Tag Archives: stargazer mittens

Lined Stargazer Mittens

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I showed you my Stargazer Mittens a few weeks ago. These are knit from Natalia Moreva’s Stargazer Mitten pattern, in Lichen & Lace 80/20 sock. Here they are again:

Stargazer Mittens by Natalia Moreva knitted in Lichen & Lace 80/20 Sock by Deborah CookeI decided to line these mittens with Rowan Kidsilk Haze. I had Jelly in my stash, which is a little more green than the Citron sock yarn, but it works. Here are the lined mittens, one with the ilning tugged out:

Stargazer Mittens knitted by Deborah Cooke and lined in Kidsilk HazeI used the same size needles for the lining, but picked up the stitches at the end of the ribbing. When knitting the mitten, you increase four stitches at the end of the first band of stars, so this means that my lining has four stitches less than the mitten. I figured that would help it slide inside more easily. Similarly, for the thumbs, I put 11 stitches on a holder instead of 13, so my thumbs in the lining have 4 stitches less than the mitten thumbs. I also knit the linings a little bit shorter: 4 rows shorter for the mitten and 2 rows shorter for the thumb. When the lining is pushed inside the mitten, it puffs a bit at the cuff as a result.

The cool thing about lining mittens like this is that there are no ends visible or even carried threads in the fair isle that can be snagged. Everything is sealed between the mittens. To do this, I finished all the ends on the mitten, then knit the main body of the lining. I pulled the tip of the mitten through the hole for the thumb once the top had been sewn with Kitchener stitch, and wove in the ends. After the thumb was done, I worked the end in from the right side, then pushed the needle through the work to leave the end inside.

This lining is lovely and squishy, but maybe a bit thicker than it needs to be. You can see that when I picked up the stitches at the cuff, I first knit with a strand of Citron and a strand of Jelly held together. That seemed too thick and was a bit stiff. I tried with a single strand of the Kidsilk Haze and thought it was too thin, so used the KSH double. In hindsight, the single strand probably would have been fine.

I used just over a ball of KSH for the linings, which mean that I could have lined the mittens with a little over half a ball if the yarn had been single. That’s good to know!

Stargazer Mittens

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These are my new mittens!

Stargazer Mittens by Natalia Moreva knitted in Lichen & Lace 80/20 Sock by Deborah Cooke

The pattern is Stargazer Mittens by Natalia Moreva – that’s a Ravelry link, but here’s the pattern on her website. She provides charts for both mittens with the two options on the colours – either dark background with light detail, or light background with dark detail – which is great. I’ve knit her Gates of Moria mittens, too. These mitts are a close fit and I have small hands. They’re long, too.Stargazer Mittens by Natalia Moreva knitted in Lichen & Lace 80/20 Sock by Deborah Cooke

Ha. Morning picture without my wedding ring. 🙂

The thumbs are long, as well. If I made them again, I’d make the thumbs four rows shorter. I didn’t do that on the second mitt because I didn’t want to rip back the first one.Stargazer Mittens by Natalia Moreva knitted in Lichen & Lace 80/20 Sock by Deborah Cooke

I didn’t have a good yellow in my stash when I decided to knit these, and I wanted to use the same yarn for both colours. I bought Lichen & Lace 80/20 Sock in two colours, Huckleberry and Citron, at my LYS. It’s 80% merino and very squishy. I would have liked the green to be more of a sunny yellow or the blue/purple to have been closer to black. There are flicks of olive and copper in the Citron, and once it’s knit with the Huckleberry, those bits “read” as having a similar value to the blue and purple. The photograph maximizes the contrast, but in real life, I wish there was a bit more.

I do love these mitts. 🙂

I’m going to line them, so they aren’t done. My first idea was to knit a Citron cuff to extend beyond the existing one, but they’re already so long that I’ve decided against that. I knit my Gates of Moria mittens with one strand of Rowan Kidsilk Haze and one strand of fingering yarn held together, which made them thick, soft and very warm. In this case, I’m going to knit a liner in just Kidsilk Haze – that will keep it thin, since these mitts are already a close fit. Even though I never carry a yarn more than a few stitches when knitting fair isle, that will also ensure that no threads are ever caught in pulling the mittens on.

This pattern has two increases in the row count. You add stitches at the end of the ribbing, then 4 stitches more at the end of the first band of stars. I’m going to use the same size needles for the lining, so to have it fit more readily inside, it needs to have fewer stitches. I’m picking up stitches at the top of the ribbing, like this, so the lining will have 4 stitches less than the mitten:Stargazer Mittens by Natalia Moreva knitted in Lichen & Lace 80/20 Sock by Deborah CookeOn the right side, that row of Huckleberry will just pull a little bit tighter. Mitten and liner will be joined forever. I’ll probably also make the lining a few rows shorter, maybe just two, in both the mitten and the thumb. I’ll show the finished and lined mittens to you when they’re done.