First, I did Diana Sullivan's fingerless mitts:
http://diananatters.blogspot.com/
My yarn was not as thick as hers, so after a couple of tries, I found I needed to add stitches and rows. But the basic idea is good. I like the stretchiness of the English rib. I made the top ribbing (toward the fingers and top of the thumb) tighter so they wouldn't flare out. A friend suggested to buy some of those cheapo stretchy gloves and wear them underneath the fingerless mitts. Then they'd go up on the warmth scale. They are really fast to make. Nice to have a quickie project like that. Isn't it funny, though, how we machine knitters almost always have to adjust and tinker with a pattern ostensibly to make it better?
And the other ones----shield your eyes if you are a sensitive soul----contain the image of deer doing their thing. I borrowed the idea from here: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/fornicating-deer-chart on Ravelry and (once again) changed the position of the deer so they'd be in the center of the mitt and fit my gauge. I put the pattern into DAK. The male needed to look a little more male in the antlers too. I added a lot of snowflakes so there wouldn't be so many long floats on the inside. Compared to the original, my deer look like they've spent a winter in Minnesota with not enough food. If there's a next time, I'll make them a little heftier. They are a stocking stuffer gift for a niece who will get a kick out of them. The two mitts are identical, so she can always turn them so the palm side is the public side...(the palm pattern is like the thumb)
How does she get such a nice cast on you ask? I do the e-wrap thing. Pull every other needle on the main bed all the way out and the opposite needles on the ribber. The end needles are both on the main bed. Then I start with a slip knot and loop for the first needle and e-wrap going back and forth between the beds. Remember to e-wrap in the same direction you always do on the main bed and on the ribber go in front of the needle sticking up and around it. After you get to the end, hang the cast on comb and weights. Takes a little practice at first, but after a while is pretty automatic. Just don't e-wrap too tightly or the first row will be hard to push. I remember in the beginning when I first started using this method, my eyes would get kind of mesmerized/confused but now it's quick and easy. Give it a try if you don't already use it and see if you like it better than the manual's method. Looks a little more like a hand knit cast on and behaves better, in my opinion. For the last row, I knit one loose row and did a loop through loop bind off. Kind of matches the cast on.
If you'd like the pattern for the Oh Deer mitts, send me an email and I'll write it up for you.
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