Progress on my October Woodland mitten was halted when I ran into a gauge issue (too many stitches per inch).  I had swatched flat and was knitting in the round — and I know that can affect gauge, but did it anyway figuring I would really just have to see how it worked up.  Well, it worked up a bit tight.  My hands are rather thin and narrow, so I could still get the partially-knit mitten on, but it was kinda stretched. 

Sarah and I debated: on the one hand (no pun intended), the mitten did fit onto my hand and “a bit snug” is better than “a bit loose” when it comes to mittens – as loose mittens tend to flop around and slide off the hand.  Go up a needle size?  I had gone up one from the pattern already (not that that really matters, of course).  We decided that changing my technique might loosen things up just enough.

You see, I use the 2-handed method of stranded/ Fair Isle knitting and since I despise long floats, I tend to trap the stranded yarns with a vengeance!  All very tidy, but rather, mm, firm.  Sarah said the stitches did not look happy.

So, Sarah ripped it back to the cuff for me and started up again with the same needles and a more liberal attitude toward catching the strands.  I have worked back up  to where I was when we had our mitten conference and it seems better – a little looser, perhaps (still smaller than the gauge, but the important thing is that it fit my hand) and with a bit more give.  The stitches look happier.

Meanwhile, Sarah whipped up a pair of the Chivalry Mitts from Interweave Knits Holiday Gifts in a few days!  They are darling – and fit her beautifully! 

Side Note:

My Finnish heritage is blooming in my soul, I guess, because I just bought two books with Nordic designs: 

Nordic Knits by Martin Storey — which did not impress me when I looked it up online, but which I had to have once I looked through the book itself at the store.

Scandinavian Needlecraft by Claire Youngs — which is NOT a knitting book! but has stunning embroidery projects with the artful simplicity characteristic of Scandinavian designs.

I also bought Colorwork Creations by Susan Anderson-Freed (more mittens! gloves and hats too) which has fabulous and startlingly realistic stranded designs of birds among the other “woodland inspired” patterns.