the second mitten.