I've been wanting a new pair of hand-knit mittens since I lost one of my beloved Zik Zak mittens earlier this year, and the weather has recently got cold enough here in Bath that I definitely need some. Fortunately, Rebekka Mauser has come up with the most beautiful pattern using my Mendip 4-Ply yarn: the Halo mittens!
The Halo pattern
The mittens are a nice simple construction, with a squishy double cuff and afterthought thumb in a contrasting colour. Rebekka has included two complementary colourwork patterns in the design. The back of the hand has the halo pattern from the name – the two colours used in the stranded design blend into each other like a lamp in the fog. And the inside of the hand has a simple, intuitive pattern of waving vertical lines.
Rebekka is offering 20% off the pattern until Sunday 1st December so hurry up and get your copy!.
Mendip 4-Ply Yarn – perfect for colourwork!
The yarn used for the design is Marina Skua Mendip 4-Ply, which I always intended to be great for stranded knitting. The yarn is woollen-spun wool from a single, local Shetland-cross flock on the Mendip hills (hence the name!). It has a nice matte finish to it, which means the stitches hold in place beautifully and create beautiful smooth lines in colourwork designs. I used the Sheep, Sky and Leaf colours, all on the Stormy base – these colours have quite low contrast, which gives the subtle effect I was aiming for.
The photo above is of Rebekka's own version of the mittens, using Mendip 4-Ply in Bloom (Stormy), Sky (Stormy) and Sheep (Sunny). There are also lots of beautiful projects on Ravelry, which show off the pattern with higher contrast!
When buying the pattern on Ravelry, you will receive a code that will give 15% off at least 3 skeins (including mini-skeins) of Mendip 4-Ply, so you can treat the pattern and yarn as a kit!
Pattern modifications
I almost never follow a pattern 100% but in this case I only made the teeniest modification. I added a thumb hole on the right hand so I can use my phone without having to take the mittens off! In retrospect I should have added one to the left hand too so I can do things like zooming etc. as well, but for the majority of cases this works beautifully! I simply bound off 8 stitches on the inside of the thumb in the place where I wanted the hole, and cast them back on in the following round.
Want to knit your own pair before Christmas? There's still time! Grab the pattern from Rebekka's Ravelry store (with 20% off if you get there before Sunday 1st December!). And even if you miss the introductory discount on the pattern, you'll always receive the discount code for 15% off the yarn.
And if you do make a pair, make sure to add your project to Ravelry, and if you use Instagram, tag @patsy.55, @marinaskua and #halomittens so we can see your lovely mittens!
