Thoughts on Upsizing My Fingerless Mitts

Disclaimer: These ideas are theoretical, I haven't tried them, and they might result in you needing more than one skein of your selected yarn.
As soon as I designed my Top-Down Alpaca Mitts (formerly known as: Top Down Fingerless Mitts, Taj Mahal Mitts, and Ambrosia Mitts, phew!), before I even submitted them for 101 Luxury One-Skein Wonders, I received a question about making them in a larger size.
No rest for the wicked?
I was showing them off at the yarn store and one of the other staff members tried them on, observed they fit her, but said a little bigger would be better. So I've been thinking about these ideas for a while, but in a very lazy manner.

Making Them Longer
There was a method to my madness when I started the mitts at the finger end rather than the cuff. I thought they might be easier to resize. And, based on the principle that the leg of a toe-up sock can be knit until you run out of yarn, I thought the cuff could easily be made longer from this direction, i.e., you can try them on as you go and get a better idea of where the cuff is hitting because the thumb hole provides an anchor.
So to add length on the fingers, I would suggest working another pattern repeat of the lace. When I made the gloves for myself, I was aiming for the cast-on edge to sit at my first set of finger joints. They might end up shorter on you if your hands are bigger or your fingers are longer.
When you try them on, position the cast-on where you want it to land, work until the needles sit in the crook of your thumb, then make your thumb hole.
Adding length to the wrist end is easier: either work another lace repeat, switch to ribbing, or keep going with the smocking.
And, hey, you don't have to work the ruffle if you don't want, I won't mind. :-) Not that anyone has complained.

To Make Them Wider
Now, I'm a small person, so I have small hands (which is a good thing, I like being proportional), but as the mitts have a lot of ribbing they have a good amount of stretch to them.
Still, if you want to make them wider, I think the easiest thing to do would be to add more ribbing to the side or palm.
You'll have to be a brave kniter to do this, the pattern would serve as more of a guide in this situation.
Keep in mind the purl columns on either side of the lace and cable pattern on the back of the hand are part of the pattern and you shouldn't mess with them. And remember to keep purls on either side of the palm cable so it stands out.
If you do add knit and purl stitches to the sides, you might want to change the rib frequency to maintain a balanced look.
To aim the thumb hole in this situation, try the mitt on and keep the lace pattern centered on the back of your hand, then take a look at your anatomy, I think you'll figure it out.
(I would think you could still follow the thumb gusset decreases in the pattern. You would only have to change that if you make the thumb hole larger.)
Another thing to keep in mind is the smocking is on a multiple of 8, or is it 5?, oh, I can't remember. See, I told you my ideas were theoretical! Anyway, look at the pattern in the book, I have you decrease some stitches at the wrist to make the smocking work. If you add a bunch of stitches to the hand you'll want to decrease or increase as needed to make sure the smocking will fall out correctly.
I bet I haven't told you anything you hadn't thought of already. :-)

Welcome Back!

The Ambrosia version of my Top Down Fingerless Mitts have returned from their star turn.
This is the pattern that was accepted for inclusion in the new Luxury Yarn One-Skein Wonders book edited by Judith Durant and published by Storey Publishing.
This picture is the one I took when I finished them. I stuck them on champagne flutes. HA! I found that taking a picture of your own hand is about as hard as taking a picture of your own feet. I'll try to get Hubby to take a better picture tonight. I have to imagine the picture in the book is going to be considerably better!
Anyway.
Submission requirements were for a completed item and the full pattern. So after they were accepted months ago, my mitts got to hang out in Massachusetts for their photo shoot. Now that they are back, I have to image the arrival of the book is imminent. It is supposed to have a mid-October publication date. So I'll be checking the mail with eager anticipation for the next few weeks waiting for my copy.
Don't worry, I'm sure Cynthia is going to carry it at Knitting Central, (if only because we've carried the other titles in the series)(giggle). I also believe I've heard tell that a former staff member has a vest in the book as well (she is only "former" staff because she was a recent college graduate and moved on to a design job in NYC. She stopped in the other day, I think I saw her restocking.)
It's cool to have them back. They feel thicker than I remember, but the yarn is just as yummy. They also have more spring to them than the prototype Taj Mahal pair, which are all broken in now from regular office use.
I probably shouldn't admit this, but I was looking at the right hand one and thought "Huh, I don't remember that much ribbing at the base of the palm." So I looked at the left one and the original pair. Yeah, I left off the last cable cross. There are supposed to be five crosses, not four. Oops. Don't worry, I'm sure the pattern is correct. I did all five on the other three mitts!

