I decided to conquer a second project for the Silk Hankie Along. I received these lovely hankies (and a set of orange hankies) from Sue and Sophie as a birthday gift. Sue dyed them herself.
I found the silk a bit hard to deal when knitting the unspun mittens because of the state of my hands (think sandpaper), so I decided I’d try and spin these hankies. I attenuated the silk just as I did last time, then spun them on my wheel at a 10:1 ratio. Once the single were spun, I made a centre pull ball using my ballwinder, and plied the singles back on themselves creating a 2ply yarn.
I got 69 metres of DK weight yarn. Here it is all caked up and ready to be knit:
I knew that 69 metres wouldn’t be enough for a pair of mittens, but that was okay since I wanted stripey mittens anyway. I paired it up some 100% wool:
I used the wool for the cuffs, using the mitten pattern that lives in my head.
The mittens fit wonderfully, and I find that because the silk has been spun it is less likely to catch on my sandpaper hands. I also adore how the colours worked together. I love these mittens.
The details:
Cast on: January 25th, 2012
Cast off: January 26th, 2012
Pattern: from my head
Yarn: Toppull 100% wool from Sandnes Garn
Fibre: Silk mawata squares dyed by Sues Crafts
Needles: 3.25mm needles for the cuff, 3.5mm needles for the rest