My newest pattern is in the latest issue (42) of The Knitter, which will be on sale tomorrow. I am so very pleased with how these turned out and they might be one of my favourite designs.
I’ve created a pattern page on Ravelry, which you can find here: Oulujoki.
The wristwarmers use less than 25g of each colour and are perfect for using up remnants of sock yarn. The pattern uses Jamieson and Smith 2 ply Jumper Weight, which isn’t the softest yarn, but it’s ideal for any kind of stranded colourwork (and it’s also quite reasonably priced, especially for this kind of projects).
I first swatched this pattern with Lang Jawoll sock yarn, but it was quite difficult to source in the colours we had chosen, so Rosee (Deputy Editor at The Knitter) and I decided that the wide range of Jamieson and Smith Jumper Weight would work perfectly and it did.
The colourwork is quite involved and I might not recommend it to someone who’s never done any stranded colourwork before (unless they are not afraid of a challenge!) But the result is comfortable and warm. And beautiful (if I may say so). If the gauge specified is turning out a bit snug, the wristwarmers can easily be knitted with bigger size needles (one or 2 sizes up should work just fine).
The thumb is an afterthought thumb, which means that the pattern works up undisturbed. An afterthought thumb (or heel for that matter) is worked by knitting the thumb stitches onto waste yarn, then moving back those stitches onto the left hand needle (if you knit right handed) and then working them in pattern. When the waste yarn is removed, it exposes the live loops which will be knitted into a thumb.
The sample for the magazine has been worked with the yellow yarn as the dominant yarn. I would recommend noting which yarn is dominant for you so that you have 2 perfectly matching wristwarmers. Yarn dominance happens when the tension between 2 colours is different. I was knitting continental style with the yellow yarn (and sort-of english style with the blue yarn), which meant that my tension was looser for the yellow yarn. Yarn dominance is quite interesting and I encourage playing around to see the difference in results.
I’m quite pleased with how well these wristwarmers have been received and I can’t wait to see them knitted by other people! I think they’d look lovely with a solid yarn and a variegated yarn as the contrast!
