These two yarns were a gift from a good friend. We took a little trip out to the farm and met the alpacas and their owner, Lyndsay. I also bought Duke’s cria blanket while I was there.

I’ve finally found time to make something special from these lovely yarns. The Back to the Garden Alpacas Phoenix Rising yarn is so very soft. It feels like such a luxury fibre. And the Murphy yarn is very squishy and soft too.

The Plan
At some time I may write this up as a formal pattern, but for now…

I love how corrugated ribbing looks and feels. The softness of these yarns is maximized when you can feel the floats in the inside of the mitten, so I’ve decided to make the most of the ribbing by carrying it almost up to the knuckles and ending it by using travelling sts as shown in the concept sketch. Because of how heavenly the floats feel, I will carry the brown yarn across the inside of the all white portion of the mitten as well. This will maintain the thickness of the fabric too and give the finger tips extra warmth.

Cast on 72 sts using a 3 st I-cord cast on. These mittens fit my 8.5” circumference hand nicely. I’m a loose knitter, so you may not need to change the stitch count if you want a smaller pair - knit a few inches of the cuff as a gauge swatch and if you’re lucky you won’t need to rip back to adjust stitch counts.

Join and begin knitting in the round with a p2, k2 corrugated ribbing. Knit with the lighter yarn, purl with the darker.

Once the cuff is 3” long, increase between two knit sts to begin the thumb gusset. Continue to increase outside of the previous increases every third round keeping the striped pattern.

Once mitten is 4.5” long, begin travelling sts. Knit remainder of hand in st st with white yarn.

Progress
December 22: 2.5” of corrugated ribbing finished! They feel heavenly on my wrist!

December 23: Just discovered that I cast on 76 sts. Perhaps that’s a good thing as it’s fitting very well! I’ve been increasing for the thumb gusset for 1.5” and am ready to start crossing some sts.

December 24: lots of knitting today! I’m at the point where I’m beginning to decrease the top. Carrying the floats across the back in a diagonal pattern (see photo) make a diagonal texture appear on the white stst section of the mitten too. I love it! I am realizing, however, that the switch to stst has caused the mitten to become a bit wider in the stst section. I should have incorporated about 8 sts worth of decreases through this section to compensate. I hope it blocks out.

December 25: I’m trying to maintain the diagonal texture pattern into the top decreases too. Decreasing 8 times every third round. Once there are 8 sts, cut tail, thread through remaining sts and pull tight.

December 26: Finished mitten one. It is blocking. So far the sts are evening out nicely. I think I would have liked the thumb a bit looser, perhaps 28 sts rather than 24. But I wasn’t going to rip back to make the thumb gusset larger. Once thumb is long enough, k2tog around, cut tail, thread through remaining 12 sts and pull tight. Casting on for number two!

December 27: the mitten has blocked beautifully. The unevenness in the white stst section has smoothed out, the gauge difference between the ribbing and stst portions is far less noticeable and the spatula handle I jammed into the thumb stretched the thumb out just right!

December 28: up to thumb increases

December 29: only about 10 rows today

December 30: about 50% through travelling sts area.

December 31 - January 6: short break to read books I got for Christmas :). BIL knew I’d disappear into good books and forsake my family and he still bought books!

January 8: Mitten #2 is turning out considerably tighter than Mitten #1. This could be in part because the first one has already been blocked, but I’m afraid it may be that I’m knitting tighter on this one. It’s gone for a bath and is resting on the mitten blocker, even though I’m not finished knitting yet. If blocking doesn’t address the size well enough, I will rip back. But at least it won’t be a whole mitten.

January 9: mitten is drying

January 10: I’ve taken the mitten off the blocker. It is still smaller than the first, but not so bad that I feel that I need to restart and knit the whole thing over, so I’m continuing.

January 11: just keep knitting, just keep knitting

January 12: just finished the thumb and sewed in the ends. It has had a little bath and is drying on my mitten blocker.