I think that the picture was in Scottish Field and I was struck by the wonderful colours and cosy look. The mittens in the advert were cashmere and cost nearly £50, to which my miserly Scottish heart responded - 'I bet I could knit them for a fraction of that'.
The photograph was good enough that I was able to pick out the stranded colourwork pattern and make a chart. I looked around for an appropriate yarn and immediately fell for the Artesano Alpaca 4 ply that Katherine had in stock at K1 yarns. My first swatch didn't work out at all well for the pattern so I held the yarn double and tried again - perfect.
The mitten pattern was entirely improvised with some ribbing and shaping on the arms for a snug fit and a gusseted thumb. The cuffs reach my elbows for warmth under 3/4 sleeve jumpers. I think that I used 3.75mm needles.
This was my first real go at stranded colourwork using more that two yarns and I'm pleased with how it turned out. If I knit these again, I might shorten the floats at the back by wrapping them with the working yarn. My gauge isn't quite that of the mittens in the advert so the pattern looks slightly different and my colours are all slightly more vivid so together look sharper, but on the whole I'm happy with them.
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