The Exciting Continuation of the Tale of the Fingerless Mitts

Ambrosia mitts finished
Originally uploaded by TravelingAnn

Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! I can't breath. Remember back in February when I sent the pattern and sample of my Top Down Fingerless Mitts for consideration for inclusion in a new pattern book?
Well—My pattern was accepted!!
Let's all take a minute to let that sink in. And do a happy dance.
I received the e-mail last night: We are just finalizing the contents list for our Luxury One-Skein book, and I’m pleased to tell you that we have selected your lovely gloves — thank you so much!
I had to read it twice to be sure, then I went flying into the bed room, did a full body dive onto the bed (severely startling the poor Husband) and told him the exciting news. Maybe I will build an empire after all...
What happened was the postcard acknowledging my submission said they would respond in "early spring" and I said to myself, early spring was a month ago. So I figured out what the editor's e-mail address would be and I sent her a polite little note inquiring. She sent back that exciting little e-mail, which also says letters of agreement will be going out soon.
I haven't seen the terms of agreement yet, but the original call for submissions said there might be a small monetary compensation (which is totally going to fund the Summer of Socks 08, now that I'm an accomplished train commuter I might get more socks knit than originally anticipated) and a copy of the book.
The book is from Storey Publishing (www.storey.com) and is the next in the series of "One Skien" books they've been doing. This one focuses on luxury yarns, so my mitts fit right in since Ambrosia is baby alpaca/cashmere/silk. Oh I can't wait to see it.
Anyway, it's all very exciting and I'm telling anyone who will stand still long enough to listen.
In other news, the monarch scarf Cynthia had me design based on my Cat's Pajama's Socks was on the counter at the store for about a week and apparently generated quite a bit of buzz. Which is also very flattering. I have given the information to The Guy in the Art Department do to the layout for me. It is now officially called the Eyelet and Feather Scarf.
And I finished my Rainbow Swirl Socks on the train this morning. (Ok, technically I still have to kitchener the toe shut, but the train was crowded and I had to put my book bag on the overhead rack so I couldn't get to my scissors/chibi.)
As for my adventures on public transportation, the only blemish on the ride home last night was when I realized I'd accidentally decreased 2 stitches and had to tink back 3 rows to find them. The ride this morning went a treat: I managed to stay on the train when I was supposed to, I found the semi-express after my transfer (it comes on the same track), and the little shuttle was right there waiting. I was in the office by 8:30, what more could a girl ask for?

I lost control of the camera

ambrosia mitts
Originally uploaded by annmcclure2000

I'm here! I'm here! I haven't forgotten you. But a few things have been conspiring against me.
First, Flickr didn't like me for a while. I couldn't upload things from the normal page and couldn't be bothered figuring out the email upload.
Then I lost control of the camera anyway. Husband is the advisor for the yearbook at school. He tends to use our camera to take pictures around campus, sports, events and such. I was running loose because he wasn't using it, but he's claimed it again.
Finally, this week I was down with a head cold. Missed two days of work which were spent on the couch, finishing the Ambrosia Top Down Mitts and watching the DVD extras for Bladerunner and Dr Who episodes.
I'm still feeling yucky, but Flickr seems to like husband's laptop. And the laptop has a built in camera. So it's all coming together, at least partially.
In the mean time, I'm back to my Stars and Stripes pullover in the lovely Calmer yarn. It is kind of strange to be doing plain stockinette stitch again, but it's probably all I can handle at the moment.

Furry little creeps

When we ran errands today, we boldly left some pancakes wrapped in cellophane on the counter.
If you look closely near the red spot (which is from raspberries) in the middle of the front pancake you
will see a puppy nose print.












Yeah, Samson is that tall when he stands up.

Apparently, we didn't puppy proof the kitchen properly when we went out. You would think we would know better by now, but we obviously don't. Guess we're slow learns. We had approached the errands with a divide and conquer attitude. When I got home Hubby asked if I had stuck my finger in the pancakes for some reason. Um, no. We stood there looking at them, then Hubby showed the pancakes too the dogs, who took off.

The rest of the day was better. I was very productive today, mostly. I woke up at like 4 am, but since it was the weekend, I gave in and Baru and I got up and went downstairs. I wrote up the pattern for the Top-Down Fingerless Mitts and did a gauge swatch with the Ambrosia. Oh my that yarn is lovely.
The swatch is all the knitting I managed today. The rest of the day was spent catching up on the laundry. And catching up on sleep. I went back to bed at 7 am and slept until 10!

Here is mom's finished Red Hat Lady Hat. I had intended for it to be worn like this.


But this way is starting to grow on me. Doesn't look quite so much like a mushroom.

Now I just have to do the felted rose. The pattern I'm using starts with "cast on 200 sts." Ack, what have I gotten myself into? But this is a perfect situation to use the two ended long-tail cast on. If it has a legitimate name, I don't know it. You hold both ends of the ball together, make slip knot and cast on normally, then cut one end and knit.

The Semi-Sad Tale of the Fingerless Mitts

taj mahal mitt right w/thumb
Originally uploaded by annmcclure2000

In the before time, when Hubby and I still lived in New Hampshire (2001-2004) and I was a fledgling knitter who was just discovering the joys of yarn snobbery, my mom came to visit.
The two of us got it in our heads to go to Littleton to see the Grist Mill. This was a good two-hour drive from where we lived, but the scenery was lovely as the route went through Franconia Notch where the Old Man of the Mountain used to be (RIP May 3, 2003).
The Grist Mill wasn’t running that day because the river was frozen, but we did the self-tour and saw a video (and made the tactical error of buying some buckwheat pancake mix, boy is that stuff hearty). Then we saw Pearl’s Yarn Shop. After wandering around a bit, mom bought me a ball of bright orange flecked Opal Sock Yarn and one precious ball of maroon Taj Mahal yarn, which is merino/silk/cashmere, and just enough for a pair of little ruffled bed socks from a Plymouth Pattern.
I made the socks (it was a squeak to finish them), but then wore them around the house, eventually wearing out the heels. Sigh, that’s a sad part of the story. Not willing to write the yarn off, I decided to reclaim it for another project and had been debating fingerless mitts as the project had to be small enough for one ball of yarn and actually less because of the worn out heels.
There was a rash of staff designed fingerless mitts at Knitting Central (ok, two) and since I had been thinking fingerless mitts, I decided to get in on the fun. But then I got my Ravelry invitation, where I saw a note that the yarn has been discontinued. Can’t very well sell a pattern using discontinued yarn. (That’s another sad part.)
Then Hubby and I went to Madison so he could get his quarterly case of wine. I went into Madison Wool, which is a cute little store, and bought a ball of lilac Ambrosia yarn, which is baby alpaca/silk/cashmere. I figure this will be enough for a pair of mitts. That’s a happy part.
The original mitts are done and there is actually yarn left over. Now I just have to make them again in the Ambrosia. Which makes a girl wonder, how many pairs of lace and cable mitts does she need?