When I saw The Woodsy Association collection in the KnitPicks catalog, I went a little nuts.  They stole my heart and I immediately bought the pattern and ordered all the Palette colors required to make them!  They were designed by Stephanie Dosen — you can find her at tiny owl knits.

I made the first pair — the Badger mitts — for my dear, dear friend Jodi as a belated birthday present.  They made me think of her!  She is the one who — years & years & years ago — introduced me to Sleepytime Tea (Celestial Seasonings) which she called "Bear Tea," enchanted by the darling bears on the box.  I always keep a box in my my cupboard.  My own affection for woodland creature dates back to youthful reading of books such as Rabbit Hill by  Robert Lawson.  It is perhaps no coincidence that I am currently reading Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows.

Anyhow, the mitts have been a delight to knit — though I confess to a rocky start.  The pattern notes say that the mitts "are worked flat using stranded intarsia" and one is instructed to carry the main color along behind as one knits.  The charts, the notes go on to say, can also be worked "entirely in duplicate stitch if you prefer!"

I started out using stranded techniques, carrying the un-used colors aong the back.  But the knitted fabric was too scrunched up.  I modified my technique, leaving long floats at the back of the work, but the result was not much better.  I researched, realizing that I was not exactly sure what "stranded intarsia" was.  Some combination of stranded and intarsia techniques?  My current go to book on color work is Margaret Radcliffe's The Essential Guide to Color Knitting Techniques — which discourages mixing the two (except for small single stitche-type dots of color within a design) and says one should never carry the main color along the back!

I am never shocked to find experienced knitters disagreeing over techniques, but I could see Margaret Radcliffe's point and decided to knit the mitts in strict intarsia.  The fabulous thing I learned from her section on intarsia is that the yarn can be left in long strands rather that bound up in "butterflies" or on bobbins!  These are so much easier to manage!  Bobbins, balls, and butterflies jump all over each other and scramble under each other and get terribly twisted.  But the free strands lie placid and limp, easily combed free from each other with the fingers!  And if you need to pick up a color again after several rows, you just thread the loose end on a tapestry needle and weave it up to the spot where you want to knit it!

I had little experience in pictoral intarsia before this project, but am enthusiastic about it now.  The knitted fabric turned out so well.  There are a lot of ends to weave in, but that is just the nature of the beast.

I did wonder if the Woodsy Association designer meant this very type of intarsia — with strands instead of bobbins or butterflies….But I also learned, from her website and her Ravelry posts, that she did the pieces entirely with duplicate stitch!  It does not say that in the pattern I bought.  Personally, I think that should have been made clear — since duplicate stitch yields a different type of fabric.  And if the photographed pieces were done in duplicate stitch, then that should have been listed as the primary color work method…in my opinion.

Anyhow, I love these little mitts!  I am nearly done with my own set: Owls.  Though I chose a sky blue background to make them brighter and more "winter into spring."