This pattern is one of the promotional patterns to help launch the book “Defarge Does Shakespeare”.

I designed these mittens a long, long time ago. Originally, I was inspired by the fairy tale “East of the Sun, West of the Moon”, but I have realized that they are also Shakespearean. The Bard has numerous quotes about the sun, moon and stars.

“But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the East, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon.”

“Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love.”

And of course, there is quite conceivably the best stage direction of all time: “Exeunt, pursued by bear.” You just can’t beat that!

SIZING: Because of the size of the charts, this pattern can be adapted for size by changing the needle size. Knit at 9 stitches per inch, it will make an 8” hand circumference; knit at 8 stitches per inch, you can have a 9” hand circumference. Feel free to adapt for other hand sizes by changing gauge, but you might need to make the thumb gusset longer or shorter if you do so.

For the smaller size, you will need one 50 gm/220 yd ball of each color. For the larger size, you’ll need two balls (100 gms) of the main color.