Autumnal

Autumn’s my favorite time of year, and as the summer ends my anticipation grows, breaking out my orange and maroon clothes to get into the mood and checking the sugar maple trees by my house multiple times a day to catch the first leaves turning.

So none of you will be surprised to learn that autumn’s started to infect my knitting. I am very pleased to present my first design, the October Leaves Fingerless Mitts.

October Leaves Fingerless Mitts

Pattern: October Leaves Fingerless Mitts, available for sale on Ravelry
Yarn: Knit Picks Gloss Fingeringweight in Pumpkin (which color they are naturally discontinuing), approx. 200 yards (1 skein)
Needles: US1/2.25mm

I love projects with leaf motifs, and over the summer the idea of a leafy thumb gusset leapt into my head and would not go away. I tried to ignore it, I tried to knit lace and socks instead, but in the end I had to sit down and start drawing charts. It took some trial and error (as well as some excellent advice on cable placement from my sister) before I replicated what I’d initially envisioned, but by George I think I’ve got it!

October Leaves Fingerless Mitts

Huge thank-yous to Melissa and Kel for test-knitting, and Glenna for looking everything over. I’m still new to this designing game so I want to make sure I get it right. Melissa also let me take advantage of her spectacular photography skills (all the pictures in this entry are hers), which I’m very excited about — it’s hard to take pictures of your own hands. Try it sometime. Thanks to her I have shots far more spectacular than anything I could get on my own. (She had me model her finished socks in return. It’s surprisingly tricky to stand that still!)

October Leaves Fingerless Mitts

You can find the pattern for the October Leaves Mitts for sale on Ravelry, where I will also eagerly be checking to see who else knits it and what yarns they pick. And if you’d like to see my Mitts in person, find me at Rhinebeck, where I will most certainly have them on in honor of the season!

9 Replies to “Autumnal”

  1. Those are *lovely*! I rushed right out and added them to my queue 🙂 I’ve got one pair of fingerless mitts OTN right now, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with knitting another pair immediately after 😀

    That’s a beautiful orange yarn, too. Not at all hunter-y 🙂

  2. WOW!!! These are just stunning – and I don’t even like orange and still, I’m seriously considering knitting them up in orange as. . . . . they. . . . . are. . . . . STUNNING!!! (Let’s hope my 15 year old doesn’t see them or my first pair will have to be made for her!)

  3. Nice job on the mitts there, lady! Super clever and not too difficult to execute. I’ll have to knit a pair for myself once I finish the 5 projects I stupidly cast on all at once. (Startitis swings back around to bite me in the ass every time.)

  4. Hello Abbie,

    I just purchased your pattern for October Leaves Mitts.

    I see new and old patterns all the time and out of those I see many that I like – but these I absolutely love……. They appeal to my sense of aesthetics – taking a motif and imbedding it in a knitted garment in a place where it becomes an integral part of the fit – where the shape fits the part of the body that it enhances.

    Brilliant and beautifully done!!!

    And I have just the right skein of yarn for it – Ebullient from Frog Creek Fibers in Red Rocks colourway that I picked up at the Sock Summit.

    Much knitterly gratitude.

    Crystal Belle

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