This week I had the urge to make a useful and pretty gift for my friend Charlotte’s birthday. She’s a sculptor who makes large concrete and wood objects, so fussy and frilly wouldn’t do. She is a girl’s girl, though, and likes to spoil herself on occasion.
We all agree that hand made gifts are best. But something wearable requires a degree of mind reading, or at least close acquaintance, to know what looks good on whom and whether it will go with everything else in the wardrobe. Then there’s who’s allergic to what and she who wears nothing but neutrals when you secretly think she would do well to add some hot pink. There’s not much to fret about with a cheerful table runner or tea cozy.

For Charlotte, I decided on a festive two-tone bath mitt accompanied by a bar of beautiful orange scented soap.
The mitt is made in an easy slip stitch with Blue Sky Skinny Cotton which is ultra soft and smooshy. It’s organic, too, and coloured with low impact dyes, so lovely next to skin. The slip stitch pattern gives it a cozy double thickness.
Less than half of each hank is used, so you could make a matching mitt, with the colours in reverse. This is really a fast and easy project. It took me about three hours.
Scroll down for the pattern……

Here’s a second colourway that would look fresh and bathroomy, 303-Sprout and 301-Glacier.

Before I go, to those who have enquired about the pattern for “Swing”, it’s almost ready. Sorry it’s taken so long. In the interests of accuracy I’m having the sizes checked, then my friend Xanthe will place it in our pattern template. So many steps from the pot to the table!

Happy knitting!
–Mel

FIESTA BATH MITT

MATERIALS

• Blue Sky Alpacas Skinny Cotton; 100% organically grown cotton; 65g; 137metres; 1 hank of 317- Coral (A) and 1 hank of 30-Birch (B)
• Size 4.0mm[US6] double pointed needles
• Size 3.75mm [F/5] crochet hook (optional)
• Stitch marker
• Tapestry needle

MEASUREMENTS: 17.5cm[7"] by 13cm [5.25"]

GAUGE: 23 stitches per 10cm in stitch pattern.

HOW TO
With A, cast on 60 sts.  Distribute around 3 dpns. Join in round, taking care not to twist. Place marker for beginning of the round.
Rnd 1 & 2: With A, knit.

Rnd 3: With yarn in back and B, *slip 1 purlwise,  [k, p, k] into the next stitch; repeat from * to end.

Rnd 4: With yarn in front and B, *slip 1 purlwise, p3tog; repeat from * to end.

Rnd 5 & 6: With A, knit.

Rnd 7: With yarn in back and B, *[k, p, k] into the next stitch, slip 1 purlwise; repeat from * to end.

Rnd 8: With yarn in front and B, * p3tog,  slip 1 purlwise; repeat from * to end.

Repeat these 8 rnds until mitt is desired length ending with Rnd 2 or 6.

Place 30 stitches on each of 2 needles and graft together using A.

Alternately, you could join them by using the three-needle bind off.

For a crochet loop: with B, sc 60, turn, and sc 60.

As an alternative to crochet, make a 2-stitch, 20cm long I-cord [see tutorial on making I-cord]

Sew loop in place at cast on edge.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 24th, 2009 at 8:06 pm and is filed under Free Patterns, home decor, yarns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.